What workouts are most effective in helping you lose weight? Many will answer that cardio is the best way to burn fat. Find out if this is true?
Do you want us to change your entire worldview regarding fat burning with one question? Then answer: what is better for weight loss - strength or cardio?
The average gym visitor will answer that the best fitness for weight loss is cardio, and strength training is needed only for those who want to gain muscle mass or make a relief body. But is it really so? Is it possible to use only strength training for burning fat, without cardio loads? Do not doubt it is possible.
The best fitness for weight loss
Ideally, a combination of cardio and strength training. Let's take a closer look at why it is worth choosing one or another type of load.
Strength vs. Cardio
So which is better for the figure: cardio or strength? Resistance exercise increases your metabolic rate, burns more fat, and gives your body a beautiful shape. As you can see now, most women are afraid of what they really have to do. Girls who are reading this article right now, aren't you making the same mistake?
Workouts for weight loss and health
And the last aspect that we will consider in our article is health. This is where cardio wins. It is this type of exercise that has a beneficial effect on health and aerobic endurance. Of course, strength training is extremely beneficial, but cardio brings great benefits to the cardiovascular system. Therefore, you should not completely exclude cardio exercises from your program, the best option is alternating cardio and strength training for weight loss.
It is not in vain that advanced bodybuilders train on a strength program on the main days, and on rest days and even before the main classes they perform cardio, for example, on special cardio machines for weight loss.
It's time to say goodbye to the stereotype that cardio exercises contribute to weight loss, and strength exercises only promote muscle growth and weight gain. Most often, fat loss and muscle building are more dependent on nutrition and regimen. Set a goal and stubbornly move towards it, and then the question “What is better for losing weight?” will not stand in front of you.
After all, everything is simple: healthy weight loss is a complex of strength and cardio training, diet, sports supplements and sleep. Keeping this balance will bring you perfect shapes and good health!
In this article, I will talk about cardio workouts for weight loss (their role, how to properly organize them, who needs them / who doesn’t (can’t), etc.). Do not miss all the subtleties and secrets.
Any cardio workout is an aerobic exercise.
Aerobic exercise is aimed at increasing the endurance of the body, strengthening the cardiovascular system, as well as accelerating fat burning by consuming calories.
I talked about this in more detail in the main article:
- Walking
- exercise bike
- stepper
- Elliptical Trainer
- Swimming
- Dancing
- martial arts
- Basketball, volleyball, football and more
- Destinations an unrealistic number
P.s. in the field of bodybuilding / fitness = most often used running / walking / elliptical trainer.
Why do cardio?
Cardio is done in three cases:
- As a warm-up before the main strength training. More:
- To strengthen the cardiovascular system of the body. More:
- To accelerate weight loss (fat burning). More:
Basically, when it comes to CARDIO TRAINING, we are talking about FAT BURNING.
Those. Basically, cardio workouts are applied ONLY at the stage of burning excess fat.
Why? Because absolutely any AEROBIC LOAD (CARDIO) is very energy-consuming and it uses fat as a fuel during training (i.e., fat burns purposefully).
So, to put it simply, = cardio training = is a tool that allows you to increase energy expenditure (calories), which in turn manifests itself in weight loss (fat loss).
When is the best time to do cardio? 3 gaps!
This material I described in detail in these articles:
After reading these articles = you will know and understand why cardio should be done exactly at these intervals, and not when you want.
In short, cardio should be done only when there are no carbohydrates in your body or their minimum, only in this situation, cardio will have the maximum effect (return).
Who doesn't need to do cardio...
Despite all the bonuses of cardio training, there is a category of people who are contraindicated, or at least not advisable to do cardio training.
No. 1. If the goal is muscle growth = no need for cardio
Especially for men
Especially for girls
No. 2. If you have joint problems
If you feel pain or even just discomfort while doing this or that type of cardio = try changing the type of cardio. For example, if you did (a) run, then change to an elliptical trainer.
That is, test, see where you feel better (no pain, discomfort) / worse (if pain, you need to change). Listen to your body. No need to do anything through pain and discomfort.
If you have every time during or after doing any kind of cardio = joint pain, discomfort, you should not do cardio at all, because. such a load on unhealthy joints (maybe there were injuries, diseases, arthrosis, arthritis, etc.) can only worsen your situation.
