Fiture: The Ultimate Fitness Blog

How long should you do cardio to lose weight

Duration

First think about quality versus quantity. If you are going really slow and using very little effort and you are on the treadmill for two hours or running up a hill for sprints, which one of those exercise techniques do you think will work best for you to lose weight?

I am a firm believer in what you put in is what you will get out (as long as it is smart and calculated). The more effort that you put into your cardio, the better and faster your results you will be. 

Like any other workout program you should never start at an advanced level. For example, if you have not worked out in years, then you should not start out with high intensity incline sprints. This will be too much intensity too fast and will cause an injury. 

But if you have been working out consistently (3-5 times per week) then you should definitely consider increasing your intensity and pushing yourself as hard as you can push yourself without getting injured. 

So you are probably wondering how long should you do cardio to get the best results? I suggest that you focus on doing cardio sessions for twenty to thirty minutes at the highest intensity you can handle each session. 

Each week try to push yourself a little more by increasing your incline or speed of your workouts based on what tools and exercises you are using to get your cardio work done. 

Treadmill versus bike versus running outside

The best cardio workouts are the workouts that you enjoy, understand, and will stay most consistent with. If you love swimming or mountain biking then choose those forms of activities to measure and use as your main source of cardio work.

You always want to switch up your workouts so your body does not plateau but you have to have a main source of cardio that you can go to to get results. 

In my opinion there is no one source of cardio better than the other. This is a common question that I get in the gym all the time by people who want to lose weight.

My simple suggestion is they are all great ways to lose weight so choose the ones you enjoy and do it consistently. 

Heart Rate 

I would highly recommend that you get a heart rate monitor to track your effort and intensity in your workouts. Tracking heart rate is a great way to measure your exercise progress and can give you important data on how you should train. 

The best data that it will give you is if your heart rate has been one hundred and thirty eight every single workout for the last four weeks and you have not seen results, then that will tell you that you are not pushing yourself enough to break your plateau. 

The next step would be to either start running on an incline or a hill or push yourself to pedal faster in your workouts, or swim faster etc.

Your heart rate can be a great number to use to guide your workouts and take you to the next level. 

What is your favorite form of cardio?

How you should do cardio to lose the most weight.

Empty Stomach versus Full Stomach

There have been research and studies that show both the pros and cons of exercising on an empty stomach and if it really matters. In my opinion, doing cardio on an empty stomach versus eating a light snack about an hour before is controversial.

The theory is if you workout on an empty stomach, you will burn more fat calories because you will not have any food in your system to burn through, therefore achieving lower body fat.

If your goal is to only worry about tapping into your fat stores then this may be an option for you. My argument is if you are exercising on an empty stomach is, are you going to have enough energy to have an intense workout, which in my opinion is more important for long term fat/weight loss.

If you are going for endurance you most definitely do not want to do cardio on an empty stomach as it will reduce your aerobic capacity.

A clear cut answer from me would be to eat a light snack an hour before so you can have more energy during your cardio workout but not have too much food to burn to get to your fat stores.

Cardio in the morning versus late at night

Cardio has been recommended by many fitness professionals to be done early in the morning because of the fasting that has been done after eight hours of sleep.

Once again I think this is questionable and it is all about personal preference. Doing cardio in the morning for some people allows them to have more energy throughout the day and have a more clear mind.

Doing cardio in the evening can for some people like myself, actually have more benefits because of the nutrients that you have ate and the water you have drank throughout the day is in your system to be used. I personally have more energy in the evening and find that I push myself harder at night.

I am a believer that everyone has a different peak workout time and that one should figure out that time and use it to their advantage.

In my opinion it does not matter when you do cardio in the day as long as you get it done effectively.

The speed of your workouts and weight loss

It has been taught for years that the slower your cardio exercise the better it is because it burns more calories from fat.

You must define what your goal is and what you want for the long term first before you come to any conclusions on your training style. I think that you can lose weight doing either slow and less intense exercise as well as doing fast high intensity workouts.

One thing that I would encourage you to look at is how you want your body to look like. Compare the look of athletes from different sports such as marathon running and track sprinters. You will notice the difference in how their bodies are shaped.

There is no one superior way to the other and so it is just about what your goals are and what you want to look like.

If you are going for a long lean and not as much muscle on your body look, then do the long duration like cardio workouts. If you are looking for a more muscular and defined framed then do the higher intensity and faster workouts.

My advice for you

Try the methods that I presented to you above and test them on yourself and see how you feel, how your body changes and reacts, and the overall results that you get.

If you are getting closer to the results that you are looking for, then stick with that program and train using those techniques.

I am not a believer in there is only one way to train. I just believe there is a systematic approach you can take to fitness and then it is up to you to test those approaches to see what works best for you.

We all have different bodies so we need to find out the best ways to train ourselves.

What have you found works best for you?