Doing Cardio is the Ideal Way to Burn Fat

Learn how to do cardio exercises correctly to burn fat. The intensity, and regularity of your workouts are going to be the decisive factors to lose fat faster.

If you want to burn fat, you should keep in mind that doing cardio is the best exercise. The great part about it is that there are plenty of ways to do cardio, sweat and lose weight. In the following article, we’ll tell you more.

Why is cardio necessary to burn fat?

We all know that cardio exercises allow us to burn fat. Riding a bicycle (regularly or statically), running or dancing Zumba are some good options -but not the only ones- that we can practice.

Regardless of the aerobic exercise you do, you’ll always burn fat and calories. However, it’s important to know that certain activities help us to “mobilize” the fat deposited in certain areas where we can’t eliminate it.

Fat is a “fuel” of poor quality that our bodies use for moderate or mild exercises. In other words, it won’t be of use to us if we require a lot of power or resistance. Therefore, it’s essential to perform cardio workouts at the right pace: thus the body will eliminate both fat and glycogen.

The energy we need to exercise comes from these two sources, but we don’t always use the same source. If we perform a cardiovascular exercise with a heart rate of up to 70 percent of beats per minute, we use the fat accumulated in our body. If the activity exceeds 85percent of the pulsations, we use glycogen.

How to burn fat doing cardio

Beyond just knowing the theory, it’s important to put it into practice if we want to lose weight and burn fat. But to do this, as you already know, we need to do cardio.

If your goal is to lose those bothersome extra pounds, it’s time to sign up for a gym membership or begin exercising at the park or at home. The important thing is to exercise moderately on a daily basis.

In a gym, you’ll find all kinds of machines designed for doing cardio: treadmills, exercise bikes, and ellipticals. Cardiovascular training isn’t always the best option for those who seek to increase their muscle mass, but it’s the “king” for those who want to lose weight.

Reduce your risk of diseases

By doing cardio, you’ll improve the condition of your heart and lungs. While you sweat, you won’t only burn calories, but you’ll also reduce the risk of diseases such as high cholesterol, diabetes or hypertension. And, as if that weren’t enough, it helps you to mitigate stress and sleep better at night.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never done cardio before or if it’s been a while since the last time you did… you can always pick it back up. We recommend that you start training when the temperatures are low (fall or winter) so that you won’t despair if you don’t accomplish your goals for the following summer.

Besides, to see short term results, it’s essential to train at least twice a week, three times a week is ideal. Four times a week would be for a more advanced stage when you are more physically prepared. Either way, start small and increase the intensity as you gain resistance.

Where to do cardio?

If you think the treadmill or the exercise bike is too monotonous, you can intersperse the speeds —for example, 15 seconds of high speed (sprint) for every 45 seconds of recovery. Or you can increase one intensity point for each minute exercised. The idea is to bring your heart rate up and burn fat without becoming exhausted.

If you prefer to exercise outdoors, choose different places to go to, that is, don’t always go to the same area. And, if that’s not possible, change your routine or the route so as not to become bored.

If you’re going to train at home, look up different routines or videos on the Internet so that each session is different. This will motivate you to continue on this sometimes, arduous path.

It doesn’t matter so much what exercise you do or where, what does matter is that you do enough cardio to stay fit, lose those extra pounds, burn fat and enjoy exceptional cardiovascular health. Start as soon as possible!