But I Burn MORE Calories The Longer I Go On The Treadmill!
It’s time to stop banking on the calorie burn that pops up on your favorite cardio equipment. Sure, a longer cardio session you may burn 400-500 calories …..after an hour or so.
When body transformation fat loss is your goal, it is not how long you can go and how many calories you can burn. This only gets us into the trap of going longer and longer for little to no return.
Your concern and focus needs to lie in boosting your metabolism so your body burns more calories 24-7 – not just during the time you are “doing cardio”.
A lot of people fall prey to the number of calories burned on a treadmill for it is immediate feedback…immediate gratification that they are making progress – and their efforts on cardio will erase the # of calories they indulged in the day before.
Well did you know that this number can be off by as much as 30% as it does not account for several different variables….such as your body fat percentage or your true your fitness level.
To further the issue, the typical “Cardio for Fat Loss” mindset is: The more calories I burn, the faster I will lose weight, the more weight I will lose.
That is great, however, immediate calorie burn is not what makes a difference on your body’s ability to burn more fat and calories all day long. The elevated calorie burn you see on a treadmill diminishes and goes back to “normal” shortly after the cardio session ends…..this means your body is burning less overall calories.
Consequences of Long Duration Cardio
The longer you “do” cardio, the more you put your body at risk of taking energy from or burning lean muscle. This is NOT good if fat loss is your goal.
Muscle is the foundation of your calorie burn…the more lean muscle you have – the more calories you burn – all day, all night….sitting down, standing up, sleeping, watching TV….not just when you are exercising.
So in essence – people find themselves doing more and more cardio based on the # of calories burned and the fact that they end up having to do more and more since the entire process ends up backfiring and slowing down their metabolism. It is very common for people to end up doing long bouts of cardio just to maintain a body they are not happy with, feeling nothing works and there is no other option.
See the Sillyness of it all!
When intervals are performed at an intense level, your body will spend the rest of the day expending energy to recover from the challenge you have given it.
This is referred to as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) and it means that you consume a great deal more oxygen recovering from the exercise bout than you would have if you’d just done a steady-state workout – this in turn allows you to burn more fat and calories for the rest of the day.
Traditional cardio – while yes has some benefits – will not give you this benefit nor the advantage to faster and more effective fat loss.
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