Exercises and Workouts – The Truth About Cardio and Fat Loss

When it comes to designing a workout program for fat loss, many people are quick to rush out and dive into cardio training. They tend to think this type of workout is an excellent way to boost their calorie burn so they see faster results. And while there is no question cardio training will increase your calorie burn to some degree, how much is questionable.

Let us look at a few points revolving around cardio and fat loss you need to be aware of…

1. Cardio And Muscle Mass Loss. When it comes to cardio training, one thing you do need to be very careful about is the risk of muscle mass loss that comes with cardio training. If you do too much cardio training, you may not just be losing body fat, but the very tissue that helps you stay lean in the long run.

Steady state cardio training poses the greatest risk here, so avoid doing more than a few hours total per week.

2. Cardio And Calorie Adaptations. Next, you will also want to consider the calorie adaptations that are revealed when you do too much cardio training. Essentially, your body gets better at doing what it’s doing.

At first, you may burn “x” number of calories doing your cardio session but as time goes on, your body may start to burn fewer calories. This is why with any cardio you do, it is important you are progressing. Advancing means working at a higher level or adding more resistance as needed.

3. Cardio And Appetite. Another point to note is cardio can increase your appetite. Essentially, you can be doing cardio but experiencing more hunger, so if this then leads you to eat more, you have just offset the benefits the cardio session provided.

You will want to carefully monitor your appetite and food intake when doing cardio to ensure this is not happening. Otherwise, all your hard work will have been for nothing.

4. The Best Type Of Cardio. All in all, which type of cardio should you be doing for an optimal fat loss? The best type of cardio will be high-intensity interval training, and this should be performed 1 to 3 times each week. You should not need much more cardio than this level to lose fat. If you feel like you do, consider making some adjustments to your diet instead. Chances are, a few modifications there would serve you far better.

Keep these four points in mind, so you cause no harm to your body. But to end with: strength training is a much better choice for optimizing fat loss than cardio will ever be.

Source by Beverleigh H Piepers