Losing Weight with Cardio-The Effective Way

It is a well-known fact that Cardio is one of the most effective ways to lose weight. You burn more calories with Cardio than any other exercise. The more calories you burn than you eat, you lose weight. Therefore, losing weight with cardio is imperative!

However, losing weight is not as easy as some commercials would have you believe on the Television. Losing weight for some could be a lot easier than the others because weight gain is also genetic.

If you are interested in losing weight, cardio should be one of your weapons in your arsenal! And the best approach to losing weight is by combining weight training, healthy eating, and of course CARDIO. These three are the full dose for weight loss.

Cardio gets your heart rate up to the right zone, which enables the heart to circulate blood all over the body effectively, which in turn makes you sweat, breathing hard and burning more calories.

One can easily burn more fat by adding intensity to cardio exercises, such as by running, jumping, hill climbing, or mowing the yard longer and harder. Engage in some cardio your body isn’t used to. And remember, if you do more intensive cardio, you burn more calories that will ultimately allow you not to necessarily reduce many calories from your diet.

How Often Should I Do Cardio?

Well, the hard truth is that you should be doing about 5 to 6 times of cardio in a week. Yes! You heard me right! You don’t want to exercise less and eat more right? I must also emphasize that you do more of cardio during the week than strength training as the muscles will require time to recover.

Which Cardio Exercises Should I do?

There is no cardio exercise that is better than the other. However, there are two kinds of cardio, which are low and high impact exercises; it is as simple as that. Therefore, the effective and best cardio exercises are the ones you will be doing regularly. So finding the cardio that you like will surely help in attaining your weight loss goal.

And you must include both the low impact and high impact cardio in your workout routine because this will result in a well-rounded weight loss program.

Low Impact Exercises

• Walking– Will usually boost your heart rate and heat the body. Walk up the hills or
  

  

  even adds some weight like dumbbells to get the heart rate up.

• Elliptical Trainer– Using the elliptical trainer is a sure way of working the body with less stress on the ankles and knees. The treadmill is yet another very good one too.
• Cycling– How about biking instead of driving to the mall? That will help in reducing some calories off you.
• Swimming– Like swimming away those calories!  And remember, it strengthens the shoulders and improves the lungs.
• Yoga.

High Impact Exercises

High impact exercises are those exercises as the aforementioned, but this time they are being done intensively instead. Instead of walking, you will be running, jumping, gymnastics, and football. All these are high intensive cardio.

Below is the list of burned-out fat by a person that engaged in the respective cardio for 30 minutes. This is to show you how effective cardio is to losing fat.

• Walking 4 mph- 170 Calories
• Swimming – 270 Calories
• Stationary Bike- 238 Calories
• Running 5 mph- 270 Calories
• Mowing the yard with a push mower-200 Calories

How Much Cardio Do I Need?

Well, it is difficult to determine the amount of cardio you need for weight loss. According to the American Heart Association and College Of Sports Medicine recommend a 60 minute of moderate to vigorous-intensity activity on the most day in the week. However, the amount of cardio a person needs, varies from the individuals, depending on factors such as:

1. How much calories you eat
2. Your workout schedule
3. How hard you workout
4. Metabolism, age, and gender
5. Your body weight as well as the percentage of your body fat
6. Your fitness level

Tips To Setting Up Effective Cardio Routine

These are some tips that could help set up an effective cardio exercise program:

• Start with 3 to 4 days of cardio exercises in a week. Engage in that cardio you enjoy the most and exercise as long as you can handle it.
• Each week, try to improve on what you did the previous week by adding the duration of time to your workouts.
• And also try to work your way up to 5 or 6 days of cardio exercises in a week.
• As you get stronger, try adding some ‘interval training’ once a week to help improve endurance and burn more calories.

Should I do Cardio If I Want To Build Muscle?

Well, to gain muscle mass is as difficult as losing weight. But should you do cardio if you want to build muscle? Yes! Because it is not only for persons that want to lose weight, but cardio is generally for everyone that wants a good working heart and lungs and overall well being. However, if you have the intention of losing weight while building muscle, you don’t need to be doing tons of cardio.

Doing about 20 minutes session, 3 times a week of cardio will not jeopardize your goal of gaining muscle mass.

Conclusion

I reemphasize again, cardio is the most effective way to lose weight. Losing weight with cardio will surely guarantee that your goal of losing weight is achieved. But have it at the back of your mind that, it takes determination, discipline, and believing that you can build that body the way you have always desired!

Therefore, make that decision today and start losing weight with cardio.