Cardio fat burning - Cardio vs fat burn for weight loss
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Updated: May 12,2023
8 Cardio Tips to Burn More Fat.
There’s no denying that for some people, cardio is downright miserable. But those seemingly endless miles on the treadmill or pavement can benefit both your physique and your overall health. And when you’re trying to lose fat and get shredded, any bodybuilder will tell you that some form of cardio is a must.
The good news is that there are ways to maximize your time on your preferred piece of cardio equipment. These eight tips can help you get the most out of those minutes and make progress faster.
Burn It Up.
This helps you with the simple philosophy behind fat loss: Burn more calories than you take in. If your goal is fat loss, incorporate four to six, 30 to 60-minute cardio sessions per week into your training schedule.
Hoxton/Ryan Lees / Getty.
Run Hungry.
If you can stomach getting up earlier, do some cardio before your first meal of the day. Your body is most likely to use fat as the first energy source, because your glycogen stores are depleted. If you’re concerned with muscle loss, try taking 10 to 20 grams of whey protein before your session, but stay away from carbs.
Post-Cardio Burn.
Following aerobic exercise, your resting metabolic rate remains elevated for anywhere from 60 minutes to about 12 hours, depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise session.
Move Outdoors.
Try your next outdoor run on sand, which is more difficult than running on harder surfaces like cement. It’s easier on the joints as well, but wear shoes to avoid stress fractures and protect your feet from glass. Running on grass is also a welcome relief to joints and arches.
Taper Off.
Instead of starting slow and building up speed, do your high-intensity cardio early in your workout and taper off to a slow finish to burn significantly more fat. After a two- to three-minute warm-up, immediately kick it into high gear (80 to 85 percent max heart rate) for 15-20 minutes before slowing down (60 to 65 percent max heart rate) for the last 10 to 20 minutes.
Intervals of Success.
Unless you’re a highly conditioned athlete, you can’t maintain a very intense pace for very long, so the best way to improve your aerobic fitness and burn fat is with intervals. That is, you alternate very intense periods of work with lower-intensity sessions in which you recover.
What's better – cardio or weights – for fat loss? The expert verdict.
With the rise of strength training, 1.3k of you now search for an answer to 'does weight lifting burn fat?' every month, while 400 of you also look for a comparison between cardio and weights for fat loss. We get it. You want to feel as if you're working out in the best way to hit your goals, whether they're about increasing strength or changing your body composition, so we're here to help.
To clarify, cardio workouts cover your running, walking, swimming, cycling, hiking. Then, on the other side, resistance training spans everything from weights to strength training and circuit training – anything that requires you to work against resistance to build strength. Got it? Let's get down to the main Qs: does weight lifting burn fat, and is cardio or weights better for fat loss?
As a baseline, the NHS recommends adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week. This is as well as 'strengthening activities that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms) on at least 2 days a week.' But how you fill those activity minutes is really up to you.
7 benefits of cardio.
Cardio really does what it says on the tin. Namely, improve your cardiovascular (heart) health and how efficiently it's able to work under pressure.
1. Improves heart health.
If you've ever taken up running (for the first time or after some time off) you'll be familiar with how it can improve your heart's ability to keep you trucking on. The first run probably felt as if you were about to pass out, your heart beating wildly in your chest, but by the third or fourth time you ventured out for a jog, you can breathe, albeit heavily, but the "make-this-stop" element has largely been removed. That's your heart pumping oxygen more efficiently around your body while you exercise. Pretty cool, right?
Fortunately, for everyone who hates running, all cardio exercise has this effect: cycling, hiking, walking, jogging or swimming.
2. Regulates appetite.
If you're prone to snacking (who isn't?), a cardiovascular workout might be the thing to curb general snarfing of everything in the pantry.
A study found that people who did high-intensity cardio (moderate-pace running, cycling or a HIIT workout) ate 11% less in the 24 hours following. Exercising at such an intensity 'causes your body to circulate more blood to prevent overheating,' explains metabolism expert Dr Andy Blannin. As such, blood is diverted away from your stomach and around your body, which, according to Dr Blannin, can put the kibosh on your appetite.
3. Aids fat loss.
Minute-for-minute, cardiovascular exercise burns more calories than weight training due to the continuous nature of intensity. Because of this, doing cardio for weight loss can help you lose body fat.
However, the type of cardio you choose is important depending on what your goal is:
LISS (low-intensity steady-state cardio) is best for those with large weight loss goals, is great for beginners and can help chip away at stubborn body fat HIIT (high-intensity interval training) is best for retaining existing muscle, stimulating fat-burning enzymes and burning fat as efficiently as possible.
How important is cardio for fat loss?
US research actually found that those who chose aerobic exercise lost up to four times more fat than those who only chose to strength train. However, and this is important, your healthy body goals might not just be about fat loss – maintaining muscle tissue is crucial for a healthy metabolism and sculpted physique. That's where resistance training comes in.
4. Budget-friendly.
A huge upside of cardiovascular training is that you really don't need much to do it. Running, walking and high-intensity bodyweight workouts are all completely free ways to work out.
If cycling's more your thing then investing in a bike (plus bike helmet and bike lights, please) is a great way to incorporate more cardio into your life. Or, if you prefer to sweat at home, an exercise bike is a great shout for stationary fitness gains. Get around everything you need to know about the Peloton, Echelon and Apex bikes, now.)
Or, grab a skipping rope and get going. The humble bit of home gym equipment is brilliant at burning fat and building muscular endurance. It's also hard as hell, FYI.
5. Boosts brain power.
As we age our brains gradually lose tissue. This process starts from the age of 30 and has a marked effect on our cognitive performance. Cardiovascular exercise has been linked to significantly reducing the amount of brain tissue lost over time, with one study showing that those who regularly exercised in this way had the most 'robust' brain tissue. Basically, get sweaty, stay sharp. We love to see it.
6. Helps maintain healthy blood pressure levels.
If high blood pressure is something you contend with, cardiovascular exercise can help to lower it to healthy levels, with one study showing data proving the effectiveness of endurance exercise (steady-state cardio: walking, jogging, cycling, swimming) as decreasing blood pressure levels in sedentary adults.
7. Protects your immune system.
A strong immune system has always been important, and fortunately, getting some daily cardio movement in each day will help keep your immune system ticking over at peak efficiency.
Research has shown that 'regular and moderate exercise has favourable effects on the immune system by increasing "immunoglobulins"' which are immune-system protecting molecules produced from your white blood cells.
8. Easy to vary.
As we've touched on, the range of cardio workouts out there is one of the best things about it. Everything from walking, running, swimming, hiking, cycling, spinning, jogging, dancing to different modalities like HIIT and LISS training all count as cardio exercise! This is brilliant if you're trying to get your cardio done and dusted but tend to get bored of the same type of exercise over and over.
This plus point is something resistance training does have going for it as well (it encompasses everything from powerlifting to circuit training), but a benefit is a benefit and document it we must. Now, onto the benefits of weight training.
Cardio fat burning - Cardio vs fat burn for weight loss
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