Cardio
exercise usually carves strong feelings among most of the people. Some
people love to hop on a treadmill and sweat out while others just run a mile to
exercise making up an excuse to skip the cardio. Doesn’t matter if you love it
or hate it, everyone is keen to know how cardio can make you lose weight or the
duration for which Cardio should be done best for fat loss.
Getting it Right
Cardio can get you ultra-slim but you have to get it right.
Doing too much Cardio can make you slim but you also sacrifice muscle to get
that much lean. Little cardio workout has a very less effect on your body. If
you do a moderate cardio workout
with balanced diet, you can be sure of coming in lean and muscular.
Cardio Sessions for You
Deciding how many days per week you should do cardio is the
first and foremost question.
·
Those who love cardio will start off with too
many cardio sessions resulting in extreme weight loss as human body is highly
adaptive to the rate of cardio done. Extreme cardio workouts just to keep
losing fat can lead to over-training
and ultimately result in muscle
tissue breakdown.
·
Those who are not interested in cardio that much
will try to ease themselves by doing a couple of cardio sessions in a week.
This is not a good approach as your body doesn’t sweat out much and lose fat in
real time.
·
If you are thinking to lose weight in a limited
period of time, a moderate cardio work out can be the best option for you.
Cardio workout specifics like intensity
and duration are highly dependent on your body type so a moderate cardio is
what you should consider doing.
Types of Cardio
There are two types of Cardio:
Ø Low Intensity, Long Duration Cardio
Ø High Intensity, Short Duration Cardio
People often ask what type of cardio is best for fat loss.
Well, both types of cardio can make you lose fat but it’s highly dependent on
your body type that can adjust to any one of these types.
Low Intensity, Long Duration Cardio
Low Intensity, long duration cardio
is also referred to as Low
Intensity Steady State Cardio (LISS).
This type of cardio is done for 60
minutes or more at a constant pace. This type of cardio usually burns
calories most of which comes from fat. Intensity level is significant in any
type of exercise. Energy derived from fat oxidation will be greater if the
intensity level is higher and the calories being burned off will come from muscle tissue and glycogen. That is why
running on a treadmill or a stair stepper for longer intervals is preferred to
burn more fats and less muscle during LISS.
Once your body is used to LISS, you
can consider shifting to a moderate intensity state cardio by lowering the
duration to lose more fats. Training at about 65% Vo2 max, fat oxidation is the highest. You can continue this
rate of exercise for longer duration as well at this intensity level.
Body fats become minimal at some
point while dieting continuously which makes muscle tissue breakdown more
likely. Limit the amount of time your body is catabolic to maintain the muscles
you’ve worked so hard for. Therefore, Moderate intensity cardio is a good
option for losing fat in quick time and maintaining your muscles.
High Intensity, Short Duration Cardio
High Intensity Interval Timing (HIIT) is the most efficient form of
High Intensity, short duration Cardio which has become more popular in the
recent years. HIIT is performed at very high intensity for shorter period with
constant breaks as well. Many people also believe that High intensity cardio
burns calories coming from muscle glycogen rather than body fats and that’s why
Moderate Intensity Cardio
(MIT) is more effective than HIIT.
Fat loss occurs through a process
called lipolysis that takes place
when energy expenditure exceeds caloric intake. During cardio, high intensity
workout in less time can burn enough calories to create a deficit that is important for lipolysis to occur. Studies show that
loss of subcutaneous fat is greater
than in HIIT as compared to LISS training as lipid utilization increases at high intensities. This means your
body burns calories even after your workout or exercise has ended and also
helps increase your metabolism rate.
HIIT can also help you build and
retain muscles as at higher intensities, body releases growth hormones (GH) as well as by breaking down amino acids and
use them up for energy. % of Vo2 max
determines the level of growth hormone response to aerobic
exercise. HIIT also increases the testosterone
level and keep it elevated for couple of hours after an aerobic exercise
like aerobic growth hormones. HIIT significantly helps you retain muscles by
burning off calories and enhancing the production of aerobic hormones such as
growth hormones and testosterones to make you look slim and muscular in little
time.
Therefore, the answer to “which type of cardio is best for
fat loss” is BOTH, HIIT and LISS. As they help you shed fat efficiently through
different pathways of course but it depends highly on your body to which cardio
it can adapt more easily.
References
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