Number 3. If you have strength training (anaerobic)
This item is OPTIONAL (too). That is, individual.
The thing is, if you follow the right diet for weight loss + train regularly in the gym (with iron, do strength exercises) = then cardio may not be needed. Pay attention to the word - can. I dont know. Exactly.
I have had clients (including myself) who lost weight without doing cardio. That is, only due to diet + power loads. Therefore, this item is possible.
And someone can not do without cardio (extremely necessary). It all depends on the individual, because we are all different, different body weight, % body fat, age, gender, genetic data, fitness, etc.
Strength training, by the way, is much more effective than any cardio load (in terms of fat burning). Therefore, they are much more important. I highly recommend them.
Well, in general, if the goal is maximum fat burning = then for the maximum effect = both cardio and strength loads are used. And of course, the right diet. It's so word for it.
No. 4. You have control over what you eat
If you have good control of the food you eat, if you eat little (for example), or if you are on a diet, in general, then cardio training may not be needed, moreover, it may even harm.
Harm those that will deplete your body.
In this scenario, you will be more confirmed (a) for depression, a higher risk of diseases, etc.
Briefly speaking. If you lead an active lifestyle, do not overeat, go on a diet, or carefully control the intake of food (in particular, carbohydrates) into your body, or just eat little = then you either do not need cardio at all or in a small amount (then is, at a minimum).
Remember or remember, cardio training is not the same as losing weight =) this is just a TOOL that allows you to increase calorie (energy) consumption, that is, it allows you to accelerate fat loss.
Whether you need to do this cardio or not / or how often you do it = you and only you know better.
By itself, by the way, this cardio (without) will be up to the ass in general. Therefore, first of all, you need to take care of proper nutrition, diet. Because this is the foundation. This is the base! Actually, that's all I wanted to tell you today. Good luck with your weight loss 🙂
All complete information regarding training, exercises, training schemes, nutrition (diet), recovery and much more regarding weight loss (fat burning) is contained in my training course, which was created based on the latest scientific data from 2017-2018:
Regards, administrator.
Cardio training (however, like strength training and, something tells us, any other) training is surrounded by legends. Most of the adherents of a healthy lifestyle believe that it is cardio loads that can help in reducing body weight, while this is not to be expected from working with weight. Fitness trainers, in turn, argue that it is precisely this approach to training that prevents you from gradually and productively losing weight.
Let's figure out what myths about cardio training prevent you from losing weight and why.
Myth 1. To lose weight, you need to focus on cardio training.
Doing only cardio is not only boring, but also ineffective in terms of weight loss. “Strength training builds muscle mass, which, in fact, increases your metabolism,” says Hollywood trainer Elizabeth Hendrix Burwell. “So the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn day after day.”
Add to that, recent research by the Personal Trainers Association of America has shown that dumbbell exercises can burn up to 20 calories per minute.
Myth 2. You should start your workout with cardio exercises.
What should come first: cardio or strength training is a question as eternal as the one in which the chicken and the egg appear. “If you first run on the treadmill for 40 minutes and then pick up dumbbells, you will have too little energy left to work out the relief,” warns personal trainer Lindsay Vastola. She advises alternating cardio workouts and strength training, choosing a separate day for each of them.
Myth 3. You need to burn at least 500 calories during cardio.
Persevering on a treadmill that shows calories burned is a waste of time and energy. “If only because the machines can only roughly estimate the speed of your metabolism,” says Vastola. The trainer advises not to pay attention to the red numbers, focusing on the intensity and quality of the exercises. Choose an intensity of 8 or 9 if you feel you can do it, and then you can afford to take breaks more often without hurting your end goal.
Myth 4. We must not forget about the "fat burning zone"
Beneath the cryptic phrase "fat burning zone" is a not so complicated, but in a certain sense useless formula that allows you to calculate the "ideal" training intensity for weight loss. But experts are sure that you should not fill your head with calculations. "The higher the intensity, the more calories you will burn - that's all you need to remember," says certified trainer Marta Montenegro. At the same time, the expert recommends alternating high-intensity exercises with relaxing ones to give the body time to recover.
Myth 5. Cardio exercise on an empty stomach burns more calories.
You can't start a car without gas, so why do you expect anything else from your body? The secret to the effectiveness of cardio training is that they are inextricably linked with. “It should be remembered that during training on an empty stomach, our body tends to look for carbohydrates in the blood and muscles, and not at all in excess fat, as we would like,” says physiology professor Michelle Olson. The result is fatigue, drowsiness and lack of hydration.
