Which type of cardio burns body fat faster? Besides weight loss, the motivation for quicker and more efficient fat burning workout is… the faster you burn fat in a workout, the shorter the time you have to spend doing that dreaded cardio exercise. Have you ever wondered which cardio type, low intensity or high intensity, is the better for burning off body fat?
Which do YOU think is better for burning fat, low intensity cardio like fast walking or light jogging or high intensity cardio like running/sprinting or hard biking? Well, both low and high intensity exercises will help you burn off body fat. The question is,
Burn Fat and Tone Muscles at the Same Time
Our bodies burn more body fat during low intensity exercises like fast walking or a leisurely swim. But during a high intensity exercise like sprinting or hard biking, our bodies burn a lot more calories which include many fat calories as well. So in the long term you’re burning more fat because of the calorie burn being added to the fat burn you are already getting. Low intensity exercise tends to burn few calories, and while you will burn fat, your muscles won’t tighten up to give you that tight and toned look. High intensity cardio works muscles as well as your cardiovascular system. That way you burn calories AND tighten & tone your muscles… WIN – WIN!!
Furthermore, high intensity cardio exercises crank up your metabolism for hours, long after your workout is done. This means that you body will continue to burn body fat hours after you have left the gym. This effect is almost non existent in low intensity cardio or aerobic workout. Overall, your body burns up far more calories during and after high intensity cardio exercises than lower intensive ones.
You can inject high intensity exercises to your cardio workout by introducing some interval training. Here is an example that you can adjust to whatever level of cardio you are on.
Example High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) Workout Even Beginners Can Do
Most people start doing what is called 2 to 1’s. That is basically whatever time you do for intense cardio, you do double that to walk. So 2 minutes walking and 1 minute running for example, 1 minute to 30 seconds and so on. It is important to always warm up first, try walking on a treadmill or outside for five minutes to get warm and loose and then stretch; a good rule to go by is, the older you are the longer you spend stretching. The older cardio folks will attest to this, ha ha!
After you are warmed up you jog or run (or whichever cardio exercise is yours), at a pace that makes you have to breathe hard and makes you sweat hard after 2 or 3 rounds (or 70% – 90% of your max heart rate if you know that number), do that for one minute and then walk two minutes. So a full one set or round will be 3 minutes, 1 running and 2 walking. But if you’re just beginning you can do 30 seconds of intense cardio and 1 or 2 minutes walking; progress slowly to longer times.
A word on sweating and intensity. For the purposes of this article, the intensity should make you sweat enough to make your hair wet. If after 3 or 4 rounds you are sweating but your hair is dry, you need to add more intensity. If you have very short hair or are bald, you need to sweat enough to where it starting to run down your forehead.
As it gets easier you can adjust the numbers to your liking. There are literally hundreds of ways to add high intensity cardio to your current workout routine and they will add as little as 15-20 minutes to your workout. (We will discuss some of those in other articles so make sure to check back often!) Do this for 5 days a week and before long, you will be steadily losing unwanted body fat and weight healthily and naturally.
If you have any medical issues or are unsure, please talk to a doctor before starting any new workout routine.
As always, if you want to learn more about which cardio products that may help you with your cardio journey, checkout all of the great equipment and accessories Amazon has to offer here.