Weight Loss Cardio Workout

Weight loss programs often include supplements, diets and exercise. You can advance your weight loss by also including a cardio workout into your exercise routine. A cardio workout designed for weight loss is a basic workout that increases your cardiovascular work (the work of your heart) to a level that increases heart and respiratory rate.

The workout doesn’t have to be miserable though. You can choose an exercise from many different activities that suits your particular lifestyle and interests. The best type of weight loss cardio workout uses interval training. This is training that has some periods, which are slightly faster than others. These faster periods of exercise can be for 10 seconds or 3-4 minutes depending upon your current fitness level.

The best exercise for interval training is sprinting. However, if you’ve not been a runner starting with sprints will just increase your chance for injury and decrease your desire to keep exercising. There are other workouts that also lend themselves to interval training and are just as effective. Body weight exercise, those exercises using your own body weight, require no special equipment and meet all of the weight loss cardio workout conditions. Rowing machines, elliptical trainers, biking, swimming and even fast walking are all exercises that can be adapted to interval training.

Weight loss always happens using a negative calorie balance. In other words you eat less than you burn. Using interval training in your cardio workouts helps to burn more calories at a faster rate. Before undertaking any cardio workout you should consult with your doctor. Your physician will take into account your planned activity, your current health and fitness status as well as any medication you might currently be taking.

Cardio workouts aren’t miracles. How much you lose will depend upon several factors which include your age, your gender, hormones, genetic makeup, your current stress levels and whether you get enough sleep – not to mention the amount of exercise and what you eat.

The hard truth is that it took time to gain weight and it will take time to lose weight. Most people don’t see results with exercise – increased tone – for several weeks or months. Don’t panic, this is normal. To take off a pound permanently there must be a 3500 calorie deficit in your diet. This means that you burn 3500 calories more than you take in – and not all in one day. So if you cut 250 calories from your diet each day and jog for 30 minutes or walk for 60 (burning another 250 calories) you’ll take off one pound each week.

Weight loss cardio workouts should be done between 4-6 times per week. The more you’re able to fit them into your routine the faster you’ll see results. Conversely, the more exercise the body gets the more efficient it becomes at burning energy, using less energy to do the same routine. This is the reason that interval training works so well for weight loss cardio workouts. By changing the speed and intensity of the workout the body must use more calories to continue.

One myth that is popular is that you can choose where the weight will come off your body by the particular exercises that you do. Granted, doing exercises to increase core muscle strength around the abdominal muscles will improve the tone of those muscles, it will not decrease the fat stored around those muscles.

Cardio workouts can be fun, improve your muscle tone and your overall fitness. Using these exercises to increase your weight loss will also improve your self-esteem and the success rate of your program. There is a new trimmer you waiting to make an entrance – don’t keep it waiting too long!

Resources:

Fitness Magazine: The Firm and Burn Workout

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/10000stepschallenge.aspx

Fitness Magazine: The Cardio Workout Guides

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/cardio/

FitDay: Weight Loss Myth? Cardio Exercises are the Best for Burning Fat

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/weight-loss/weight-loss-myth-cardio-exercises-are-the-best-for-burning-fat.html#b

Mens Fitness: Back to Basics: 11 Ways to Build Your Best Cardio Workout

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/lose-weight/back-to-basics-11-ways-to-build-your-best-cardio-workout

Prevention: Cardio

http://www.prevention.com/fitness/fitness-tips/cardio

NHS: 10 Minute Home Cardio Workout