TIP #4 — Cardio Clarity
What is new and what could be surprising in the cardio?
Either it sounds to you surprising or not, when you are trying to lose bodyfat fast, hours and hours of cardio a day is not the answer. Many people who try losing weight wonder which cardio exercise is better: low or high intensity exercises.
The truth is that they both help you burn off body fat and the only question here is which suits you more and which is the most effective to burn off more body fat.
As you might know each of these exercises burn different amounts of fat: high intensity exercise such as running, will burn a lot more glycogen calories (a form of stored carbohydrates ) while low intensity exercises like walking or swimming force the human body to burn more body fat.
So, you may wonder: If it’s so simple why so many obese people are still around, they are working out with low intensity routines but still stay obese.
The explanation is quite simple and the conclusion it leads to is surprising: when the amount of glycogen in your body is getting low, your body is looking to fill up this store with a new fat that it creates by converting the carbohydrates you eat into new glycogen.
High intensity cardio exercise boosts your metabolism and starts building muscle. This process requires an additional energy and your body will continue to burn body fat even hours after you have completed your workout and left the gym.
Unfortunately, this muscle building effect is nearly nonexistent in low intensity cardio or aerobic workout.
Simply put, if you engage to high intensity exercise you can benefit of the long term fat burning effect that low intensity exercises can’t offer you.
So, can you still benefit of the low intensity exercises and even incorporate high intensity exercises into your cardio workout? Absolutely!
Start with moderate walk for 5 minutes or so and then break into some jogging for another 5 minutes or so. Then, vary briskly walking and sprinting for a minutes before you walk again. You can simply alternate your running and walking for the next 15-20 minutes until you are finished your cardio exercise.
If you’ve never tried cardio before, you should give it a shot. Give it a try and it may surprise you to discover how the more you do it, the more energy you’ll have. And better yet… the best thing about cardio is that it will help you to burn calories, and will help you in keeping your energy levels high.
If you are just starting out, you’ll want to go slow and keep your cardio exercise in track – as it is very easy to overdo it. However, if you like to exercise, you’ll be glad to discover that cardio is the best way to boost your energy levels and keep in top shape.
You can of course go for a “lighter” version of cardio: the brisk walking or riding the bike at 60% of your max can help you burn off some calories and improve your overall health.
If you find it too boring to go for a long walking or biking that’s okay too. You can do that even when you’re watching a TV show. It will not interfere with your fatloss exercise and still it can help you burn as little as 400 calories an hour on your pace.