Cardio - what is it? The Best Cardio Workouts for Weight Loss

Cardio training is intense physical activity that uses most of the body's muscles, requires the consumption of large amounts of oxygen and is accompanied by an increased heart rate.

Such exercises, with a reasonable approach have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system , increase endurance , and also get rid of extra pounds . The most popular types of cardio: running, aerobics, swimming, roller skating, tennis.

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What is better for losing weight: strength or cardio exercises?

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What workouts are more effective at helping you lose weight? Many will answer that cardio exercise is the best way to burn fat. Find out if this is really true?

Do you want us to change your entire worldview regarding fat burning with one question? Then answer: what is better for losing weight – strength training or cardio?

The average gym goer will answer that the best fitness for weight loss is cardio, and strength training is needed exclusively for those who want to gain muscle mass or get a sculpted body. But is this really so? Is it possible to use only strength training to burn fat, without cardio? Don't doubt it, it's possible.

Best fitness for weight loss

Ideally, a combination of cardio and strength training. Let's take a closer look at why it is worth making a choice in favor of one type of load or another.

Strength vs. Cardio

The difference between fat-burning cardio and weight training is how the fat is burned. Doing resistance strength exercises burns fewer calories in the same amount of time than doing cardio. But as a result, the total number of calories will exceed the amount you can burn with cardio.

Moreover, after cardio exercises this process stops, and after strength loads it continues for another 36 hours. Just think: every hour your body burns an additional 10 calories without any effort. Now imagine how many calories you will burn in a month! Not bad, right? It might be worth checking the box next to strength training if your goal is to lose weight.

What about cardio? With moderate aerobic exercise, you can burn an additional 40-80 calories. For a long-term cardio workout at a moderate pace, you will burn somewhere between 500-800 calories, depending on the duration. This is quite a lot, and, of course, such cardio exercise is useful for losing weight. But to lose 0.5 kg of fat you need to burn 1,750 calories.

Now calculate how long you will have to train on a cardio machine to achieve this volume? 2.5 - 3 hours. This kind of mental toughness is rare among beginners. Moreover, this approach makes sense provided that you do not gain back the calories burned with additional food. Only in this case will the process of losing weight continue.

As for interval training and sprints (running short distances against time), everything is a little different. They're similar to strength training in terms of their impact on your metabolism and the stress on your legs, so seriously consider adding sprints to your program.

Will diet help you lose weight?

You probably already know that in order to lose pounds, you need to burn many more calories (energy expenditure) than you absorb (energy consumption).
When doing cardio, your heart rate reaches a zone in which the blood moves quickly, the body temperature rises, and the body burns calories. In fact, this means that during training you burn fat.

https://youtu.be/C8-ogLd5-Gc

A study was conducted at Duke University that looked at the difference in calorie burning between aerobic (cardio) exercise and strength training. According to the results, cardio burned 67% more calories than resistance training, which included lifting weights and bodyweight exercises.

70% of success depends on food, the remaining 30% is devoted to sports. The main thing is to correctly create a menu and calorie content.

60% will be protein products (chicken breast, eggs, tofu, cottage cheese), 20% complex carbohydrates and fiber (buckwheat, oatmeal, lentils, vegetables and unsweetened fruits), the remaining 10% will be fats.

When losing weight, consume 1.5-2 liters of water. It is advisable to eat by the hour and 5 times a day. The menu also includes salt so as not to disturb the water-salt balance. Instead of harmful dressings (mayonnaise and ketchup), use seasonings. The main thing is not to skip meals.

Attention! The minimum diet should not be below 1200 kcal per day.

Proper weight loss implies a calorie deficit: drink enough liquid, give preference to meat and vegetables, exclude fast carbohydrates from the diet, walk more and establish a sleep schedule, since insomnia is stress for the body, which subsequently releases the hormone cortisol, which slows down the process losing weight.

Strength training and metabolism

When thinking about what is the best thing to do to lose weight, you should pay attention to how different exercises affect your metabolism. We have already found out that strength training for weight loss is preferable. But how exactly does weight training help you burn fat?

Firstly, they help build quality muscle mass. And a process such as metabolism directly depends on dry body mass, i.e. muscles, bones and organs. Therefore, the more muscle you have in your body, the higher your basal metabolic rate will be, and the more calories your body will burn around the clock.

