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Here’s the thing about fitness news stories: every day there’s a new diet that enables you to eat piles of butter without gaining weight, high-tech clothing that monitors your body temperature and exertion, and a magic wand that instantly turns fat into defined muscle. But then I realize smart people like YOU — because you’re reading this — want the facts. But the Truth the Whole Truth fitness segment is about calorie burn… I’ve come across a lot of charts lately that promise to help you “BURN 1,000 CALORIES IN AN HOUR! Other posts you may like: #1 Legit way to get results faster 3 Reasons why you gain weight after 50 no one talks about P.S. Want to be the first to know about my Spring Into Fitness Special?

The most frightening part is you feel like Person A most of the time, so when Person B rears her ugly head, you’re always unpleasantly surprised. I get emails on this topic all the time, like one I received this week from a reader, Suzanne. An occasional treat won’t ruin your day, but a steady diet of Pop Tarts, donuts and and fast food throughout the day makes your blood sugar spike and dip worse than a Six Flags roller coaster ride. Problem is, by Sunday night you’re wide awake at your normal sleep time and feel jet lagged through Monday.

However, there is a legit shortcut to calorie burning you can use to speed things up a notch: interval training, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT). In simple terms, HIIT produces an “after burner” effect where your body continues to burn excess calories above and beyond the norm as it powers down and works to return your body to your pre-exercise state. A recent study out of Brazil involving over 1,000 people over four to 16 weeks showed that interval training sessions resulted in greater fat loss than steady state exercise. HIIT on a treadmill, for example, can include a fast walk on the “high intensity” end if you’re a beginner, or an all-out run if you’re very fit and your joints can handle it.

At that point you have two choices: face the music or continue on your current path of blaming the weather, your significant other, the economy, or political climate (can’t say I blame you there) until you gain so much weight and become so out of shape that your trip to the ER makes the evening news, as film footage of a helicopter lifts off the roof of your house because it’s the only opening large enough to haul your butt out of there. This amounts to about 540 calories for those who believe they’re eating within the 1,200 calorie range (a calorie intake I hear about most often from readers who say they don’t understand why they can’t lose). You’re burning far fewer calories than you think Apps that count steps, cardio machines that clock calories burned and watches that do the same make it easy peasy to know how much work and calories you’re actually burning, right? I have a few suggestions to help you stay on track regardless of what your trackers, cardio machines: Unless you’re doing hours of cardio, don’t subtract your calories (allegedly) burned when figuring out your calorie needs.