When it comes to weight loss and fitness, cardio is often talked of. Some people like doing cardio while some others don’t find it interesting. There are many factors such as the duration of a cardio session, intensity and frequency that effect the results of cardio training. Cardio exercises are mainly focused on increasing your heart rate and burning your fat at certain intervals.
There are two types of cardio trainings: the high intensity and the low intensity. High intensity cardio trainings for fat loss are thought to be ideal as they cause lots of calories to burn. Low intensity cardio on the other hand is for those who want to increase their stamina, improve cardiovascular function and get deeper sleep.
Cardio for fat loss
There are various practices thought to be ideal for fat loss via cardio workouts. You can start with short warm-ups at low speed on an automated treadmill. Once you get to grips with it, you can increase the speed for higher intensity training. After increasing the speed, continue at the pace for about 5 minutes and then get back to the earlier speed. Continue this process of switching the speed for about half an hour and then finally set the speed to a low comfortable level before stepping out of the treadmill.
Once you start feeling comfortable at a higher speed and have done it for a couple of weeks or months, you should increase the duration of your workouts to burn even more fat.
Your cardio workouts should be supplemented with walking or jogging. Start with a slow speed and continue it for about 10 minutes before increasing your speed. Now as you start to pant, decrease your speed to the earlier level and then hike it up again once you have regained your breath. As you advance with this, you can try walking for longer durations, aiming for longer distances. High Intensity interval training or cardio fat loss workouts produce even better results if supplemented with walking.
High intensity and low intensity cardio for weight loss
The intensity of cardio for weight loss greatly determines how fast or how efficiently will you be losing weight. With increase in intensity, more calories coming out from the muscle tissues are burned. In case of low intensity training, oxidation of fatty tissues take place. Therefore, some say that low intensity cardio is more effective than high intensity one esp. for weight loss.
Low intensity Cardio for weight loss
Low intensity cardio for weight loss generally involve running at a moderate or slow pace for longer periods. Researches have shown that low intensity or moderate intensity cardio are best for fat oxidation. Besides, these weight loss cardio trainings can be done for longer durations thus giving better weight loss results. If you are on a diet, your body will have lower fat levels and even these low intensity cardio trainings will continue to burn more calories from your muscle tissues. So, if you are working out at a gym, you should be mindful of this fact if you don’t want to lose your muscles built from workouts.
Low intensity long duration cardio helps in increased ATP production. It helps in producing energy for a prolonged period thus aiding recovery. Besides, you will also have a healthier heart as low intensity cardio trainings allow maximum blood to enter the left ventricle making them larger over time.
High intensity cardio:Weight loss by lipolysis
High intensity cardio for weight loss are generally done for shorter duration. There are different types of high intensity cardio trainings, one of the most popular being High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT. HIIT involves high intensity trainings coupled with low intensity ones for shorter intervals. Many people are however biased towards doing high intensity cardio for fat loss believing that they mostly burn calories from muscle tissues and muscle glycogen instead of fat tissues. However, this isn’t entirely true because high intensity cardio trainings and HIITs cause the body to expel more energy thus creating a deficit of calories. As such, the fat instead of being stored gets used up as a source of energy and the process is called lipolysis. The same thing can be accomplished with low intensity cardio trainings but they tend to take longer.
Warning With HIIT and high intensity fat loss cardio, more fat loss takes place because of increased lipolysis. Those who are concerned about more amino acids and glycogen breakdown can try HIIT for shorter intervals as they not only help retain the amino acids but also help in building muscles.
While doing High Intensity cardio training for weight loss, you should make sure not to do so for very long periods of time as they can lead to excess amino acid breakdown.
Best cardio for weight loss practice
Which weight loss cardio training is the right one for you. I would say, you should have both high intensity and low intensity cardio weight loss trainings in your daily inventory of trainings. HIIT and high intensity cardio facilitates lipolysis while low intensity cardio burns more fat and calories. You can distribute both types of these cardio trainings evenly throughout your workout sessions. Or if you are focused on HIIT or other high intensity cardio trainings, you can just add a couple of low intensity trainings to your workout routine. Both high intensity and low intensity cardio trainings are ideal ways to lose fat and doing them right will not only help you stay fit but also improves your heart health and metabolism.