How Long Should Fat Loss Cardio Last In Order To Be Effective?
By: Shannon Clark
If you’ve been reading up on the literature surrounding fat loss cardio training, you likely already know that the most effective type of cardio to lose weight tends to be interval sprints. These allow you to burn more calories after you are completed them, they don’t eat up so much time in the gym (meaning more free time in the evening!), and they prevent you from losing lean muscle mass if you don’t overdo them (2-3 sessions per week – max).
But what about those of you who just don’t want to do intervals – period? Perhaps you aren’t in the kind of shape to go out and run at 8 miles per hour on your treadmill or you just don’t like working that hard. What then?
Then you’re going to have to look at moderate intensity workouts for your fat loss cardio. These can be effective if you do them correctly. Most people, however, aren’t entirely sure what ‘correctly’ stands for.
Let’s have a look at the requirements for fat loss cardio to be effective when done at a moderate intensity level (ie. you’re working at a level of about 7 on a scale from 1-10).
Balance With Your Total Training Program
The very first thing you must do is look at your fat loss cardio training in context with the rest of your training. If you’re doing weight lifting 4 times a week, you certainly should not go adding another 4-5 cardio workouts either – even if they are lower in intensity level.
Always think of it this way. Your body has a limited tank of ‘gas’ to perform physical activity. Once that tank is empty, the car (your body) stops. Each and every activity you do will take some away from that tank, while time off (rest days) will help to refill it.
When you’re constantly driving your car around, that tank is going to get empty fast. But, with days off, you allow it to refuel so it can continue working hard once again. The more intense the workout, the faster the tank drains, but with enough lower intensity exercise, eventually you’ll hit empty as well.
Balance will be key. If you’re doing two weight lifting workouts a week, you may be able to get away with 3-4 cardio workouts without feeling too tired (however I would not recommend this set-up because weight lifting is far more effective for fat loss than cardio is).
Sessions Lasting No Longer Than 45 Minutes
To expand on that point, I would say a good limit to cap your fat loss cardio workouts off at would be 45 minutes. Why 45 minutes?
That allows you enough time to get a good calorie burn going on (300-450 calories), but doesn’t tire you out so much that you’re going to need to take the next day off.
If you find you need more than 45 minutes of cardio training, you need to make some adjustments to your diet. There comes a point where it’s just more effective to look to the diet for fat loss than increased exercise – and this is one of those times.
Slowly Increasing The Pace
Finally, I would also like to make slowly increasing the pace one of the commandments of effective fat loss cardio training.
Now, I’m not saying go and bump it up from a 3 mile walk to a seven mile run – obviously that will back-fire in your face.
But rather, after a few weeks walking at 3 miles, try 3.2 or maybe 3.3. Slowly inch your way up. If you find that you’re feeling more tired because of this, cut back slightly on the time. The reason I suggest this is because this more than just increasing the total time will help get you in better shape so you can eventually perform the higher intensity training described above.
You always do want to try and continually challenge your body so this is a good way to do it. You don’t need to make this an uncomfortable process, but do try your best to continually progress. That will get you seeing results over time.
So keep these factors in mind. In my world, cardio is the last option for helping you lose weight – it goes diet, weight training, cardio – but that said, since some people will always hold cardio training next to their heart, you at least want to make sure you’re setting it up correctly.
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