How many minutes of cardio should you do to lose weight and prevent hurting yourself?

In all honesty here, I would not even bother with prolonged usage of cardio for weight loss. The truth is (and it’s well supported by many studies) is that once you reach a point in your cardio, you will have to keep aiming higher and higher in order to get the caloric burn and experience the same kind of exertion. The problem with this, is that it leads to exhaustion, muscle loss, compromised immunity, and can make you retain water and put on body fat. That’s because this type of training puts an enormous amount of stress on our bodies and causes a negative effect for our weight loss efforts. I have experienced this many times myself, and it does take a fair amount of willpower to cease any prolonged use of cardio, and allowing yourself to really trust that your body will be lean, fit and healthy without it. Here are some other ways you must consider when trying to lose body fat that will save you a lot of time and heartache!

4 important factors to consider when trying to lose weight and body fat

1. Diet is key – no matter what, you need to fix your eating habits immediately.
   There is no point in exercising for extensive periods of time if your diet is not right. That means, being completely honest about what you eat, and eliminating the things which do not serve your goals. Getting rid of refined sugars and carbs and replacing then with whole foods, complex carbohydrates and vegetables takes some time to get used to. It also takes time to get rid of those habits of eating chocolate snacks at 3pm and having some protein sources instead. We need to condition ourselves to make better choices that serve our health and goals, instead of hindering them. Diet is 80% of the fat loss and muscle building journey, and no amount of exercise or cardio will fix this if it hasn’t been changed – keep this in mind.
2. Weight training is better long term for weight loss and changing your body shape.
   People refuse to believe how impactful lifting weights is for weight loss. The results of weight training do not happen overnight, it’s a gradual and steady process. When you are eating properly, and lifting properly for that matter, these changes will slowly appear on your body. You will lose body fat and begin to re-shape and tone your physique. It will be a rewarding task to see yourself lifting more and more weight, and having those changes take place on your body. Strength, stamina and feeling healthy are some of the best results you will get from strength training. It’s very important that you have a proper program designed for your level, and progress to challenging yourself as time goes on. This is a journey that never ends, and there is always something new to discover about yourself and your bodies potential.
3. Incidental exercise is very effective.
   I touch on this a lot in my blog posts, but I want to mention to you how well incidental exercise is for fat loss. It’s one of those things we instantly dismiss but think about it – all those times you stay active, walk, take the stairs instead of the lift, walk in your lunch breaks. These events during the day, add up to activity, which is what our bodies are designed for. Use this to your advantage, and adapt these very low impact, very effective ways to burn body fat, without over stressing yourself. I have found that walking a lot helps me immensely, and it’s also great for stretching out sore muscles from lifting weights. Nothing beats some fresh air and sunshine.
4. The results happen outside of the gym.
   Working more does not mean more results. The effects of exercise happen during your rest and recovery period, which is outside of the gym. That means, we need to sleep, recover and rest often as well. Taking 2–3 days off the gym is essential and needed for all of us that train hard with weights. Then we go back to work with more energy, vitality and enthusiasm to reach our goals. Don’t forget that this is very important.

I hope to bring to you another way of thinking about weight loss, and I’m giving you this information to help you understand that it’s not just cardio that matters for fat loss. There are other elements to the equation that need to be considered – even tried out, in order to experience the best results moving forward. If you appreciate this, why not stick with my ranting via my website or join me on fb and insta social. Please feel free to upvote this answer if it has been useful in some way to you.

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