Fat Loss and Cardio Tips to Get You Lean Super Fast
Fat loss and cardio is confusing for a lot of people. In years of dealing with clients in real life and online one thing holds true for most, a desire to lose fat. Along with outcry of fat loss comes a whole host of controversy of how to properly achieve it.
With the vast amount of mixed information available about fat loss and cardio, how do you know what to do, what to believe, and what to invest your time in? You can find information on everything from cardio burns fat to cardio is not necessary for fat loss. Some fitness trainers worship cardio like it’s a God and others run from it like the plague.
How is someone new to the sport of fitness able to make sense of any of this? So, the million dollar question is: Do you need cardio to lose fat?
Okay, this is a two-fold answer, but for most of the people the answer will be yes; you do need to engage in cardio to prompt fat loss.
The Lucky 15%
The gifted few who may not need cardio to burn fat are those who are genetically gifted and those who have eaten super clean for the majority of their life. Eating clean in your early years trains your metabolism to USE food as either energy or building properties.
For the rest of us cardio will need to be a factor in a fat loss regimen. The tricky part is implementing cardio so it burns fat and spares muscle.
When To Do Cardio
When it comes to fat loss and cardio, when to do cardio is another question that has been beaten to death. I find that some people can pick apart a cardio program and make it more confusing than it is. On the very basic level, do cardio when it’s convenient for you.
Another option is, if you can do fasted cardio then do so. Fasted cardio is an effective fat burner. NOW, this is true as long as you are not under eating. If you are feeding your body the right amount of nutrients of quality that it needs each day for energy and building, then fasted cardio will not burn muscle. However, under eating and doing fasted cardio will burn muscle and not fat.
A different option is cardio after weight training. If you have to group your cardio and training sessions together, then do your cardio after weight training so you can utilize your glycogen stores (weight training fuel stores) for your workout.
Finally, if none of the above fit into your schedule, then it’s perfectly fine to split cardio and weight training into two separate sessions in the day. An example is fasted cardio in the morning and resistance training in the evening.
How Much Cardio To Do
An effective fat-loss cardio session simply needs to be short, yet intense. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), popularized by Bill Phillips, has been proven to be effective.
HIIT is a cardio program designed to improve cardio performance and fat loss. HIIT combines moderate and high intensity cardio levels into one program, allowing you to alternate in such a way that boosts your metabolism and burn fat.
Another effective fat-loss cardio format is Guerilla Cardio. Guerilla Cardio is an 8 week cardio program that is very high intensity, in which you use 100% all out intensity for a full 4 minutes. That’s it. The cardio workout itself is just 4 minutes.
After a 4 minute warm-up, crank out 20 second all out sprints with 10 seconds of rest and repeat 7 more times, and wrap it up with a 4 minute cool-down. This high intensity back and forth method will boost your metabolism, improve cardiovascular fitness, and literally melt fat off of your body.
Type of Cardio To Do
The type of cardio you choose should be fun. If you are a runner, then run. If you are a swimmer, then swim. Your cardio options are not limited.
If you don’t find any type of cardio fun, then working on the treadmill, elliptical, or bike can possibly change that by challenging you. Cardio equipment allows you to monitor and control your speed and change your intensity and levels.
But What You Really Need To Know…
Fat loss and cardio go hand-in-hand. All the cardio options have their benefits and drawbacks. They key is in being consistent with one format and monitor your progress. When you find you are at a standstill, make a change.
In all, it’s not just the effects of cardio on fat loss but it’s what you do each day which affects what is burned during cardio. If you continually under eat and overtrain, then yes, you will burn muscle doing cardio fasted.
If you continually eat food of quality in the proper amounts and keep your cardio balanced, then fasted cardio is a great way for you to achieve your fat-loss goals. The quality of your lifestyle has a greater impact than just cardio itself.
Sculpt the body of your dreams!