Try to eat at least 90 minutes before your workout. Olson says it should be something light but nutritious, like half a cup of low-fat kefir + 2 tablespoons of muesli + fruit pieces + cinnamon. And be sure to complete this set with two glasses of water.
Myth 6: Running marathons is a great way to lose weight.
Needless to say, marathons have enough benefits: strengthening the cardiovascular and immune systems, increasing endurance, or, as is increasingly the case, contributing to charity. Plus, training for a marathon makes your body more efficient in every way, allowing it to learn how to conserve energy and function at its best. "However, don't expect big results from the first race," warns personal trainer John-Eric Kawamoto. And, of course, you should not make weight loss the ultimate goal of participating in a marathon.
Myth 7. Cardio and strength training should always be separated.
So, we are ready to completely confuse you. Experts say that while it's often beneficial to separate cardio and strength training, sometimes pairing the two can be truly effective. Studies have shown that if once a week cardio and strength exercises alternate within one workout, then at the end of it, calories continue to be burned for at least another 20 minutes. “So you can lose weight even after the workout is over,” comments Montenegro. Not bad, right?
Myth 8. Cardio training allows you to not limit yourself in nutrition.
Oh yes, we would like that. But, unfortunately, most of us overestimate the power of cardio - namely, the number of calories that can be burned with these exercises. “Physical activity alone is not enough anyway,” says certified fitness expert Bret Contreras. “The average obese person loses about 2.5 kilograms of fat in eight months of training, and this is very little. regular exercise proper nutrition and ".
Let's not languish, you can lose weight without cardio at all. So if you don't have favorite shows and want to trudge to the club early in the morning for a private session on the treadmill, you can skip all of that. How do people manage to lose weight doing only strength training? As everyone seems to have guessed, it's all about the ability to eat rationally. Who is suitable for weight loss techniques without cardio, and who is better off not giving up this type of load?
Who Can't Lose Weight Without Cardio
In addition to serving as a way to kill 2-3 hours a week, cardio can:
- reduce your stress level if the cause of its increase is sedentary nervous work, great mental stress and lack of movement in ordinary life;
- improve blood circulation and the so-called hemodynamics. It is the key to a good recovery after power loads. Therefore, even shaved bald powerlifters of heavy categories sometimes do not refuse the treadmill. This helps them “sick” less after deadlifts of 400 kg from the floor;
- normalize blood pressure. Modern medicine links both high and low blood pressure to problems of uncontrolled stress and poor circulation rather than to other causes. Of course, you will have to diet if you are hypertensive and give up stimulants like caffeine. But half an hour on the elliptical trainer several times a week will help you feel better;
- help strengthen the heart and blood vessels, prepare yourself for stress during strength work.
Therefore, for beginners who do not have any physical activity in their normal lives, cardio is recommended everywhere. What is household activity of the required intensity? If you walk at a good pace for about half an hour a day or cycle to work, this is for you. Any activity that raises the heart rate so much that a person begins to sweat, and helps him stay in this state for about half an hour a day, is equated to the desired level.
Now honestly tell yourself, do you have such activity? Transitions along office corridors and between supermarket shelves do not count. Unless you live in the countryside or purposefully don't walk, it's likely that doing some cardio is still good for your health.
How to lose weight without cardio?
You will need to reconsider the energy value of your daily diet. So, in order to reduce weight without aerobic exercise at all, you will have to adhere to the following general recommendations:
- no cardio, strength 2-3 times a week, something like an hour, working weights - no more than your own, or even less than 10 times - you must choose light physical exercises and the corresponding physical activity coefficient in our calorie counter, and then subtract the recommended 300 kcal from it to lose weight. Why is it so unfair? If you want to eat more, lift more. Don't want to lift? Then you have to grit your teeth and stomp for half an hour on the track or pedal for at least 2-3 more days a week. Then you will have an honest average level of physical activity, and, excuse me, "human" calories, not 1400 kcal / day;
- no cardio, strength 4 times a week is already average, as long as your weights in squat and deadlift tend to be your body weight. If you're doing something aerobic and repetitive but don't collapse from exhaustion, light exercise is the way to go. If your strengths are tabata, crossfit, kettlebells, or sandbags - intense workouts. And if, working in these modes, you also manage to lift heavy weights - hard training;
- no cardio, strength 5-6 times a week for a split for bodybuilders. Depends on the style of training and the number of working approaches. If you work in a high-volume style and do 5-6 working sets of each basic exercise, and supersets are heavy physical exercises, provided that adequate working weights are used. If the weights are rather small than average, then your level is also average. And, of course, females who consider a mega-difficult session of biceps curls with 2 kg and triceps extensions with 1 block tile to be a separate lesson need to be persuaded to either lift, already, normal weight, or ... eat less. Since, for example, if you have one such “training” of the shoulders a week (we all know what we are talking about - 2-3 kg in the arm, we wave, we do not change the weight for different exercises) and one separate arm workout, you may , it is worth setting not average physical activity, but light exercises.
