you do to 45 minutes; just don’t make it very intense. If you
c a n ’t carry on a conversation during your cardio, you’re
p robably working too hard and dipping into muscle glycogen
stores rather than bodyfat (more on that below).
Keep in mind that cardio isn’t only for burning bodyfat
during the activity. It also creates an overall calorie deficit,
which forces your body to burn bodyfat for daily energy needs.
Q: When and how long should I do cardio to start
losing fat? Also, how many days a week of cardio do
you suggest, and what about high-intensity cardio?
A:There are two ways to do cardio: slow, steady-state work,
which means 20 to 40 minut es of medium-intensity fast
walking, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which means
going all out for 20 seconds, then slow for 40 seconds, then
repeating that sequence four to eight times. An example is
sprinting the straightaways and walking the curves on a running
track.
Steady-state work burns calories and can tap into fat stores
during the activity; interval training also burns calories but
doesn’t burn as much fat during the session. So steady-state
c a rd io i s th e ti c k et if y o u w ant t o lo s e f at , r i gh t? N ot
n e c e s s a r i l y. HIIT ramps up your metabolism to burn more fat
after the workout. In fact, interval training has been found to
b u rn more fat overall than steady-state work, even though it
doesn’t burn much fat during the actual activity. Why? The fat
b u rn is due to the metabolic uptick you get, which doesn’t
occur with steady-state work.
I n t e rval training has the same metabolic effect as a hard
weight workout and can stress the muscles you use in the
same way—it trains fast-twitch fibers in your quads and calves.
That means you don’t want to do it the day before or the day
after a hard leg workout. You could make high-intensity interval
c a rdio part of your leg workout or as a substitute for your
lower-body weight workout, but you have to be cautious. Too
much can trigger overtraining. Remember, you’re getting the