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Best/ Worst Cardio for Fat Loss
Fitness | October 28, 2015
I love fitness. Because I eat, sleep, and breathe it, I also follow a lot of popular fitness sites and magazines to keep up with the latest trends and ideas out there. I firmly believe that you should never stop learning. Education is a big part of what gives my life that forward motion that’s so invigorating and motivating.
Lately, I’ve been seeing the same headline pop up over and over again. It’s always some kind of variation of: Cardio Makes You Fat! Why You Should Dump Your Cardio Routine! If You Want to Lose Weight Get Off the Treadmill!…and so forth.
So, what’s the deal? Does cardio really make you fat?
In brief, of course not. Cardiovascular exercise just means that you’re doing some kind of activity that raises your heart rate. When we raise our heart rates by using muscle groups to move our bodies, our body has to work harder to rush more oxygen to the working muscles, heart, and lungs. This burns more calories than if you’re sitting or lying around. When you burn more calories, you lose weight, right?
Well, that all depends on how many calories are going into your body and how many calories your body needs.
Firstly, because exercise feels so difficult and eating feels so easy, many people overestimate how many calories they burn and underestimate how many calories they consume.
Secondly, if cardio is the only form of exercise you do, you won’t have much muscle mass. It’s widely known that the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body will burn all day long, even while you’re resting.
Finally, if you know anything about me at all it’s that I subscribe to the high intensity, short workout methodology and despite how people have seen amazing results from doing these kinds of workouts, still lots and lots of people regularly engage in long, slow, moderate intensity cardio training, like jogging or bobbing along on an elliptical machine at the gym, for fat loss. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that… endurance is a very important facet of fitness and one we should all focus on from time to time. However, slow steady cardio burns less calories and fat than if you work at a more intense pace for shorter amounts of time. And again, because long form cardio takes so long, many people overestimate how many calories they’re burning. You can burn the same if not more calories doing a max effort workout with me for 20 minutes than pacing along on a treadmill for an hour.
So, if you don’t regularly work on gaining muscle, and you eat more calories than you burn, and you go to the gym 3 times a week and slog it out on a machine for an hour at a slow steady pace, chances are that you’re not going to lose weight or improve your fitness level and you might even gain weight. Hence where this “cardio makes you fat” topic people are talking about.
Bottom line, cardio is great! You should do it fast and slow, it’s all worth your time but so is flexibility and strength training! BUT being fit and healthy is so much more than a little cardio at the gym every now and then. And that sounds really boring to me anyway! Cardio definitely doesn’t make you fat. But you should never neglect to eat a proper diet for your body, work on strength, and move in more than one way.
If you feel like you’re at a weight loss plateau and you only do machine cardio, try some of my strength training workouts and interval cardio. Once you start strength and flexibility training, I promise you’ll see a difference really quickly in how you look and feel!
Do you have any inspirational stories about how strength and high intensity training changed your life and body, leave comments below and help inspire the community 🙂
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Private Member |
Your workouts are so much more fun than aimlessly doing the bike, treadmill, or elliptical (though I do like going for run sometimes)! Plus, strength training is especially good for us women to help with bone density.
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ellijay, ga, united states
I get bored pretty easily and need to switch things up. So the variety in your workouts is PERFECT! I do like to switch things up still now and then — mostly mountain biking, these days. 🙂 Elliptical doesn’t bother me — we have one set up so that my husband and I will play video games while working out. (It takes a little coordination, but it sure does make the time go by faster! lol!) I keep thinking how I should throw one of those back in for some endurance, but I’ve been enjoying the HIIT workouts sooooo much that it’s been a while since I’ve seen the elliptical!
Private Member |
Great article, Z. I love doing your short, intense workouts and also enjoy running outside for 2-3 miles when weather permits. The key is as you said, mixing it up and making sure your diet is in check 🙂
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ca, usa
I have spent many hours in a gym but since I had my first son 13 years ago I have worked out at home. I found Zuzka 1 1/2 years ago and haven’t looked back. Her workouts are perfect for a busy life and for a fit body. I will have to say, however, in my opinion, what you put in your mouth is about 80% of your success. No fitness routine will compensate for a bad diet.
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I do love your workouts, too. They are so much fun, which makes it easier to stick with them than running, for example. However, I was wondering how much calories one workout of these is approximately burning? Could anybody give me an approximate number? I know it’s probably hard to estimate, but it would help me keep track of my calorie intake. Thanks in advance!
