Cardio vs. High Intensity Training For Weight Loss

Cardio vs. High Intensity Training For Weight Loss

For many years we have been advised to do cardiovascular exercises to lose weight. The premise is that when doing cardio we target an optimal heart rate so we can use body fat as energy. This is usually achieved by doing a steady but slow exercise like walking on the treadmill. Fat burning has been shown when we exercise in this manner.

But according to the issue of August 2009 of TIMES magazine titled "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin", research is finding out that we rarely lose weight using exercises. So what gives?

The article by John Cloud in TIMES magazine points to hunger as the culprit as to why we do not lose weight with exercises. Yes we use calories from body fat on the treadmill; but we go home and eat more calories than we burnt on the treadmill.

Though exercises help in losing body fat, the resulting hunger from working out can negate these benefits. This however, is a problem that can be solved using resistance training.

High intensity training are kinds of workouts that engage your muscles with such intensity that your muscle increase their metabolic rate. Such exercise do not aim to use body fat. They actually use glucose as energy.

Studies have shown that your body's metabolic rate is elevated for 24 to 48 hour after a high intensity workout. During this time your body is "repairing" your muscle tissue as well as replenishing you glucose stores. The energy for all of these activities is primarily supplied by your body fat.

So, though you use glucose in high intensity workouts, the after effect results to fat burning that continues for one to two days. Infact studies show, you actually burn more body fat for the same length of time of high intensity exercises as you do for cardio.

But it gets better. High intensity exercises really exert your muscle. Your muscles respond by developing better tone, strength and even size. This in turn increases the amount of lean tissue in your body. The more lean tissue your body has the more energy your body has to use to just keep you alive. In other words your basic metabolic rate will increase.

This increase in basal metabolic rate is supplied by your body fat. So when doing high intensity exercises you actually burn more body fat even as you sleep.

This of course does not mean cardiovascular exercises are useless. They are actually great exercises for heart health. But when it comes to losing weight, your primary exercises strategy should be high intensity exercises rather than cardio.

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