How Much Cardio Should You Do for Fat Loss?

*Photo Credit: menshealth.com*

 

Honestly, it depends.

It depends on:

1. Your food intake
2. Your desired leanness
3. Your preferences
4. Your ability to recover

Let’s go over each factor individually.

 

Food Intake

As I’ve mentioned before in other articles, you have to be in a caloric deficit – or burning more energy than you’re taking in – in order to lose fat.

There are two ways to create a deficit.

You can either:

 

1. Decrease your food intake (i.e. take in less energy).

OR

2. Increase your activity level (i.e. burn more energy).

 

For some people, their food intake is high enough that they can create a deficit through food alone, and ride that out until the end of their diet (without much issue or complication).

For others, their starting food intake is too low to do that (they reach a point where either health is a concern or they’re just freaking miserable…or both), and adding in some cardio – assuming a properly designed resistance training program is in place – is the only other option to further increase the deficit, and push past a plateau.

Most people?

They fall in to camp number two (cardio, even if just a minimal amount, will be needed to reach their fat loss goals).

Very few people – at least in my experience – fall in to camp number one.

 

Leanness

The next factor you have to take in to account is your desired leanness, because different levels of leanness require different amounts of work in order to reach them.

Going from fat to relatively lean (i.e. you can see the outline of your abs and have a flat stomach)?

That doesn’t require much effort (and will therefore only require moderate reductions in food and/or moderate amounts of cardio).

Going from lean to shredded (i.e. you have veins in your abs, striations in your glutes, and are ready to walk on to a bodybuilding stage)?

That requires an EXTREME amount of effort (and therefore extreme reductions in food and/or extreme amounts of cardio).

Most people?

They can get by with very little cardio if they’re just trying to get lean.

But, if they’re trying to get shredded, cardio will almost always make up a larger part of the “fat loss” equation.

 

Preferences

As always, your preferences come in to play.

If you’re someone who despises cardio, you’ll probably want to opt for a bit less food – and therefore less total cardio – as you progress towards your fat loss goals.

If you’re someone who loves cardio, you’ll probably want to do more cardio – and eat more food – since cardio is something you enjoy and will stick with.

Either way, as long as you’re in a deficit – whether you choose to create more of that deficit through a reduction in food or an increase in cardio – you’re moving in the right direction.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat (cliché, but it’s true).

 

Recovery Ability

Lastly, you need to take your recovery ability in to account.

And, more specifically, your ability to recover from your strength training sessions.

We haven’t talked about strength training much in this article, but it’s far more important than cardio from a fat loss perspective.

And that’s because it builds muscle tissue (or helps you maintain the muscle that you already have).

Muscle makes up your physique (or in other words, is what you reveal when you shed away all that body fat), and it also speeds up your metabolism.

And a faster metabolism leads to more – and potentially easier – fat loss in the long run.

When you’re dieting, a lower food intake – mixed with the stressors you face in every day life – already hinder your recovery from your strength training workouts (not to mention the fact that you have to recover from the workouts themselves).

Doing too much cardio – and accumulating too much fatigue – could lead to negative results in the long run (both in terms of your performance and overall physique).

 

OK Cool.  So What Do You Recommend?

Personally, I’d recommend starting with 1-2 cardio sessions per week (for 30-60 minutes).

This assumes that you’re strength training 3-4 x per week, and paying close attention to your nutrition (which should form the foundation of your fat loss plan).

1-2 cardio sessions per week is enough to help create a deficit – and therefore allow you to eat more food while dieting – but not so much that it’ll hinder recovery from your strength training sessions.

Plus, it’s a manageable amount of cardio for people who hate doing cardio…like me.

But, based on your results, how lean you want to get, and how much food you have to pull from when you hit a plateau, you may have to increase that number.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to trial and error.