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ellijay, ga, united states
I know it varies from person to person (based on height, weight, and the intensity at which the person is pushing. Shorter people will burn a little less than taller people). I’ve noticed a number of people will post calories burned in the comments of the workouts, so that might help, too (I found it helpful and loved seeing others do it, so I started doing it as well! 🙂 )
I’ve found for me, personally, I tend to burn roughly 300(ish?) calories for a 20 minute workout. (I’m 5’7.5″, 122 lbs, for reference). My lowest burns have been just shy of 200 (those are for the shortest/least intense workouts). And I’ve also noticed that I continue to burn pretty heavily for up to half an hour or more afterwards. The 24 minute workout the other day (Body Crush 22) had me at 392 calories at the end, but a half hour after that, I had burned over 500 calories (I love to leave my heart rate monitor on for a while after I’m finished so I can see how much I’ve burned when not even working out! 😀 What a great feeling to burn calories when you’re FINISHED working! lol!)
I hope that helps a little! Browsing through the comments, you might be able to get an average burn for any given workout, with there being such a variety of heights out there. 😀
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That was an amazing answer and exactly what I needed! Thank you so much, that is about the amount of calories I had estimated.
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Thank you so much for the long answer. I think the after-burn affect is wonderful! Your reply really motivated me to push even harder today! Thank you ♥♥♥
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Hy Zuzka
Your workouts are so effective and since i’ve suscribed to your zgym my body shape is really changing.
I-‘m 48 years old i’ve always been slim and love fitneess as well but you changed my way off life;The way off trainig less time but intense!!! it works.You build muscles you’re body becomes so tonic!!!
During my time off , lunch time i make your workout at the shop i’m working for and i feel so good after it it’s so intensive but so much effective..Bienvenue en France et a Paris i hope you enjoyed our french gastronomie.
Thahk you so much for your knowledge. and you’re inspire. Bonne journée et a bientôt Nathlie
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Your workouts are the ONLY way I can lose fat and get into amazing shape! Luvs Luvs!!
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caseyville, illinois
Ok, here is my story. I am 47 (close to 48). I have 5 amazing children who make me a proud mammma. I have always been a fitness junkie, but not all my choices have been the best. I have learned alot. Before children, i taught aerobic classes and at home did The Firm videos. Doing the Firm was probably my best choice before finding Zuzka! Those were actually good times! Anyways, during my pregnancy of my 4th son, I found T-Tapp. That was 2000 and I think i stopped in 2008 ish. I lost and felt great in the beginning, but could not lose and kept gaining then on. Depression was real bad also, but i kept trying to improve my form. I was also in pain with my knees, but after fIinding Classical Stretch, i realized that what i was doing was sooooo repetitive. T-tapp is the same moves every single day!!! I still do Classical STretch, btw, as it is very theraputic for me and balances me out after my intense Zuzka sessions. It is a stretch program. I then got on TA method band wagon. I did that for 3 years. I am not downing her method or the above. TA is fun and creative. But, her method is 2 hours daily. I was exhausted, depression, flabby and towards the end, could not stop gaining weight. My cravings were killing me, and i was sooo hungry lately. There is dancing and plank work but the leg work is all creative leg lifts. Almost an hour of leg lifts. Music is motivating. I was burning out and getting nowhere. Well, here comes Zuzka! She was just building her new website when i found her. There was no way he!! I could do just 10-15 minutes of exercise after coming from 2 hours or no results mentality. Especially with all the new found energy I had after doing her routines! I did not know what to do with myself. I was not use to feeling that way. So, Zuzka, I am not sure how many years that is, I have been with you that long now and my body and inner self have changed immensely. I am no longer exhausted or depressed; yeah!! I homeschool, have one in high school, one in college that i travel to football games, one that live in kansas and i drive 4 to 5 hours to see regularly. I work part time cooking and serving at a golf course and help out our garage door business and I still feel great. So, i highly doubt i will ever get bored with your site. I am no longer flabby. I use to have saugage arms, but now they are shapely. My legs are no longer “crinkly looking” but look very defined now. My bottom is not as flat like it use to be. You can tell where leg and butt separate now. i have become so much stronger and believe it or not but my endurance has improved. I also love going back to your earlier Zshreds and beating my scores! Plus they are fun. Another plus, is that my diet is far from perfect and i still have seen these results. Just think what my results could be if i could get my eating under better control. i do not have the intense cravings anymore and am not hungry like i was. Anyways, sorry for being so long, and i could go on, but I am so happy with where i am at now
Private Member |
Anybody looking for a great way to break up the monotony of 30 minutes of cardio, try this (found it in a Runner’s World magazine years ago).
For running, jog 5 min/run 5 min, jog 4 min/run 4 min, jog 3/run 3, jog 2/run 2, jog 1/run 1 = 30 minutes total.
The same breakdown of 5/5, 4/4, 3/3, 2/2, 1/1 min easy/hard intervals can be done with any other cardio with either varying your resistance or speed.
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toluca, state of mexico, mexico
Hey Celeste! That´s interesting and fun!! I´ll take it into consideration, so nice!!
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Run hills…haul ass, recover (10-15 sec.), repeat 10-20 times.. 🙂