| If you've been looking for ways you can speed | | | | cardio (1 hour+ five times a week for example), |
| up your fat loss, you've likely considered adding | | | | you're looking at risking muscle mass loss when |
| more cardio to your fat loss workouts. But, is this | | | | you're eating fewer calories than the body takes |
| really a smart move? | | | | to maintain weight. |
| Here is why you might want to reconsider. | | | | Interval Training |
| The Fat Loss-Cardio Mindset | | | | Moving on, if you opt for the interval training |
| Many people when starting out on their fat loss | | | | route, you've got another set of problems. |
| diets get in this cardio mindset where they believe | | | | With this one, the big issue is going to be |
| that if some is good, more must be better. | | | | overtraining, as now you've got both your sprint |
| After all, if they can burn 300 calories a day with | | | | sessions and your weight lifting workouts |
| a 30 minute jog, why not bump that up to 60 | | | | stimulating that CNS. |
| minutes a day - 600 calories! | | | | While some stimulation the body can handle, too |
| That means you can either eat 300 more calories | | | | much and it's going to shut down. When it does, |
| each day and maintain the same rate of fat loss, | | | | you will not be feeling well. |
| or you will lose fat twice as fast. | | | | Unless you carefully balance your lifting and |
| Bonus! | | | | interval sessions, problems are ahead. |
| Not quite. | | | | Since many of those on fat loss diets, as |
| The Issue With Fat Loss Cardio | | | | mentioned above, get into the 'some is good, |
| There are two important points to keep in mind | | | | more is better' mindset, many try and perform |
| here. When selecting the methods you will use to | | | | far too many interval sessions than their body |
| perform your fat loss cardio, you'll usually choose | | | | can handle. |
| between either higher intensity sprints, or you will | | | | So, if doing more cardio is not going to be a good |
| opt for a more moderate paced, steady-state | | | | option for fat loss, what is? |
| form of cardio. | | | | Getting your diet in line. |
| Each has benefits and drawbacks. | | | | Most people hate to hear this because let's face |
| Steady State Cardio | | | | it, we like to eat. BUT, it's far easier to slash a |
| If you opt to go the steady state cardio, either | | | | couple hundred calories from your day (look for |
| because you don't like the intensity of sprints, you | | | | pesky places excess calories creep in), than to |
| don't want to risk overtraining, or simply because | | | | add hours of cardio per week. |
| you aren't in the kind of shape necessary to do | | | | The one exception to this may be those people |
| sprints, then you're at risk for a whole other set | | | | who are already eating a very low calorie diet |
| of problems. | | | | (defined as less than their body weight in pounds |
| Muscle mass loss. | | | | multiplied by a factor of 9 per day). |
| Too much steady state cardio tends to be | | | | In that case, more cardio may be an option, but |
| catabolic on the body, which means your body will | | | | even still, it might be time to look at other issues |
| start using muscle tissue for fuel, rather than | | | | that could be going on with that dieter in |
| strictly relying on body fat stores. | | | | particular, as most people should be losing weight |
| To see an example of this, look at the many long | | | | on such an intake. |
| distance marathon runners out there. Don't have | | | | So, have a look over your program. How many |
| much muscle, do they? | | | | hours of cardio are you doing per week with your |
| That's why. | | | | fat loss diet? |
| When you combine that much steady state | | | | It may be time to rethink this. |