The Issue With Traditional Cardio
You cannot “run off” the Fat
I had the chance to speak with Rob Polous, author of The Fat Burning Furnace to find out why he is not a fan of traditional cardio when it comes to fat loss. In fact his amazing fat loss methods do not even include traditional cardio!
Here is Rob’s response:
“Let me be extra clear on this one, because my stance on traditional cardio confuses a lot of people. First off, I think it is a waste of time trying to “run off” your calories to burn fat.
This attitude will just wear you out over the long haul, and simply
doesn’t work as well as controlling your calories through diet
techniques. Also, studies have shown that regular moderately
paced cardio, where you run or bike at a steady pace for 30+
minutes several times a week actually causes you to store more
fat!
Here’s why this is the case.
When you’re doing this exercise, your body is using stored fat for fuel. This may sound good, but what this is actually doing is telling your body that when it encounters this activity again it needs a reserve amount of fat available to fuel the exercise session. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. On top of that, most avid runners can tell you about the injuries and nagging pains they have from the constant repetitive pound their joints and tendons take over the years…not something I would wish on my worst enemy!
Now, what does work for burning fat quickly is what’s known as interval cardio. And I know you know all about this , with your stair routines. This is where you perform a relatively short
cardio workout (usually 15-25 minutes or so) and you alternate periods of high to low intensity during the session.
So you might spend 1 minute jogging at a light pace, and then immediately switch to a near sprint for 1 minute straight, and then repeat the process several times. This type of exercise uses stored carbohydrates for fuel, not fat, so it sends a signal to your body to replenish your depleted muscles rather than storing a reserve amount of fat. Very different from the standard type of cardio that I loathe!
But believe it or not, I don’t even do this type of interval cardio in my own method. Why is that? Well, it’s because I realized a while back that the #1 activity you can do to burn fat is weight training or some form of resistance training.
This has to do with the fact that adding lean muscle to your body creates a powerful fat burning furnace that will automatically burn more calories at rest…significantly more.
What we’ve done with the type of weight training we do in Fat Burning Furnace, though, is combine interval cardio with weight training to create one short and simple fat burning, muscle, and strength building work out. Many people have called it the most efficient fat loss and fitness work out ever created.”
Thanks Rob! You’ve helped to make it very clear that when it comes to traditional cardio and Fat Loss – your workout routine MUST prioritize resistance training. Why waste your precious time on cardio for it is a proven fact, going longer and harder will only prevent you from achieving the fat loss you desire.
Rob Poulos is an expert fitness author and the founder and CEO of Zero to Hero Fitness. Rob created his “Fat Burning Furnace” system to help those looking to put an end to restrictive fad diets, long boring cardio workouts, and the need for super-human willpower for good.
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In Jillian Michaels book, Making The Cut, she speaks of 30 minutes of blasting cardio and then breaking it up with again another 30 minutes. Everyone has a different method and everyone’s body is slightly different – I think.
Yes – there are literally hundreds of methods out there when it comes to using cardio for weight loss.
It is my mission to help busy moms see that spending all of their time performing traditional cardio is simply not the most efficient way to reach their goals – especially for fat loss.
Busy moms are easily led into the belief that cardio is the fat burning solution and find themselves doing more and more with little to no return.
There is a better way.
Here’s an article I wrote recently in regards to this topic.
So the story goes..
A typical day at the local health club. All the treadmills, elliptical machines, stationary bikes and other Cardio machines are taken. Everyone sweating away, some not(most).All in hopes of “magically” burning away there unwanted areas of concern. They invision the fat cells “ignited” as the huff and puff to point of collapse. To them “it’s worth it” because they “think” they are burning off that cheesecake they ate yesterday or those glasses of wine they pounded out last night. NOT going to happen!
If it were only that easy. Your body is not going to be so cooperative. Do the math…if you got on a piece of cardio, or even more intense, you took a spinning class and you cranked out a hard hour at 80-90 percent of your maximum heart rate(spinning usually gets you there)you’d be lucky(depending on your metabolism)to expend MAYBE 700-800 calories. In those calories expended you MAY be lucky enough to of burned 25-30 percent of them in fat. This is the issue. People assume that all that sweating, all those (and that’s not a lot) calories is body fat being burned….WRONG!
To make matters even more worse (and I find it comical), these people then go home and eat crap loaded in empty calories and bad fats. I literally watch people jump off the cardio and walk down to the local Coffee shop and order a whipped cream, sugar/fat laden drink (as I call it a FAT-a-chino) with twice as many calories as they just burned.
A very large majority of those expended calories are from circulating blood sugar…IF the individual is consuming enough Carbohydrates daily. That’s usually not the case. The average Cardio Queen/King starves themselves of calories daily and HOPES that their own body fat will be “tapped into” if they go low on carbs/calories.Your body is smarter than that. It will conserve its precious energy supply (body fat) for times of need. First to go is Carbs (blood glucose) circulating in blood, muscle and liver stores. Next the body will start to BREAK DOWN MUSCLE but disassembling amino acids to for conversion to…blood sugar. Fat will NOT be used until the bitter end.At that point you would of SLOWED down your fatburning but losing THE only(besides liver)mechanism that burns fat(muscle) by breaking it down.
THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY to burn body fat is through weight training and smart eating. The more muscle you have the more bodyfat gets burned. THE ONLY WAY to build muscle is obviously through resistance (weight) training and it MUST be done with all you heart and soul. Going in a gym (or at home) and lifting little dumbbells, barely breaking a sweat is not going to cut it. Cardio is essential for your heart and lungs and circulatory system but its not enough! Dont kid yourself. If cardio is all you want to do then that’s fine but EATS clean and do not restrict yourselves of Protein, good crabs and essential fats. We will talk more about the specifics of that another time. Until then get lifting!!!!
Recently Time magazine put out an article about the insignificance of exersise in relation to consumption of particular foods.This was in good intention but may seem confusing.
People fail to realize how little calories are burned during exersise but more importantly they fail to understand how those bad foods they are shoveling down are ADDING UP.Its like a credit card.You keep charging things and the “balance”(weight gain)goes up.If you fail to make a payment(hitting the gym)the interest rate skyrockets(Fat).
The type of exersise matters more importantly.Cardio only is simply not enough!Weight training will increase your metabolism and you’ll burn more and more OFTEN with the added muscle.
So I say this…make some payments on the credit card!A low balance is a happy body!