Cardio is excellent for boosting your mood, building stamina, keeping your arteries clear, and strengthening your heart. But you know what it isn’t ideal for? Fat loss.
Unfortunately, the idea that cardio is the best way to lose fat has been flying around for decades — and people have been blindly subscribing to this idea. However, the truth is that cardio is not the way to go if fat loss is your goal long term. Here’s why:
Why Cardio Won’t Cut It When It Comes To Fat Loss
1. It Won’t Burn As Many Calories As You Think
Cardio doesn’t burn as many calories as people think it does. Most trackers are wrong because your metabolism changes on a daily basis - so how can any single wrist tracker know how your body changes each day? Most people start cardio workouts believing they’ll quickly burn calories and shed body fat — and yes, you can burn SOME calories through cardio. Heck, you may even lose 20 pounds 3 in months by running 5 miles a day and eating 1200 calories. However, long term - ask yourself, is this sustainable? What happens when my body adapts to this cardio? Then what?
Not only that, it takes an extremely high workload to burn a significant amount of calories through cardio alone. For instance, an hour off high intensity cardio may burn off one cookie- if you are lucky. You would need to be on the treadmill for 6 hours everyday at this rate! It is a common mistake to hit the treadmill or do some laps at the pool and think we’ve burned more calories than reality, which generally means you’re more likely to eat more calories than actually burned.
To make matters worse, it turns out that activity trackers generally overestimate calorie burn. Some fitness trackers overestimate calorie burn by up to 93%, so if you try and eat back what you think you’ve burned, you won’t be able to enter a calorie deficit and lose fat. Instead, you may actually gain weight.
2. It Can Increase Your Appetite
On top of that, cardio can raise your appetite disproportionally to how many calories you actually burn. Let’s say you spend thirty minutes swimming laps at the pool. You’ll probably feel extra hungry when you get out, which can lead to consuming excess calories later on in the day.
3. You Adapt to Cardio - Quickly
The main reason why cardio for fat loss doesn’t work long term is because you adapt to cardio QUICKLY! Meaning overtime, you’ll need to keep increasing the cardio workout to burn MORE calories. Can you do 6 hours of cardio a day? And even if you can somehow do this, your body will still adapt to it eventually.
Cardio also won’t build muscle- it actually pairs down muscle. So on the other hand, if you incorporate strength training into your routine and increase your caloric intake, you’ll be able to build muscle to increase that metabolism. More muscles mean a higher metabolic rate. You’ll burn more calories by merely existing, as muscle tissue requires more calories to function than fatty tissue. So, you can say hello to increased calorie expenditure throughout the day, whether you’re watching television or taking a nap. In the long term, keeping fat off will be much easier if you build muscle vs. pair down muscle with cardio.
4. It May Cause You To Overlook Your Diet
It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that cardio is the be-all and end-all when it comes to fat loss, which means it’s all too easy to sweep your diet off to the side. By over-relying on cardio and doing no resistance training, most people gain the weight back within a couple years.
Lose Fat Effectively With Me!
Cardio has its place and its health benefits, but it won’t work if your goal is fat loss long term. Instead, you’ll need to focus on your food intake and turn to resistance training. We need to get that metabolism roaring! By focusing on resistance training and your food choices, you’ll be attacking the problem from both ends. Over time, you’ll lose fat, your metabolism will speed up, and you’ll see results you can actually maintain.
Ready to lose fat? Contact me today at happyhelen@gmail.com!