So the picture for food lovers looms bleak. If you are not yet 80 kg, you will have to sit on something very close to the corridor of 1400-1600 kcal per day, and refuse most social activities that are closely related to food. By the way, this is exactly how beautiful, pumped up, but physically poorly prepared young ladies eat.
Alternative types of cardio for those who do not have time
Let's say the reason for your refusal is that you hate long sessions on the track and machines, as they steal your time, which is already so small. How to be here? You just have to look at alternative cardio:
- sprints. You can run from corner to corner in your own hall if it is empty, or around the stadium, treadmill, anywhere. It is enough for an average woman to run 5-6 200 meter segments with 2-3 minutes of rest intervals and repeat this 2-3 times a week in order to step up a “step up” in caloric mathematics and start putting “intense” exercises instead of “light” ones. ;
- . Again, interval - we wave for 30 seconds, we walk for a minute. 12 minutes is enough to feel that you have worked out. Repeat this 2-3 times a week, and when you get bored, start learning the snatch and push;
- sprints on an elliptical trainer. This is not a rehabilitation machine. Set the resistance of the pedals from 14 and you will understand what it is about. You need to start pushing from the level of 15 seconds under load, 45 - easy running, and 12-14 minutes, and then gradually increase the walking time under load to a minute, and make the rest interval equal (60 seconds);
- rowing machine sprints - again, 30 sec. rowing with high resistance, 30 seconds - at a recovery pace.
Usually such classes solve the issues of boredom too. They are heavy, complex, whatever, but you won't even think about watching any show or trying to talk to your girlfriend in the process. So alternative cardio can be a very good solution for a person who is used to good portions. And, by the way, such a person in the future is more likely to keep the new weight, because he will not have to sit on a restrictive diet after losing weight.
Cardio (aerobic exercise) traditionally associated with weight loss, but this is one of the biggest misconceptions in fitness. Without knowing it, people spend hours walking on the treadmill to get rid of excess fat, but that's not how it works. Opinions about cardio for weight loss the most controversial, however, I stumbled across Stephen Shaw's wonderful material and couldn't resist translating some of it. In his article, Steve answers all the questions regarding aerobic exercise.
How Much Cardio Do You Need to Lose Fat?
Many of you would probably say a lot. Most would be fairly specific, eg 25-30 minutes, 3-5 times/week. There is no right answer here since you don't need cardio to burn fat. Let's look at why.
What is cardio?
Aerobic exercise through the eyes of losing weight looks like a set of light or moderate exercises that can be performed non-stop for a long time. The goal is simple: by continuing to move, you will burn as many calories as possible.
Usually aerobic training is done to strengthen the cardiovascular system, but since the article is about weight loss, you will have to stick to this topic.
There are two main forms of cardio training:
- HIIT is high-intensity interval training that consists of alternating short periods of intense movement, such as 15 seconds of running, and longer periods of low-intensity aerobic activity, such as walking.
- NIT (LIT) low-intensity training. This is a typical form of cardio in the gym - long, boring sessions on machines like the treadmill, etc.
HIIT is considered the most effective form of aerobic training because it allows you to burn more calories in a shorter amount of time. It's more attractive, and even fun, but despite all the benefits, this type of aerobics is more difficult than BAT. HIIT is short but explosive sessions that put a lot of stress on the joints and can be quite difficult to complete, especially for older or overweight people.
With this in mind, consider the example of calorie consumption during a low-intensity cardio session.
What is the calorie expenditure per LIT?
