HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, which involves alternating short bouts of all-out effort with short periods of rest or lower-intensity effort, blasts fat: A January 2017 in the Journal of Diabetes Research found that this type of exercise burns more fat than steady-state cardio performed at a constant moderate pace.
How to Maximize Your Cardio Workouts for Weight Loss
The best cardio exercise for weight loss is the one you like the most and perform at a high-intensity.
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No, endless crunches and legs lifts aren’t the secret to a flat belly. Ab exercises may strengthen the muscles that lie underneath excess fat, but they don’t burn it off. In other words, you can’t spot reduce: The best weight-loss plan includes both a comprehensive workout routine — complete with cardio and strength training — and a healthy diet.
But even though cardio is important, you shouldn’t just hop on the treadmill, plod along for 30 minutes and expect to lose a lot of weight, either. Picking the right kind of cardio is also crucial, and that means high-intensity cardio and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts. If you want cardio to burn fat and lose weight, choose a form of exercise that raises your heart rate for an extended period of time.
You also need to be diligent about the amount of time you spend doing cardio exercise to lose weight. A January 2014 paper published in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases notes that exercise exceeding 200 minutes per week, or 40 to 45 minutes per day five days per week, yields far greater weight loss than the minimum recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of 150 minutes per week. This minimum amount is to support good health, not necessarily weight loss.
Tip
You can’t target a specific part of your body, such as your belly, for weight loss. But boosting the intensity of your cardio workouts will help you lose more weight overall.
Ready to break a serious sweat? Here are the best cardio exercises for weight loss.
1. High-Intensity Cardio
There is no one best cardio exercise for weight loss. The type of cardio exercise you choose is less important than the intensity at which you perform it. While any activity is better than no activity when it comes to weight loss, moving at a high intensity or performing high-intensity cardio is most effective.
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In an August 2017 study published in Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, researchers measured different exercise intensities’ effect on weight loss. After 12 weeks, people who exercised at a high intensity, defined as 70 to 80 percent of maximum heart rate, three days a week lost significant weight, reduced their waist circumference and reduced overall body fat. Although people exercising at lower intensities still lost weight, their results weren’t as notable as the high-intensity exercisers.
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To make things a bit easier, here’s a ranking of the cardio workouts that burn the most calories, based on the Harvard Health Publishing’s average caloric burn for a 155-pound person for 30 minutes of high-intensity work:
- Stationary cycling: 391 calories
- Running (6 mph): 372 calories
- Swimming: 372 calories
- Jumping rope: 372 calories
- Step aerobics: 372 calories
- Elliptical: 335 calories
- Rowing machine: 316 calories
- Circuit training: 298 calories
- Outdoor bicycling (12 to 14 mph): 298 calories
- Stair stepper: 223 calories
Remember to choose an exercise that you enjoy for your high-intensity routines. If you don’t like it, you’re far less likely to make it a regular part of your life, which is essential to losing weight and keeping it off. Even after you’ve achieved your goal weight, you’ll need to continue to exercise 200 minutes or more per week to stay there.
How to do it: Warm up for five to 10 minutes at an easy pace with your exercise of choice — this could be on a stationary bicycle, treadmill or outdoor track. Then work at an intensity that’s 70 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate for 20 to 25 minutes or longer, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Be sure to cool down for several minutes. Do this routine three to four times per week.
2. High-Intensity Interval Training
HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, which involves alternating short bouts of all-out effort with short periods of rest or lower-intensity effort, blasts fat: A January 2017 in the Journal of Diabetes Research found that this type of exercise burns more fat than steady-state cardio performed at a constant moderate pace.
A February 2018 study published in the Journal of Exercise Rehabilitation also found that high-intensity interval training three times a week for 12 weeks resulted in a decrease in fat mass percent, lower body mass indexes and improved health markers such as lower cholesterol.
How to do it: Warm up for five to 10 minutes, and then structure your workout so you go hard (near or at maximum effort) for anywhere from 30 seconds to four minutes at a time. Recover for an equal or slightly longer period of time. Continue for 20 to 30 minutes. Example: Sprint on a treadmill or track for one minute, then walk for one minute 10 times, for a total of 20 minutes. Cool down at an easy pace for three to five minutes.
