Fat loss seems to be on everyone’s mind – or their mid-section. So this guest post is poised to help with doing cardio properly for fat loss from Jonathan Dunksy with 4 cardio tips to accelerate fat loss.
The issue of cardio and fat burning is a contentious one. Some experts claim that cardio is a waste of time and that there are other and more efficient training methods to burn fat, while others claim that cardio is highly beneficial to your health and can and should be part of any fat loss process.
I love cardio, especially running, and I’m far from alone. Millions of people do cardio each day and it is recommended by top health organizations as an integral part of any healthy routine. The question is how to make cardio more effective for fat loss. The following 4 tips should help you do just that.
1. Do Cardio in a Fasted State
The time in which you do your cardio workouts has a big effect on the amount of fat that you will burn with them. I first heard about it from a bodybuilder acquaintance of mine who does cardio each day before breakfast. He claimed that this is the best time of the day to do cardio if you want to burn fat.
I started to dig a bit deeper and found that this is not entirely accurate. The time of day is not as important as how long passed since your last meal. It turns out that doing cardio while in a fasted state, meaning that your last meal was consumed 8-10 hours earlier, results in a bigger fat loss [1]. It’s not entirely clear why this is the case, but the theory is that your body has to tap into your fat stores more than at any other time simply because it has less easily available energy to use.
Doing cardio before breakfast is the only “normal” way to engage in fasted cardio, which is why early morning cardio is so popular among bodybuilders.
2. Choose The Right Workout
Your choice of cardio is very important. There are plenty of workouts to choose from and there are pros and cons to each of them. However, if your main consideration is fat loss, then some workouts are less recommended than others.
For instance, research has found that swimming is less effective for weight loss than walking, cycling or running [2].
Cycling and walking are effective, but not as efficient as other forms of cardio, simply because you need a lot more time to burn sufficient calories.
My favorite workouts are running and rowing as they’re both high intensity workouts that provide a high calorie-burn rate.
3. Do Interval training
The way you perform cardio has a tremendous influence on how much fat you burn with it. If you’re used to doing traditional cardio: long workouts at a steady pace, you may find that interval training provides much faster and better results [3].
Interval training has been shown through numerous studies to be far more effective than traditional cardio and it also allows you to do shorter workouts [4].
Interval training requires you to change your pace or intensity periodically during your workouts, going from high intensity bursts to medium and even low intensity intervals. If we take running as an example, you can sprint for 20 seconds, followed by a 60 second walk, another 20 second sprint, a 60 second slow job, another sprint and so on the so forth.
The result is a more intense workout that helps you maintain a higher metabolism for hours after your workout has been completed. This results in a much faster and better fat burning.
4. Work With Resistance
Cardio and resistance training are often seen as two separate forms of training. This doesn’t have to be the case. In fact, combining the two can yield fantastic results.
There are various ways for adding resistance to cardio: you can run or cycle at an incline or change the resistance on an elliptical machine or a recumbent bike. Some people run with ankle weights or with light dumbbells, though this should be done with caution to make sure that you’re maintain the proper form.
By combining cardio and resistance training, you can achieve fantastic results.
If you enjoy cardio, use the tips above and you will lose weight faster than you would have done otherwise.
Author Bio: Jonathan Dunsky is a running fanatic who dropped over 30 pounds 13 years ago and have kept them off ever since. He blogs on World of Diets where he shares fitness, nutrition, and fat loss tips for men and women. You can also find him on his Facebook page.
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