On the example of a 100 kg person, the calorie consumption during 30 minutes of low-intensity cardio is:
- Hiking - 325 kcal;
- Steyrmaster (simulator "steps") - 325 kcal;
- Swimming - 325 kcal;
- Walking - 151 kcal.
Let's say you decide to do 4 workouts a week on the treadmill for 30 minutes each. The consumption will be only 600 kcal per week (despite the fact that for the loss of one kg you need to spend 7000 kcal approx. ed.). If you exercise for a year, then you will burn 30,000 kcal (including a few missed workouts), and in the end you will lose only 8.5 kg of fat. This is the result of spending 100 hours on the treadmill.
The conclusion is this: cardio is good for maintaining health, but not effective for losing weight. Thus, to lose fat you need to deal with nutrition.
Aerobics, nutrition and weight loss
A good meal plan will melt the fat in your body. The only requirement is to accurately control calorie intake and adjust the diet if necessary.
Most people who come to the gym to lose weight attack the cardio machines first, but the main thing they have to think about is diet.
Cardio workouts without a sensible eating plan are a ticking time bomb. If you are not in control of your diet, then aerobics will probably increase your appetite. It may even result in you not losing fat at all. If you do not control the daily calorie content, then you can easily exceed 200-400 kcal.
The meal plan should meet your needs. It will help you lose 2 to 10 kg/month. Even if you run a few miles on a treadmill, 80-95% of weight loss depends on the nutrition plan. That's why you don't need cardio for weight loss, but you can use it for general health.
How can aerobics help you lose weight?
If a nutrition plan is created with the goal of changing body composition - losing fat and maintaining muscle mass, then this will lead to a loss of 30-45 kg per year, while weight loss through cardio is negligible compared to these figures, aerobic training can still be used. for weight loss. For example, when the fat loss process slows down.
Don't focus on cardio for weight loss. Think about how this training can improve your health.
For the first 4-6 weeks, focus on the nutrition program, but you can gradually add aerobic activity, but most importantly, do not overdo it. Let your body get used to the extra load, and only then change them.
Steve suggests trying the six-week treadmill plan:
- 1st week - 2 times / week. 10-15 min.
- 2nd week - 2-3 times / week. 15-20 min.
- 3rd week - 3 times / week. 15-20 min.
- 4th week - 3 times / week. 20-25 min.
- 5th week - 3-4 times / week. 20-25 min.
- 6th week - 3-4 times / week. 20-30 min.
You don't need more cardio for weight loss. However, given the above, slowing down weight loss can occur with a long period of being in a calorie deficit.
When you reach a plateau, try increasing your cardio time a bit by running 10 minutes longer once a week. See how this will help get the ball rolling. If you do not do this, then you will have to reduce the calorie content of the diet. Don't panic by cutting calories and increasing your aerobics, but if your weight hasn't changed in two weeks, then make minor changes.
My 5 kopecks: I believe that cardio for weight loss is effective only in combination with strength training. It can be carried out both on the day of rest, and immediately after the power one. However, one should take into account such a point, in the study of Wilson et al. states that there is a range of evidence that the combination of aerobic and strength training (in the same workout) has a negative effect on the increase in muscle strength and size due to the catabolic processes that aerobics triggers.
The timing of cardio and its nature depends on the goal and body composition of the trainee. Lyle McDonald argues that for lean people (22% female body fat and 15% male body fat) seeking to become even leaner, it is advisable to do aerobics in the morning on an empty stomach, while the timing of cardio for people with an average% body fat does not matter.
And as for the type of training, HIIT is more effective because it allows you to burn more calories, preserve muscles, increase metabolism, but it is better to do it on a non-training day. If you need to do cardio on the day of strength training, then it is better to give preference to NIT.
There is also an opinion that with low-intensity work on a rest day, it is recommended that the duration of the session should not be shorter than 20 minutes, but not longer than 60 minutes, because glycogen stores are depleted in 20 minutes and the body begins to use fatty acids. But I am a supporter of the fact that the key is still in nutrition and power loads, and aerobics only provides a little help. Moreover, after the end of the training, calorie consumption stops, while power loads have a longer effect.
Sources:
muscleandstrength.com/articles/need-cardio-fat-loss
muscleandstrength.com/articles/choosing-cardio-pre-post-workout
bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/fasted-cardio-and-fat-loss-qa.html