The growth of muscle tissue is a long-term process (as long as you stimulate it with training and protein to gain mass, which means that thanks to strength training, fat will be burned in the body for an extended period of time.

That's why men usually eat more than women, and do not gain weight - they have more lean muscle mass in their bodies. Simply put, they burn more calories per day.

Be realistic. Remember that men can naturally gain 0.5-1 kg of muscle per month, while women can gain 200-450 g. Gaining weight becomes more difficult with age, but regular training still brings significant benefits.

What heart rate should you keep during cardio to burn fat?

The mechanism for getting rid of fat deposits starts after the depletion of glycogen, the carbohydrate stored by the muscles. This can be achieved by doing cardio for at least forty-five minutes or immediately after completing core strength training.

The role of sport in the process of losing weight should not be overestimated. Eliminating junk food from your diet and reducing your overall calorie intake to a moderate level brings much more noticeable results. It is easier to avoid an excess of calories than to deal with the consequences of excessive or improper nutrition.

The effect of cardio on fat burning has been confirmed by numerous studies in the field of physiology and sports. Despite the effectiveness of strength training, cardio training is an integral part of all training plans for athletes of various sports. But also as an independent discipline, for example, running and other aerobic exercise is a fairly effective way to remove excess fat.

When performing aerobic exercise, when the body is enriched with oxygen, processes such as an increase in heat exchange, and therefore an acceleration of metabolism, occur. Raising your heart rate when doing cardio for a long time helps you burn more calories, the fuel you need to perform your workouts. The more intense the cardio, the more calories you burn.

But there is an important point - high calorie consumption does not always have a positive effect on fat burning. It is important to train in the correct heart rate zone.

The higher the pulse, the faster the heart pumps blood and expends more energy, but this may not affect fat burning. A high heart rate can trigger the burning of muscle tissue rather than fat. And prolonged exercise with a high heart rate leads to wear and tear on the heart.

During the first 20 minutes of training, kilocalories from carbohydrates – your own reserves from the muscles and liver – are used for energy. Yes, calories are consumed, but they do not yet affect weight loss, since they do not come from the breakdown of fats.
The next part of the workout, after 20 minutes, involves using fat as fuel. It is this part that is important for losing weight, and here you need to load correctly, maintain the right time and pulse.

Perhaps the most important condition for losing weight during cardio is determining your heart rate zone. As mentioned above: exceeding the heart rate zone stops burning fat, and goes into mode to increase heart endurance and speed.

In the mode from 50 to 70% of the maximum heart rate - the best zone for burning fat, at this moment the heart does not experience enormous stress, and the muscles are not destroyed.

How to calculate your heart rate zone:

220 – age = maximum heart rate (bpm).
Then multiply the maximum by 0.5 and 0.7 - these will be the limits (beats per minute) beyond which it is better not to go.

To find the right load, start your workout on any machine at a slow pace.

Firstly, it will warm up the muscles and prevent injury;
and secondly, it will help to gradually increase your heart rate, tracking it as the pace gradually increases.

You can read your pulse using heart rate sensors or manually.

When performing exercise, make sure that your heart rate does not exceed the upper limit. Over time, the heart adapts, and the heart rate at a certain pace will be lower compared to the first workouts. Next, you need to increase the pace, change programs, change exercise equipment, but still not go beyond the limits of your heart rate.

We suggest you read: Does a waist hoop help you lose weight in your stomach and sides: exercises for better results

Strength training and global body restructuring

Another advantage of strength training over cardio in the question “which is better for losing weight?” is that weight training allows you to change your body shape. As a rule, cardio exercises help you lose weight not only through fat, but also through muscle, so in the end you will simply become visually smaller, but the essence and proportions will not change. And with the help of bodybuilding strength exercises in combination with a low-calorie diet, you will not only burn excess fat, but also emphasize your shape.

Many women avoid weight training, choosing pink dumbbells that weigh no more than 2-4 kg. Their main reason is the fear of acquiring large muscles, like men. This is a common misconception. The fact is that the female body has significantly less testosterone to develop similar muscles naturally. For more information about why girls also benefit from strength training, read our articles “What are the benefits of exercises with dumbbells for girls” and “Why do women need powerlifting”

So what is better for your figure: cardio or strength training? Resistance exercises increase your metabolic rate, burn more fat, and sculpt your body. As you can now see, most women are afraid of what they actually have to do. Girls who are reading this article now, aren’t you making the same mistake?

