

If you find you need to still burn a little more calories and don’t want to cut out calories from your diet, you could add low-impact, lower intensity cardio to your training plan in small amounts. However, it is not necessary - I lost almost 15lbs using Fitbod and got absolutely lean while doing minimal cardio.īy prioritizing eating properly and making sure you are in a SLIGHT calorie deficit that is progressively and conservatively increasing over a period of 8-12 weeks, and making sure to train hard with weights to not lose strength and muscle tissue, you could have amazing results. Therefore, cardio can be used sparingly throughout a diet and workout regimen to aid in increasing calorie expenditure.

This of course, is not ideal because the more muscle you lose, your appearance will still be soft and not toned, and your metabolism will drop due to muscle loss (making long term weight loss and keeping the lost weight off, increasingly more difficult). However being in a calorie deficit is necessary for weight loss.ĭieting is stressful on muscle tissue, and therefore, if you are aggressively dieting and also not training hard with weights, there is an increased likelihood that you will end up losing weight that is predominantly from muscle loss (and some fat). You may find that you can eat and workout, and lose fat and gain muscle (especially for beginners or individuals who have more body fat). If you are doing cardio, yet eating to put your body in a calorie surplus, your weight will not decrease. Check out our nutrition guide on weight loss. No, performing cardio is not necessary for weight loss.īeing in a calorie deficit (mainly through diet) is by far the most effective way to lose weight, and is a necessary part of a weight loss plan. In this article, we will first discuss if cardio is needed for your weight loss plan, and if so, what types of cardio are best for fat loss. The most important variables are (1) eating so that you are in a slight calorie deficit and (2) weight training to increase your metabolism and prevent muscle loss. It is important to note that cardio is the third most important variable during a weight loss phase. The best types of cardio to aid in weight loss are either low-impact, low intensity cardio like rowing, incline walking, and biking, or HIIT workouts implemented in small doses such as kickboxing, interval training, and weight training.
