What's the best cardio exercise to shead pounds?

Richard · **Posted:** Sat Aug 06, 2005 2:52 pm

Ren wrote:

Wow. compassionategirl, I totally ignored the existence of such an equation. I'm gonna put it to practice. I don't wanna be burnin' no hard earned muscle with cardio!

Fanks!

Wordlife, I didn't realise it could be so easily calculated, that's great information which I can now pretend that I always knew

Daywalker · **Posted:** Sun Aug 07, 2005 3:17 pm

I didn't read all posts in detail, but here a my thoughts on losing fat:

1. Cardio:
"All cardio is created equal" - lol! I totally agree! Cardio should be fun, so that you voluntarily do it often. You should not exaggerate with the volume, though.
The moderate intensity is a myth. You don't burn more fat when you exercise at a moderate pace! You burn RELATIVELY more fat! That means, an intense work out burns more calories in total and does better in reaching your gaol of losing body fat!!

2. I think weight training is better for losing body fat than cardio, for three main reasons:
- It's more intense and burns more calories - the least important point.
- It builds muscle which is metabolism active and increases your energy need. Thus, muscle mass helps you stay lean.
- Weight training increases your metabolism rate for hours to days after the work out. It literally burns fat until the day after the workout!

In my opinion, cardio is for building up endurance and health. During a diet it can help burn some extra calories, but weight training and diet are more important factors.

Good luck with shedding your pounds,
Daywalker

compassionategirl · **Joined:** Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm **Posts:** 3110

Daywalker wrote:

I didn't read all posts in detail, but here a my thoughts on losing fat:

1. Cardio:
"All cardio is created equal" - lol! I totally agree! Cardio should be fun, so that you voluntarily do it often. You should not exaggerate with the volume, though.

yup

The moderate intensity is a myth. You don't burn more fat when you exercise at a moderate pace! You burn RELATIVELY more fat! That means, an intense work out burns more calories in total and does better in reaching your gaol of losing body fat!!

What I said was the importance of moderate intensity when doing high intensity inteval training. If you sprint at your heart rate at say 90% of its max for several minutes, (which would be almost impossible for anybody to do anyway), then that would be COUNTER productive, as your body will start burning muscle and not fat. So one minute intense should be followed with two minutes of moderate (roughly) so that your heart rate comes down before you spike it up again. TOO intense cardio done for a prolonged period of time, is, in my opinion, going to hinder, not help, your goals of shedding fat while retaining lean muscle.

2. I think weight training is better for losing body fat than cardio, for three main reasons:
- It's more intense and burns more calories - the least important point.
- It builds muscle which is metabolism active and increases your energy need. Thus, muscle mass helps you stay lean.
- Weight training increases your metabolism rate for hours to days after the work out. It literally burns fat until the day after the workout!

In my opinion, cardio is for building up endurance and health. During a diet it can help burn some extra calories, but weight training and diet are more important factors.

Yes, weight training is key to fat loss, since muscle metabolizes fat. But I think both bardio and weight training are critical for fat loss (as you know, many bodybuilders like you do cardio twice or even three times a day when they move closer to competition date in order to burn off remaining fat). Cardio and weight training are both essential ingredients in the recipe for fat loss and muscle retention, and nutrition is perhaps the most important of all, since most of your resulst will come from nutrition. As they say, abs are made in the kitchen not the gym.

Good luck with shedding your pounds,
Daywalker