Needless to say, pretty much all of us know or have at least heard the term cardio if we have mustered the courage of asking the age old question, “How to lose weight?” Now before I move on into the science of cardio, I shall dutifully define cardio or more specifically cardiovascular or cardio-respiratory exercises. These workouts/exercises focus on test your aerobic ability and enhance endurance.
Now if you Google, “How to lose weight?” a gazillion results will pop out including the perplexingly pertinent question of “How to lose belly fat?” Okay so, first and foremost ome must remember losing weight does NOT equate to losing fat. When you lose weight you may shed a multiple things from your body including but not limited to fat, muscle, waste, water etc. Hence when you shriek upon that sudden increase in your weight by a 0.5kgs it is most likely your body retaining a bit more water from yesterday night’s cheesecake. So it is always recommended to check your progress weekly or monthly. Progress is progress, undeniably. It doesn’t matter if you splurged on your birthday and ate an entire pound of Red Velvet, what matters is what you eat, do and perform regularly.
Onto the latter question; male, have a tendency of storing fat in our abdominal section (your belly), similarly females have a tendency of storing fat in their legs and hips. Now of course this is a very generic explanation, everybody is different. However, the point is that targeted fat loss is IMPOSSIBLE. Whenever your body loses fat, it shreds it from all over your body, face, legs, hips and your belly too. Although you might notice fat shredding from many parts quicker than the rest but that’s how the human body is designed.
The only way to lose weight (including your fat) is by being in a caloric deficit. All of us have a specific BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate. The BMR specifies a certain number of calories your body burns, just to exist. For an average male it is around 2000, whilst for a female it is around 1500 (You can Google BMR and find out yours!) Now, when we consume calories less than our BMR or simply less than what we burn, then we lose weight.
Cardio in comparison to resistance training is the key to losing fat. The biggest mistake people commit while aiming for fat loss is undermining cardio. Yes, you need to strength train in order to retain the muscle but also perform cardio in order to lose fat. Cardio can include running, cycling or even walking, as long as it gets your heart rate up and makes you struggle for breath, that’s cardio. Even having great sex is a good form of cardio and even recommended by several doctors. Now most of us do not have ample amounts of time to donate to an hour long session of cardio, so my solution to that is HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training. Albeit, HIIT arguably may not have as high an EPOC as walking for an hour but something is always better than nothing. High intensity training consists of a couple of exercises chained throughout the workout, where you train for a certain amount of time and rest for a shorter amount of time (Example: 45 seconds work and 15 seconds rest). This relies on time under tension and helps in keeping your heart-rate elevated throughout the workout, which is our ultimate key to burning calories. These workouts generally span for 6-10 minutes. Depending on your level of experience and expertise you can repeat this for 3 or 4 rounds.
Finally it's important to not beat yourself up too much on not reaching your goals. Remember, everyone is not supposed to have a shredded 6-pack abs and have a map-like vascularity. Being healthy and fit does not have to equate to an extremely low body fat percentage. As long as you enjoy the journey to reach your goals, and are able to maintain it, that’s perfect! We are all unique in our own ways, so a friendly advice to you is, learn to love yourself. Yes, I absolutely condemn the fact that people use this as an excuse to proliferate obesity; however there is a subtle separation between the two. As always, hard-work and consistency is the key.
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