The Amazing Cardio Myth - Why Cardio May Be the Most Overrated Way to Lose Fat

The Amazing Cardio Myth - Why Cardio May Be the Most Overrated Way to Lose Fat

Before I get hate mail or insults from people calling me an idiot, I want to make this clear. Cardio works to lose fat. That's obvious. Cardio is great for overall health, heart health, and getting you off your butt. However, when it comes to losing fat quickly, especially for busy moms and dads, cardio workouts are very, very overrated. Is it sacrilegious for a personal trainer to say that cardio is overrated or doesn't work?

I do not believe that. In my personal opinion, it is lazy and uninformed personal trainers, nutritionists, medical professionals and other health professionals who should be ashamed and feel stupid for not doing the work and actually helping the people who come to them seeking help. Before I burn any more bridges, let me explain some of the reasons why fat loss cardio workouts are the most overrated type of exercise known to man (followed closely by crunches).

1. Traditional cardio workouts for weight loss are a huge waste of time.

When you think about cardio for weight loss, how long do you think you need it? Most people I encounter tend to think that you need to do it for at least 30 minutes, and some even go so far as to say that you need to do it for 60-90 minutes a day to get any kind of weight loss benefit. Do you really have 60 minutes of free time to devote to an ineffective cardio workout?

2. Adaptability.

Your body is very smart and adapts to any form of exercise you put on it. This is one of the reasons why you should change your workouts every few weeks. However, this is especially true for cardio workouts for weight loss. Let me give you some numbers to consider. Let's say you traditionally do a cardio workout for about 45 minutes 3-6 days a week and that burns about 400 calories. Sounds good, right? But the thing you don't realize is that every time you do that workout, your body adapts to that workout, which means you burn fewer calories every time you do it.

So after a few weeks you don't burn 400 calories, you burn 380. You can take that out further and say you only burn about 300 calories in a few months. But how do you fix this problem? The goal is to burn more calories, not less, right? To fix this, you would either have to do your cardio for a longer period of time or work harder in those 45 minutes. Sounds good. You can do that...but remember that it will make you work harder and take longer to burn the same amount of calories you burned a few months ago when you weren't working so hard. Call me crazy, but I don't think that's the goal you're looking for.

3. The ‘fat burning zone’ does not exist.

This is one of my favorite cardio workouts for weight loss myths because it's a pretty distorted view of the science. Yes, your body burns a higher percentage of fat in a given heart rate or work zone, but who cares? When I sit on my butt watching TV, my body burns a higher percentage of body fat than when I work my dick off in a fat-burning workout, but that doesn't mean I'm burning more fat. The key word is “percentage”.

Do you want a higher fat percentage or just burn more fat? If you're like most people, you just want to burn more fat and don't care what percentage of fat calories are fat-free calories. To burn more fat, you need to stop doing so much low-to-moderate intensity cardio and do more strength training and interval training. Strength training should not take long and include lots of full-body workouts and full-body exercises. It should take less than 20 minutes (hopefully around 10) so you don't have any excuses not to do it.

It should not focus on worthless exercises like triceps kickbacks, chest flyes, leg extensions, bicep curls, etc. and focus on exercises that give you more fat burning bang for your buck. So stop relying entirely on the treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike, stair stepper, and stop heading straight to the cardio section of the gym as soon as you walk in the door as this is not the best way to lose fat. There are far better options than the traditional cardio workouts for weight loss that burn fat much faster and leave you feeling better and healthier in much less time than most cardio addicts warm up.

Inspired by Ed Scow