The benefits and harms of daily exercise on an exercise bike

Let's start with the benefits. By looking at the pages of the Internet discounter “World of Sports”, where you can buy almost any sports equipment on really favorable terms, you are not just buying yourself a “weight loss machine”.

By exercising on an exercise bike every day with a break for recovery, you, of course, lose extra pounds, but... in front of you is not only a weight loss machine, but a time machine!

Take a look at foreign pop and film stars. It seems to us that the secret of the youth of these people is in “stem cells” and facelift operations. Well, in some cases this may be true. But in the West, the culture of “relationship” with one’s body is much more developed than ours.

Those for whom good physical shape is a profession (not only athletes, but also actors) spend a sufficient number of minutes on an exercise bike every day, alternating this cardio training with both an orbiter and a treadmill so that the body does not get used to the same type of load.

Sports activity provides an influx of antioxidants that slow down aging! Do you want to be like Paul McCartney at 77 years old, giving 3-hour concerts in a busy concert schedule? Welcome to the exercise bike and to the table, where only healthy food awaits you!

The benefits are obvious:

Aging processes slow down
The heart becomes stronger and healthier
Minimizes the risk of heart attacks, strokes, and oncology
Eliminates the effects of stress
The endurance that 40-50 minutes on an exercise bike gives is increased.

Is it possible to harm the body if you exercise on an exercise bike every day? Undoubtedly. Firstly, you may have a priori contraindications to an exercise bike, which we will discuss below. Secondly, excessive zeal, as has been repeatedly emphasized, drives the body into overtraining.

How much do you need to exercise so that the exercise bike doesn’t start “killing” you? Your body will tell you. Fatigue should be pleasant, not debilitating. The mood is good, not “dead.” The principle of “Hurry slowly!” In action.

Workouts for weight loss and health

And the last aspect that we will consider in our article is health. Cardio wins here unconditionally. 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 to alternate cardio and strength training for weight loss.

It’s not for nothing that advanced bodybuilders train according to a strength program on their main days, and on rest days and even before their main workouts they do 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 lead to muscle growth and weight gain. More often than not, fat loss and muscle gain have more to do with diet and routine. Set a goal and stubbornly move towards it, and then the question “What is best for losing weight?” will not stand in front of you.

It’s simple: healthy weight loss is a complex of strength and cardio training, diet, taking sports supplements and sleep. Maintaining this balance will bring you ideal shape and good health!

Benefits of Cardio Exercise

Cardio training brings many benefits, the most important of which are:

Strengthens the Heart – Aerobic exercise improves heart function and pumps more oxygen-rich blood, not only during physical activity, but also during rest.
Oxygenation of the body – improving the functioning of the circulatory system and increasing the capacity of the veins, and therefore reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, embolism, diabetes, hypertension or atherosclerosis
Losing extra pounds - this type of training is excellent for burning fat by invading the body, because the body, during prolonged efforts of moderate intensity, draws energy mainly from accumulated fat reserves
Improved skin and hair condition - cardio training allows you to stay in shape and look healthy longer, which effectively rejuvenates
Improved well-being – energy flow and improved mood due to the release of endorphins or happiness hormones

How to effectively lose weight without cardio?

Posted by: seregapro

May 30, 2013

Tags: Diet, cardio

Source: max-body.ru

Many of us have repeatedly heard that to effectively lose weight, you must include a type of exercise such as cardio in your workouts.

What is cardio? In fact, this type of exercise trains the cardiovascular system and that is why it has such a name. The statement that cardio helps burn fat is true, but it is necessary to correctly consider how cardio affects the burning of excess subcutaneous fat. The fact is that this type of exercise can really have a positive effect on the process of losing weight, but this is due to the fact that cardio is also a waste of calories. If we talk about the prolonged effect of fat burning, then cardio helps you burn calories only when you run or exercise on a cardio machine. By stopping your workout, you stop burning calories. Strength training allows you to get a prolonged effect of burning fat, although during the workout itself, calorie expenditure may not be as large as you would like.

