Hello and welcome to the Body By Patrick podcast. My name is, Patrick Ocheni. In today’s episode, I’m going to share with you the best cardio for fat loss.
If you’re trying to get in great shape and reduce body fat overall, especially belly fat, you are going to be excited about this information that I’m about to share with you right now.
Before I dive into what I truly believe to be the best cardio for fat loss, what I’d like to do first is kind of review the three things you’ve got to include in your fitness program or in your transformation program, if you would like to see the best result, especially when it comes to fat loss.
The first thing is, you have got to be involved in a resistance training program.
What does that mean?
That means you’re lifting weights, but you gotta be doing the right kind of weightlifting otherwise you will simply be wasting your time.
The second thing you’ve got to do is, you’ve got to have an effective cardiovascular program, which is going to be the topic of today’s conversation.
And finally, you do have to have a good nutrition program.
All those three components combined together are what is going to help you achieve the best result in the relatively shortest amount of time without you having to be counting calories or starving yourself in order to lose weight or get rid of body fat.
With that being said, what is the best cardio for fat loss?
The answer is, Interval Training. Interval training is the best, most effective, scientifically proven method for achieving fat loss the quickest.
The true benefit of doing interval training is that, it maximizes a principle called the “Afterburn Effect.”
What does that mean?
That means that after you are done doing an interval training cardio program, you are still burning calories, If you do it correctly, 24 to 48 hours after you are done your cardio program. That is one huge reason why you want to be doing interval training.
The other kind of cardio that most people do is what’s called, steady state cardio.
I’m going to explain to you real quickly what steady state cardio is, and why you should not be doing that for a long duration of time.
An example of a steady state cardio is this, somebody get on a treadmill and then they just run. They just keep on running and running and running for almost an hour.
By the way, if you’re able to run for an hour on a cardio machine and you’re trying to lose fat, that tells me right away that the intensity of that workout is not challenging enough. You’re definitely in a steady state cardio program.
The reason why steady state is not the best approach for fat loss is that, if you do too much cardio, it puts your body in what’s called a catabolic state.
What does that mean?
That means your body actually start feeding on your muscle mass, so you’re going to end up losing lean muscle tissue.
Why is that a problem?
That’s a problem because your muscle mass is responsible for your resting metabolic rate. Your resting metabolic rate is responsible for how many calories you burn throughout the day at rest. The higher your resting metabolic rate, the higher your ability to be able to burn calories throughout the day.
And, your resting metabolic rate is also responsible for 65%, 65% of your ability to be able to burn calories and reduce total overall body fat.
So, there’s a direct correlation between how much muscle you have, your lean tissue muscle, versus your resting metabolic rate.
If you’re trying to lose fat and every single day you go to the gym and you get on your cardio machine and you just run, you were doing yourself a disservice. You want to convert that cardio program to an interval cardio program.
To help you visualize the difference between somebody who does interval training program versus somebody who does a distance running program is just look at sprinters versus long distance runners.
Sprinters have muscle mass, they look fit.
Athletes that do long distance, what do they usually look like? They look very skinny, very scrawny, you know what I mean?
If that’s the look you’re going for, well then, you keep doing what you’re doing right now. But, if you want to look fit, strong, have definition then you definitely want to be doing interval training.
What is the best cardio equipment for doing interval training?
It’s my belief that the treadmill is the most effective way to being able to burn maximum calories and maximize the principle of interval training.
Can you use other cardio equipment? Yes, you can.
But, in my many years of training clients, I find that they get the best bang for their time when they use a treadmill.
If you’ve been sitting on a couch for a very long time, you’ve been inactive, and then one day you wake up and you’re like, you know what, I need to lose fat, I need to get in shape. Well, I highly do not recommend doing interval training the first time you go into the gym, you’re only asking for trouble.
Interval training is done when you have achieved a certain level of fitness whereby your muscles can handle such an intense workout.
Who else should not be doing interval training?
If you have pre-existing injuries, especially knee injuries, you do not want to be doing interval training.
How often should you be doing interval training?
Because it’s so intense, I would recommend not doing more than four times a week. You definitely want to be doing every single day, because they can be very hard on the joints.
The other benefit of a interval training protocol when it comes to cardio is that, not only do you maximize fat loss, not only do you maximize the afterburn effect, it also saves you time.
If you’re somebody like myself who’s super busy, I don’t have time to get on a treadmill and run for one hour or even a half an hour because I am so busy training clients. Interval training program, if done correctly, will save you a tremendous amount of time.
If you’re super fit, an interval training program should not take more than 10 to 15 minutes because you’re really pushing yourself.
Now, how do you do an interval training program?
It’s very simple.
You get on a treadmill, you warmup for three to five minutes, get the joints nice and warm, the muscles nice and warm. And then you go to the peak, sprint for about thirty seconds to one minute, and then you bring it all the way down.
And then you repeat that cycle again: You go up, come back down, and you recover.
I recommend no more than 15 minutes.
That’s how you maximize fat loss utilizing interval training.
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