A special thank you to our guests for their valuable advice:
ALBERTO NUÑEZ:
https://www.instagram.com/nunez3dmj/?hlen
LEE LEM:
https://www.youtube.com/@l_eel_em
DR. ÉRIC HELMETS:
https://www.instagram.com/helms3dmj/
https://massresearchreview.com/
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Do you need cardio to lose weight? Cardio is not as effective as most people think when it comes to losing weight and fat due to the constrained energy model. Most research has shown that people who start doing cardio without changing their diet tend to lose 20 to 50 percent of what they would expect from the calories they burned.
What if we did more cardio to lose weight? Without changing your diet, you'll probably need to do a lot of cardio for it to have a significant effect on fat loss. Which is not a very effective or realistic approach for most people.
The takeaway is to think of cardio as an additional tool you can add to your diet to speed things up.
But how much cardio, exactly, should you “pile on top”? I sought the advice of Alberto Nunez, an extremely knowledgeable trainer and lifelong drug-free professional bodybuilder known for achieving insane levels of leanness, and Lee Lem, a natural bodybuilder just weeks away from his show. Surprisingly, both said that by using a longer or more aggressive diet, they didn't really need cardio to lose weight or get in shape.
But including cardio had its benefits. Alberto and Lee say maintaining a high daily step count has helped them burn more calories and ensure they don't become lazier as they lose weight.
But now I wanted to know, besides daily steps, how much "cardio" is needed to get really lean? Here's Alberto's take: / "Usually the smaller the athlete, the more cardio we'll have to do. This helps so he can eat a little more, which will obviously help to some extent with the mental component." But he also emphasized that it depends on lifestyle: "I've seen people do nothing. Nothing. And usually it has to do with occupation: if they don't move, they just get fired . So waiters, personal trainers, labor-intensive jobs, things like that./"
But for most of his clients, "7,000 steps on average as a baseline, you have that set. I would say most people, per week, will need 4 to 5 days of cardio to lose weight, ranging 30 to 45 minutes." This also seemed to fit Lee's protocol. In addition to 10,000 steps a day and lifting weights 4 times a week, he also does 5 x 30 minutes of cardio to lose weight.
But remember, it's not just about "losing six-pack abs." We're talking shredded. And they don't do as much cardio right away. Whenever fat loss is stalled and they're not making progress, that's usually when they decide whether or not they should add more cardio.
Now, how much cardio per week should you aim for? What I would recommend is to start with Alberto's recommendation of taking 7,000 steps per day as a baseline. Once you're consistent with this, try adding 2 to 3 20-minute cardio workouts per week. And while Lee and Alberto recommend cycling or the elliptical, you have plenty of other options when it comes to the type of cardio for weight loss. The key is to choose things that you actually enjoy and can recover from.
Now, from here, once your body adapts and you've reached a standstill in your progress using your current routine, you can choose to either eat a little less or add a little more cardio or steps to continue losing fat. Basically, you repeat this process for as long as it takes you to reach your desired body fat level.
But the last thing you want to do is start doing a lot of cardio to lose weight while dieting, then quit cold turkey as soon as it's over. Dr. Eric Helms says that maintaining a certain level of activity (7,000 to 9,000 steps per day and strength training 2 to 3 times per week) appears to prevent fat recovery. This is why, for long-term success, when choosing the type of cardio for weight loss, it's so important to choose activities that you can actually stick with.
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