The MAX-BODY.RU portal reminds its readers that you should not remove cardio training from your schedule or completely eliminate strength training. Remember that both types of training are extremely important. The fact is that strength training will allow you to grow muscle mass and burn excess subcutaneous fat, and cardio training is extremely important for training the heart and lungs. Remember that you will not be able to perform effective strength training if your heart does not feel strong enough to handle the weights. A personal trainer named Jim Karas created a weight loss technique that does not require cardio. It is worth noting that this method is indeed effective, but do not forget that a certain amount of cardio is necessary and beneficial for you.

Cardio exercise has long been touted as essential for increasing calorie burning, but Karas states that cardio workouts burn far fewer calories than we expect and also increase appetite, so any potential benefits from cardio are elusive. The result, according to Karas, is that cardio causes weight gain, causing increased food and calorie intake. Karas also states that the body adapts to cardio exercise very quickly, so you need to keep doing more and more cardio in order to get the same calorie-burning effect. In addition to this, Karas also states that cardio can be bad for long-term health by compromising the immune system and increasing inflammation in the body, which can increase the risk of cancer and heart disease later in life.

Some tips for a non-cardio diet include: Always eat breakfast and never skip a meal. Karas recommends three meals a day along with three snacks. He also advises eating 100-calorie snacks both before and after workouts. The rationale for this approach is to increase metabolism and provide fuel to the muscles when needed.

In the initial stages of the diet, it is recommended that women start with 1,200 calories and men with 1,500 calories per day. After reaching a given weight, Karas recommends gradually increasing caloric intake to 1500 kcal per day for women and 1800 for men. This manipulation of calories allows you to avoid gaining excess fat.

Dietary recommendations:

Dieters are advised to consume dairy products and take calcium daily because studies have shown a link between weight loss and calcium. Dietary fiber is needed and recommended for blood sugar control, which allows you to feel optimal. One glass of wine is allowed daily.

Among the most useful recipes:

Chicken with apples and balsamic vinegar

Turkey with Dijon mustard

Omelette with vegetables and feta

Fried tuna with tomatoes

Recommendations regarding physical activity:

Karas recommends exercising three times a week. We are talking about a block of strength training, which does not necessarily have to include cardio. However, remember that moderate amounts of cardio can be beneficial for training the heart muscle.

What happens if you do 30 minutes of cardio every day? Vitajournal experiment

According to research, daily cardio training optimizes brain function: a person becomes more intelligent, focused and positive, and his learning and memory improve. Our author Vlada Isakova decided to experience this for herself.

While collecting material for the article “Physical Education and the Brain,” I was very inspired by how much regular cardio training can affect our cognitive abilities and mood. Just half an hour of activity at least 5-6 times a week can significantly improve brain function and overall health.

Let's remember that studies have shown that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise:

help to concentrate, increase the ability to remember and learn new things, promote learning;

improve mood and the ability to manage negative emotions;

increase stress resistance;

have a positive effect on motivation for other activities and activities.

Of course, I wanted to experience all these positive effects for myself. Moreover, according to research, results can be noticed quickly: some effects appear after a couple of weeks, while others appear right after training.

So the editors of Vitajournal and I came up with a challenge: for four weeks I will do 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio every day.

The type of exercise can be anything, as long as it forces my HR (heart rate) to remain in the range of 65-75% of my maximum heart rate for the majority of the workout - exercise at this heart rate is considered moderate intensity.

A person’s maximum heart rate is calculated using the formula “220 minus age.” That is, in my case, 193 beats per minute. This means that I need to make sure that during training my heart rate remains between 125-145 beats per minute.

Heart rate can be measured using fitness bracelets or special chest sensors. I have neither one nor the other, so I will act by laying on of hands. This is the simplest way: turn on the stopwatch on your phone, place your fingers on your neck or wrist and count the beats for 10 seconds; then multiply the result by 6 - this will be your current heart rate.

I decided that I would learn dance aerobics from a video: the level of load is suitable for beginners, you can practice at home - a lot of space and no special equipment is required. In addition, such classes combine both cardio and training with complex movements, so they allow you to kill not two, but several birds with one stone. As I wrote in the last article, exercises with complex movements force the areas of the brain that are associated with the thought process, emotions, attention, and even communication skills to work.

