How Cardio Exercise Can Help You Lose Weight

How Cardio Helps You Lose Weight

It's common knowledge that weight loss happens when you create a calorie deficit, burning more calories than you eat. While some people prefer to cut calories through their diets, it helps to have a combination of things— cardio, strength training, and a healthy low-calorie diet.

All of those are important, but cardio is a key component because:

• You burn more calories at one time - Getting your heart rate into your target heart rate zone means your blood is pumping, you're breathing hard and you're sweating. As soon as you get into that efficient calorie-burning zone, your body burns calories. The harder and longer you work, the more calories you burn. For example, a 150-lb person can burn up to or more than 200 calories during a brisk 30-minute walk.
• You can easily add intensity to increase your calorie burn - With cardio exercise it's easy to increase your calorie burn with small changes in intensity: Going faster, jumping higher, climbing hills or trying new activities that your body isn't used to.
• It adds to your overall calorie deficit - Burning calories with exercise means you don't have to cut as many calories from your diet. That is as long as you don't compensate for the workouts by eating more later in the day, which can happen to some people.
• You can do cardio most days of the week -When you lift weights, your muscles require rest to recover and grow stronger. Cardio can be done most days of the week without worrying about injury or overtraining, depending on how you set up your program

With that said, some Cardio exercises offer more intensity than others.

• Impact activities: Exercises that involve some impact, like walking, will usually boost your heart rate faster than no-impact activities like swimming or cycling.
• High impact activities: High impact, or exercises that involve running or jumping, will often burn more calories than lower impact things like walking. You don't even have to do an entire workout with high impact moves. You can simply choose a few and add them to your current workout and you'll burn more calories.
• Whole body activities: When you involve both the upper and lower body, as in cross-country skiing, it's often easier to get the heart rate up and burn more calories. You can also do this by doing compound strength exercises. When done right, you get a great cardio benefit even as you build strength and endurance.