Best Cardio for losing weight...

[Suzyqt1981]

I'm confused on what intensity of cardio is best for losing weight. In the book BODY FOR LIFE they advocate 20mins of intense cardio but recently I read an article by Michael Thurmond who states that 60 mins of lower intensity cardio (such as walking) burns more fat. Do you lovely ladies have any advice? Personal experiences would be great.

[Annie S.]

Suzy, you'll get as many different answers to this as there are people here! It really seems to vary by individual. I personally find longer cardio better for me, at a high-moderate intensity (not killer). Although, adding killer cardio once a week or every 10 days or so shakes things up and seems to help.

I think if you're doing the weight work the way Body for Life tells you to, it may be true that you don't need as much cardio for weight loss. I'm not really into weight work the way they advocate, so I'll stick with my step and high/low.

Really, I think the bottom line is doing what you like and sticking with it. If I tried to force myself to lift weights as the mainstay of my program, I'd turn into a couch potato. So if you like walking for an hour, I'd say go for it!

[horsemom2]

I'm in the longer duration and lower intensity camp both for cardio and resistance workouts.

All higher intensity does for me is make me exhausted and way too hungry all day. However, weightloss even with longer duration and lower intensity is a very slow process (like only one or two pounds a month) and demands a lot of patience.

Barb S
whose measurements are now the lowest they have ever been since exercising regularly for the past 6 years

[lmatis]

Ok, I'll give you my 2 cents of personal experience. The best cardio is the one you will do! Stationary Bike, 30 mins. when I'm pressed for time. I also try to do at least 2 cardio videos twice a week which are 50-60 mins. From what I understand, you will burn more fat if you stay in oxgyen, which means you should be able to talk (or in my case yell at the kids) when you are working out. If you work out so intense that you can't talk you are burning up all of your calories, but not dipping into the stored fat. At least that is what I have read. The one major thing I have learned over my first 19 weeks doing anything makes all the difference in the world. I have had to tweak my workouts a few times, when I hit a stand still. You will find what works for you may not work well for the next person. I have so far lost 30 lbs., and tons of inches. I try to devote 1 hour 6 days a week weather it be lifting, lifting 30 - cardio 30, or just 60 mins. of cardio. Sometimes I just can't squeeze it all in, but I try to do something.

[bobbisey]

Originally Posted by lmatis

...which means you should be able to talk (or in my case yell at the kids) when you are working out.

Funny, this is how I gauge what level I am working at too!

Bobbi

[Peggy T]

I prefer to mix it up. 1-2 shorter intense workouts a week, 1-2 long workouts a week (usually a hike) and the rest whatever I can squeeze in.

[Kimberly33]

I agree with the suggestion that the cardio you'll do will be best! If you won't do it (or if you dread it or hate it), it just won't do as well for you as the "less perfect" workout that you actually do! I also agree that it varies a lot from person to person--what works for one person doesn't work as well for others.

Originally Posted by Peggy T

I prefer to mix it up. 1-2 shorter intense workouts a week, 1-2 long workouts a week (usually a hike) and the rest whatever I can squeeze in.

This is much like what I do (only I do a long bike ride and a longish run and swim). I'm training for a triathlon, so I am doing a LOT of cardio, mixed between short and hard and long and slow. It's doing QUITE well for me (although I only lose weight when my eating is under control--the details of which would violate guidelines!).

In my experience, I have to do at least moderate cardio--not necessarily anaerobic, but more than minimally aerobic. What usually shows up on machines as the "cardio" zone rather than the "fat burning" zone. I can go on FOREVER in the "fat burning" zone, and have nearly nothing happen. This could be because I have a naturally low resting pulse rate and the standard zones are wrong for me, or it could be that while in the cardio zone I don't burn as great of a percentage of of calories from fat, I burn so many more total calories, that more fat is burned overall. I'm not sure why, I just know this is what works for me.

Throwing in some anaerobic sprints or short workouts seems to work as icing on the cake. As long as I have a small snack soon after the workout, it doesn't seem to increase my appetite, and I get a serious endorphin buzz from it (sometimes I hate it while I'm doing it--but I now know that I feel FANTASTIC afterward, so it's totally worth it for me). It does seem to increase my metabolism, too (but that could just be the endorphins talking ).

As someone who's been overweight most of my life (except for short periods), my attitude at this point is that I'm not as concerned with how fast I lose--but I want this to be the LAST TIME that I need to lose weight. I'd rather go slowly and have it be permanent. So that affects how I approach it. Other people have other goals, and that affects how they approach it.

You may want to try one month with one approach--see how it feels, see what kind of results you get. Then try another month with another approach.

Hope you find something that works for you!

[benemma]

I have been able to lose the majority of my weight doing 30 min of cardio a day, lower intensity and pilates, weights, and yoga the rest of the time (I shoot for 1.5 hrs, but often only get in 1 hr). I have never been a fan of all out sweatfests and dread them too much to actually do them. I do walking videos for the most part (though I do have to add upper body weights and some "power moves" to get my heartrate up).

[Honeydew]

I walked 3 miles 5 days a week, just at a normal pace.

[abbyalex]

OK, here's my theory on the intensity matter, based on my personal experience plus stories I've read on this site --

When you do nothing but high intensity cardio, your body gets accustomed to that level. so over time it takes more and more intensity to get your heart rate up enough to reach your target heart rate zone. So eventually you max out. You are working as hard as you can but only burning minimal calories. If you take a break from that for awhile and do moderate to lower intensity cardio, you will reach a stage when ALL cardio, weight training, pilates, etc. gets you into your target heart rate zone, and ALL of your activity is burning calories and contributing to your weight loss.

This is only MY PERSONAL theory, but to back it up, there was a dramatic difference in my results doing all Cathe and other similarly intense workouts compared to my present plan of doing low to moderate intensity cardio and lower intensity weights and pilates work. I would recommend mixing up the intensities to keep your body guessing -- AND to help control the hunger and tiredness factor.