After each workout, I did stretching exercises for 15-30 minutes, depending on how much time I had at my disposal. Stretching is important to do after every cardio and strength workout because it helps muscles recover, prevents them from becoming shorter (few people want a stocky figure), and also promotes relaxation, both physical and mental.

Is it possible to lose weight without cardio?

Let’s not tempt you, you can lose weight without cardio at all. So if you don't have your favorite TV shows and the desire to drag yourself to the club early in the morning for a separate session on the treadmill, you don't have to do all this. How do people manage to lose weight by 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 exercise?

Who can't lose weight without cardio?

Besides serving as a way to kill 2-3 hours a week, cardio can:

reduce your stress level if the reason for its increase is sedentary nervous work, high mental stress and lack of movement in everyday life;
improve blood circulation and so-called hemodynamics. It is the key to good recovery after strength training. That’s why even heavy-duty powerlifters with shaved heads sometimes don’t give up on the treadmill. This helps them feel less “sick” after deadlifting 400 kg from the floor;
normalize blood pressure. Modern medicine associates both high and low blood pressure with problems of uncontrolled stress and poor circulation rather than with other causes. Of course, you will have to follow a diet if you are hypertensive and avoid stimulants like caffeine. But spending half an hour on the elliptical several times a week will help you feel better;
help strengthen the heart and blood vessels, prepare yourself for the stress of strength work.

Therefore, for beginners who do not have any physical activity in their daily life, 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 bike to work, this applies to you. Any activity that increases the pulse so much that a person begins to sweat, and helps him remain in this state for about half an hour a day, is equated to the desired level.

Now tell yourself honestly, do you have such activity? Walking along office corridors and between supermarket shelves does not count. Unless you live in a rural area or purposefully walk, doing some cardio is probably still healthy.

Well, why does a goat need an accordion?

Of course, I understand that the New Year holidays have begun, the bowl of Olivier has not yet been finished, and there are still bags of candy on the shelves. But! So that after the end of this food bacchanalia you don’t cry over a skirt that won’t fasten and scold the shirt on which the buttons flew off on your stomach, you and I will continue to train.

And those who have not yet started can do so. After all, starting a new year is even cooler than starting on Monday.

Imagine the situation: you are a girl who seems to have a good figure, but realizes that something is missing, there are no clearly defined, as if carved from wood, outlines of the waist and hips, and her tummy is not like an ironing board. Or you are “in the body”, but you have a dream to transform into a lovely little inch.

Or you, a strong guy, have been working out in the gym for quite a long time, lifting weights, building muscle mass, but every time you look in the mirror, something doesn’t suit you, your abs are invisible or they barely show through the fat layer on your stomach , and in general, not the result you expected.

In both cases, you are faced with the task of getting rid of excess fat. So what to do? And this is where the Spanish word “cardio” comes to mind. Let's get to know him better.

Who goes only to cardio, what are the results?

I want to go to the gym, but I definitely don’t want to include strength training for the first month, only cardio (treadmill, bicycle, stepper, orbitrek). Since there are a lot of extra kilos and if you start doing strength training right away, the weight will not come off or very slowly (this has already happened , but even then I was 12 kg thinner than now and in total I lost 6 kg in half a year). And starting in May I’ll add strength training + cardio. It’s very interesting to hear who lost so much weight? How are the results?

In this section, only neutral information is published in topics and comments. Topics and comments containing advice, recommendations, promotion of alternative methods of treatment or other actions will be closed.

Cardio doesn't help me lose weight at all. I ran and rode a bike for several months, the result was 0. But as soon as I switched to strength training, the effect was obvious almost immediately. So now I do cardio sometimes and just for fun, but it’s all about strength training.

No way, now I don’t go to cardio at all, only strength training ones sharpen my figure and so on, I intuitively never liked cardio and it’s not in vain

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But I’m thin to begin with, height minus 115, I don’t do cardio, only strength training

You can't limit yourself to cardio if your goal is to lose weight. You can do it without cardio at all, but with strength training. It's much, much more effective!

Workouts without cardio at the beginning and stretching at the end are for amateurs. Such oaks are immediately visible in the hall, well, “they make a figure,” but they don’t care about the heart, back, joints and ligaments.