Use any type of cardio to complete this workout, including a stationary bike, treadmill, calisthenics (think burpees and squat jumps) or an elliptical trainer.
Perform a HIIT workout three to four times a week and avoid consecutive days of HIIT training.
Tip
An easy way to figure your maximum heart rate is to subtract your age from 220. For example, if you’re 35 years old, your maximum heart rate is 185.
3. Circuit Strength Training
Even though you’re after the calorie-burning and fat-loss effects of cardio, strength training is also critical to weight loss. A comprehensive strength-training routine that builds muscle in all the major muscle groups makes your body more efficient at burning calories. Perform your strength-training exercises quickly and back-to-back to elevate your heart rate, build muscle and lose weight.
How to do it: Plan a circuit routine that targets all the major muscle groups: back, chest, arms, shoulders, legs, hips and abs. The circuit may be based on time (30 to 60 seconds per exercise) or on the number of repetitions (eight to 12 executions of each move.)
Do two to three rounds of the entire group of exercises, taking one to two minutes rest between each round. Use weights that fatigue each muscle group by the last couple of repetitions. This means it’s difficult for you to complete that last two or three repetitions with good form and through the full range of motion. Circuit train three times a week on non-consecutive days (say, Monday, Wednesday and Friday).
Here’s an example of a repetition-based circuit strength routine for weight loss to get you started.
The Best Cardio for Fat Loss: A Science Based Approach
Cardio is necessary for fat loss, right? Let’s see what scientific research suggests is the best type of cardio for burning fat while preserving muscle mass.
So many gym goers are focused on fat loss.
For some, that means adding cardio to boost calorie burn.
But when you look around the gym, you’ll see many different kinds of cardio.
So what’s the best type of cardio for fat loss? Let’s take a look at what the research says about some common cardio questions.
How Much Cardio Should I Do?
Large amounts of cardio are common during fat loss. But is this the best approach?
A recent meta-analysis (statistical analysis of multiple studies on the same topic) on cardio found that strength and size gains were reduced as the amount of cardio increased. 1 These results suggest that doing as little cardio as possible is likely optimal.
However, doing no cardio during a fat loss phase may not be practical or possible for many of us. So how much cardio should you do to promote fat loss but not interfere with muscle size and strength gains?
To answer this question, we need to first discuss energy balance. Weight is gained when energy consumed exceeds energy burned. Weight is lost when energy burned exceeds energy consumed. To lose weight you need to create a negative energy balance by reducing caloric intake, increasing activity, or a combination of both.
Creating a deficit by only reducing calories can result in some miserably low intakes. However, adding in a bit of cardio may help keep calories a bit higher while dieting and make the experience less miserable.
Therefore, the most optimal amount of cardio for fat loss is the least amount needed (combined with diet) to result in an appropriate rate of fat loss.
What Should I Do For Cardio?
For fat loss, there is no best type of cardio. If you enjoy taking fitness classes to burn extra calories, do that. If you enjoy being outside, by all means do your cardio outdoors. The most important thing is to stay consistent with your cardio protocol and choose types of cardio you enjoy.
That being said, one thing you may want to avoid is doing cardio for a body part prior to lifting that body part. 1,2 For example, if you are doing cardio in the morning and lifting legs at night, it may be best to do an upper body/total body form of cardio (e.g. battle ropes or sledgehammer slams). Or, lift in the morning and do cardio at night to keep lifting performance high and hold onto muscle while dieting.
How Hard Should I Be Working During my Cardio Sessions?
It is common to see individuals doing lower intensity cardio to keep their heart rate in the “fat burning zone.” While it is true that a higher percentage of fat is burned during low-intensity cardio, there is no difference in the amount of fat burned over a 24hr period between cardio done in the “fat burning zone” and those training at a higher intensity. 3,4 Additional fat loss does not occur with low-intensity cardio in the “fat burning zone.”
In addition, a recent meta-analysis on cardio found that lower intensity cardio negatively affected muscle size and strength gains more than higher intensity cardio. 1 Based upon these results, it appears the optimal approach for fat loss is high-intensity cardio.
