How Much Cardio Should I Do to Lose Weight

How much cardio do you need to do for fat burning, and why does nothing (or practically nothing) change when you add an aerobic load of 30 minutes three times a week?

Cardio to lose weight

Let’s look at the example of our editor. With a weight of 110 kg, his total energy expenditures, found out empirically, are about 3000 kcal per day (unfortunately, his metabolism is slow), respectively, about 21000 kcal per week. He adds 3 cardio sessions 30 minutes a week, and accordingly, his energy expenditures for these 90 minutes cardio will add another 1000 kcal to the total energy consumption (maybe less). Thus, he already spends 22,000 kcal per week, and if you divide these 1000 by 7 days, you get an additional expense of only 140 kcal per day, and this is the calorie content of two medium apples.

In other words, if you have not provided a deficiency of energy in the body, then there will be no dynamics, and plus or minus 150 kcal are often easily hidden in the diet.

There’s no point in this activity?

From the point of view of training the cardiovascular system, there is 100%. But as fat burner cardio is a big question. Let’s explain. We found different numbers in three textbooks, but they are all encouraging.

Read carefully. In a state of rest or work of low intensity with VO2max (maximum oxygen consumption) up to 30%, and this is a normal walk from 60 to 80% of the energy supply is provided by fats, in short – we burn fat all day and all night.

So, if your work is not hard physical, activating anaerobic glycolysis, which, incidentally, is hard to imagine, then most of the day you live off fats, and the contribution of 90 minute cardio per week is not significant. Or, in other words, – cardio is not an exclusive fat-burning exercise.

Conclusion. Low-intensity cardio should be as long as to significantly change the balance of energy. Reducing calories consumed by 150 kcal per day will give the same result as 1.5 hours of cardio per week, but who prevents us from consuming less and spending more.

Additionally, see what cardio burns fat more effectively.

What is more, why not read how cardio benefits our brains?