Cardio for Fat Loss
/Psssst!! If you hate long seemingly endless bouts of cardio I’ve got something to tell you… you don’t have to do it ever again. Like ever, ever. Seriously.
Nope, not even if you’re trying to lose weight. Not even if you’re trying to get “swole” (especially if you’re trying to get swole, bro!). If you don’t like it, you can stop doing it… yesterday.
I’m going to try and keep this super simple. (If you’re not with me yet, you’re not sure if you can trust me, or you just plain don’t believe me and want to geek out on the actual science there are a plethora of articles available on this topic, just ask Uncle Google, he knows everything. Or if you see me at the gym, feel free to ask, but be careful and understand that you are the one choosing to get me on that soapbox. You’ve been warned).
Before I go any further I am not giving you a free pass and telling you that you never have to do cardio again. I’m also not telling you that extended periods of cardio are always bad for you. What I AM telling you is that you do not have to do long runs (or the equivalent) every day to lose body fat and inches. If you like running (btw, you’re crazy, but you do you) go forth and run. However, when I’m talking about extended cardio, I’m talking about more than just running. Extended cardio can cover a variety of workouts that fall into the category of Low Intensity Steady State cardio (LISS) and can be just about anything from running to a cardio mix class; spinning to Zumba (depending on how you do these things, of course). Feel free to keep LISS cardio in your workout rotation if you enjoy it, if it is a stress reliever, you enjoy the competition aspect, or if you just feel awesome during and/or when you are finished. If you don’t feel any of these benefits, however, maybe it’s time to find another way to increase and maintain your cardiovascular endurance.
WHAT?!?!? No more long cardio sessions? But why?
To keep it simple your body is super smart. When you do LISS cardio on a regular basis your body adjusts. It learns to use less fuel (energy/calories/etc.) to do that workout. Your body is becoming more efficient and it thinks it’s protecting you by burning less fuel. Unfortunately, when you’re trying to lose weight, that’s often the exact opposite of what you want to happen.
So what do you do to burn more fuel instead of countless hours of cardio?
- Strength Training (you knew that was coming, right?)
- Interval Training for cardio
- Rest (yup! This is important too)
Strength Training
Heavy strength training and bodyweight strength training each have their own benefits. However, regardless of your resistance training method of choice (I love them both!) the stronger you get, the more energy it requires for each repetition. In addition to needing more fuel for your workouts, as you strength train you develop lean muscle mass, and that lean muscle mass uses more fuel on a day to day basis than fat mass. Period.
Interval Training
There are lots of ways to do interval training: HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), Tabata, Sprints, etc. There are pros and cons to all of these things, but the idea is you want to get to maximum effort (we’re talking as close to 100 % as possible) and then recover and do it again. I use various types and times of intervals with my clients, but if you want to keep it easy try 30 seconds of work, 2 minutes of recovery to get started.
Rest
Remember you don’t actually get results while you are doing the workouts. The results happen when your body repairs itself… meaning, while you are resting. While you are sleeping most of this repair work happens, so it’s important to make sure you get enough good, quality, sleep. However, rest days are also important to make sure you achieve optimal recovery before you start breaking your body down (strength training) and pushing yourself to your limits (interval training) again.
So feel free to do steady state cardio, I’m not telling you not to by any means. I just want to let those of you are aren’t so into it know that there’s hope, you can get still get results. And for those of you who have been doing LISS for a while and not getting results, maybe it’s time to try something new. That’s right cardio queen, maybe it’s time to give up your crown.