However, it should be noted that high intensity cardio can be more difficult to recover from, comes with a higher risk of injury, and may impact performance while lifting weights if the amount performed exceeds recovery ability. In addition, those with joint issues may want to limit high-intensity cardio to reduce impact.
As such, it may be best to perform high-intensity cardio if possible. But if doing so interferes with lifting performance and recovery, lower-intensity forms of cardio should also be incorporated.
Should I Do Cardio in the Morning on an Empty Stomach?
Many individuals perform cardio in the morning on an empty stomach because they believe it will result in more fat loss. Turns out this isn’t supported by research, just anecdotal evidence.
Studies examining what is burned during fasted vs. fed-state cardio have shown that there are no differences in the amount of calories burned, but a higher percentage of fat is burned during fasted cardio. 5,6
However, if we take a look at what is happening during the hours after exercise, a greater amount of fat is burned following fed-state cardio. 6 This means that fasted cardio does not result in a greater amount of fat burned over a 24hr period.
In addition, more amino acids are also burned during and skeletal muscle protein degradation (the rate at which muscle is breaking down) is increased following fasted cardio. 7,8 Increased protein and amino acid breakdown is not necessarily a good thing if you are trying to build/conserve muscle while losing fat.
It is also important to look at long-term studies to compare the effects of doing cardio in a fed or fasted state on fat loss.
A recent study by Schoenfeld et al. looked at healthy young adults on a meal plan providing the same caloric deficit and had them perform 1hr of morning cardio 3 times weekly for 1 month. Half of the participants received a protein shake before cardio so they were training in the fed state. The other half received the shake after cardio so they were training in the fasted state.
After 1 month, both groups lost body weight and body fat. However, there were no differences in muscle, fat, or weight loss between groups.
Taken together, these results suggest that there is no difference in performing cardio on an empty stomach or after a meal. 9 However, if cardio is performed on an empty stomach, having a protein shake or meal after may help prevent muscle loss.
Key Points
- There is no “best” cardio protocol for fat loss. Find something you enjoy doing and incorporate variety to keep things fun.
- Aim to do the least amount of cardio while still seeing appropriate rates of fat loss.
- Perform high-intensity cardio if you can. If you are not able and/or doing so interferes with recovery from lifting weights, do lower-intensity cardio.
- Perform cardio on an empty stomach or after a meal based on preference. If performing fasted cardio, it may be beneficial to have a protein shake or meal after your cardio sessions.
References
- Wilson, J.M., et al., Concurrent Training: A Meta Analysis Examining Interference of Aerobic and Resistance Exercise. J Strength Cond Res, 2011.
- Helms, E.R., et al., Recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: resistance and cardiovascular training. J Sports Med Phys Fitness, 2015. 55(3): p. 164-78.
- Melanson, E.L., et al., Effect of exercise intensity on 24-h energy expenditure and nutrient oxidation. J Appl Physiol (1985), 2002. 92(3): p. 1045-52.
- Saris, W.H. and P. Schrauwen, Substrate oxidation differences between high- and low-intensity exercise are compensated over 24 hours in obese men. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord, 2004. 28(6): p. 759-65.
- Deighton, K., J.C. Zahra, and D.J. Stensel, Appetite, energy intake and resting metabolic responses to 60 min treadmill running performed in a fasted versus a postprandial state. Appetite, 2012. 58(3): p. 946-54.
- Paoli, A., et al., Exercising fasting or fed to enhance fat loss? Influence of food intake on respiratory ratio and excess postexercise oxygen consumption after a bout of endurance training. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab, 2011. 21(1): p. 48-54.
- Lemon, P.W. and J.P. Mullin, Effect of initial muscle glycogen levels on protein catabolism during exercise. J Appl Physiol, 1980. 48(4): p. 624-9.
- Kumar, V., et al., Human muscle protein synthesis and breakdown during and after exercise. J Appl Physiol, 2009. 106(6): p. 2026-39.
- Schoenfeld, B.J., et al., Body composition changes associated with fasted versus non-fasted aerobic exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2014. 11(1): p. 54.
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