What is the Best Form of Cardio to Lose Weight?

Well it’s been a while since my last blog post. The trials and tribulations of being a newly self employed young man result in putting in 50+ hour weeks on my business which hasn’t meant a whole lot of time for Facebook posting, Tweeting and Blog writing. Anyway, the ship has steadied now so it’s back to business as usual.

What is the Best Form of Cardio to Lose Weight?

As a Personal Trainer, one of the many, many questions I get asked on a regular basis is ‘What is the Best Form of Cardio to Lose Weight?’. This question comes from people of all shapes and sizes from overweight mums looking to shift a bit of timber around the belly, to young lads wanting to ‘Get shredded for Ibiza’ (You know who you are boys) and the answer if very simple and the same for every single person on this earth:

The best form of cardio is the one you enjoy the most.

But, But, But

No buts! There is much debate surrounding the topic of the best form of cardio, but one thing remains constant for everyone – The form of cardio you enjoy the most is going to be the best FOR YOU because you are much more likely to do it, keeping doing it, stick to it and progress with it.

If you absolutely love jogging on the treadmill and it’s your favourite thing in the whole world then go for it!

Okay Cool. But Just Answer The Question

Technically speaking, it has been shown in many studies that the best form of cardio that we know of for losing weight seems to be High Intensity Interval Training (Or HIIT for short).

That’s not to say that other forms of cardio such as Low Intensity Steady State (Jogging, cycling etc at a slow steady pace) of Fasted (No food before hand) isn’t worth doing. But what I am saying it’s that it has been proven that HIIT training is superior to other forms of cardio for fat loss. Sorry if you’re dedicated to another way of cardio – don’t shoot the messenger!

Prove it!

The most recent study I read was conducted at the University of Georgia where they had two groups of overweight women and got one group to perform Interval Training (In this instance they did 30 seconds flat out sprints and 4 minutes of active recover) and the other to perform continuous, steady cycling.

At the end of the study the group who performed interval training showed more loss of body fat that the continuous group, despite the fact the total energy used by ALL participants was the same.

Summary

So there you have it. Now you know that the best form of cardio is the one you enjoy the most and can stick to, but scientifically speaking, interval training is the best. Now stop reading this blog and go do some sprints on the rower.

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