While it’s great to want to lose weight, it’s important to remember that not all weight loss programs are created equal. Some fad diets leave you with dangerously low levels of vitamin D and calcium, which are important for your health. Others promise fast weight loss, but leave you feeling exhausted and unsatisfied.
If you’re looking for a safe and effective way to lose weight, then you need to consider traditional cardio. Not only is it a great way to get your heart rate up, but it forces your body to make calorie-burning hormones, namely cortisol and adrenaline. This ultimately leads to greater weight loss versus most other diet choices. Let’s take a closer look at how traditional cardio can benefit your health and how you can integrate it into your weight loss plan.
The Advantage Of Cardio
Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat – weight loss isn’t easy. It takes a lot of planning and discipline to ensure you’re making the right nutritional choices and exercising regularly. Many people give up right when things get hard, which often leads them to fall back into bad habits. That’s why it’s important to find a program that you can stick with, which is why we always recommend that our readers take a look at the science behind the diets they’re considering. The reason we stress the importance of finding out how the body reacts to different foods is that discovering this will give you a better idea of what to avoid and what to indulge in.
One of the biggest misconceptions about cardio is that it doesn’t offer any advantages to weight loss. Let’s look at the evidence:
Increased Metabolism
If you’re doing cardio, your body is essentially giving you free reign to eat whatever you want. This is because your heart is working harder than usual, burning calories and nutrients as it attempts to keep up with your activity. This in turn leads to an increased metabolic rate and more calories being burned, regardless of what type of exercise you’re doing. This is why the general consensus among fitness experts is that cardio is the BEST diet choice for weight loss – it effectively multiplies the calories you eat, lowering your body’s calorie needs and, in turn, your weight. Make sure you keep tabs on how many calories you consume and how many you burn off, though, just to ensure you’re on the right track. Remember, calories matter, but so does nutrition. You can’t outrun a bad diet, no matter how hard you try.
More Effective For Weight Loss
When you combine cardio with a calorie-controlled diet, the results are even more impressive. As we stated above, cardio improves your body’s ability to metabolise food, increasing both your calorie burn and the amount of weight you lose. Some studies have shown that it may be more effective at weight loss than other forms of exercise, such as weight lifting. One theory behind this is that weight lifting involves mostly muscle groups, which do not require a lot of oxygen to sustain. Conversely, cardio utilizes a lot of your body’s largest organ, your heart, which has to be constantly and consistently working to provide the oxygen necessary for your muscles to function.
Better For Your Health
If you’re looking for a way to improve your health, then you need to consider cardio. Whether you have a heart condition or are just looking to avoid heart disease, this form of exercise is a great way to ensure you’re doing your body some favour. Cardio raises your body’s HDL (good cholesterol) levels and forces your liver to make more vitamin A, which helps maintain healthy eyesight. While we’re on the subject of the eyes, working out also improves the health of the optic nerve, which is responsible for sight. This is why we always stress the importance of staying hydrated while weight lifting or doing any other type of exercise, as you don’t want to be straining your eyes and putting yourself at risk for eye strain or eye injury.
Longer-Lasting Results
Many people think that doing cardio just once or twice a week will result in major weight loss. While this may be true for those people who are highly unfit, those who are more regularly active may see longer lasting results from doing cardio more frequently. Frequent and consistent cardio not only improves your body’s metabolic rate and calorie burn, it also forces your body to adapt to exercise and become more efficient at burning calories. This means that even if you stop exercising, your body will continue to keep the weight off for several more years. If you’re looking to lose weight, then you should keep this in mind and consider doing cardio more often than not.
Consider Cardio In Addition To Your Diet
While we always recommend that our readers try to follow a diet that suits their needs and preferences, it’s not always possible to do so. There are some individuals who have such high sensitivities to certain foods that it is literally impossible for them to stay alive without eating what they love. For these people, doing cardio alongside their diet is a great option, as they will effectively be combining two ways to lose weight. Letting your body adjust to the food you’re eating and slowly weaning yourself off the unhealthy foods will help you boost your weight loss, while also reducing the risks associated with your diet. It’s a win-win.
The bottom line is that if you’re looking for a way to lose weight, then you need to consider cardio. This article will help guide you through the steps to ensure you’re choosing a safe and effective way to shed those extra pounds.