Cardio – is it good for fat loss?

Cardio – you either love it, or you hate it! Or…….. you hate doing it, but love the feeling once it’s done! (that is me)

A cardio workout is great for our heart and lungs, for anyone training for an event such as a fun run or marathon, a great way to relieve stress and great for a bad mood!

But for losing fat, steady state cardio such as a jog or walk, or an hour on a bike (at the one pace) is not overly effective. Is it better than doing nothing?…… of course!! But it’s not essential or very effective for fat loss. When we perform steady state cardio, like a jog or walk, we do burn calories. But when the jog or walk is finished, so is the calorie burning. The calories will only be burnt for the duration of the session.

Before I go on, I need to say that if you’re new to exercise, ANYTHING you do will have a huge benefit. Your body won’t be used to doing much at all, so even a walk can shock your body and calorie burn will be high. But once you’ve past the beginner stage, you need to start changing things!

What is much more effective for fat loss is combining strength/resistance exercises with high intensity interval training – HIIT. If you use HIIT rather than steady state, you will be burning calories during the workout, but the great news is you’ll also be burning calories after your workout is finished. High intensity = all day long calorie burn, and this is what we want for fat loss. Another bonus of HIIT is that you spend a lot less time doing cardio – which is brilliant news and also removes the “I don’t have time to exercise” excuse. A steady state cardio session can take an hour or more, much more time consuming than a quick 20 minute HIIT workout. The HIIT session will have you out of your comfort zone (or at least it should!) but will be over much quicker and so much more effective. A great way example of a HIIT session is to jump on a treadmill for 20 minutes – begin with a 30 second sprint following by a 60 second jog or walk – and as you get fitter, you can increase the length of the sprint (or decrease the rest time). You will definitely feel the difference once you’re finished! And again, it’ll be over in no time!! Much more effective than the time consuming steady state stuff.

Another big argument against steady state cardio is how easily the body can adapt to situations and get used to doing the same thing, and this can result in slow (or no) progress. So, if each week you do a 5km walk, your body will soon adapt and your walk will become much less efficient over time. When you first start out doing something new, your body will react and burns lots of calories, but once you’ve adapted, the calorie burn decreases. So after a while you’re investing a lot of time into your long walks, with little reward. HIIT will challenge you, and it’s challenge that brings about change.

Saying all that though – if you really enjoy your long walks or steady jogs, keep doing them!! But if you’re doing this and are unhappy with your results, then you may need to mix it up and throw in some intense intervals. Something that gets your heart pumping fast, has you huffing and puffing and covered in sweat! And if your program doesn’t include any resistance work, then I’d be definately adding that in too.

If you’re looking to achieve faster results and keep your workouts short – HIIT is the way to go!!

As the saying goes – “if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you”

Have a great day!

Paula