If you’re looking to get ahead of the curve, start thinking now about how you can make healthier choices that will benefit your waistline and your overall health in the long term. In the following, we’ll divulge the most up-to-date cardio routine for weight loss that you can try at home. Let’s get started.
How Much Cardio Is Enough for Weight Loss?
As a general rule, you should aim to burn around 500 calories per session, which should take approximately 45 minutes to an hour. So if you’re looking to lose about 1 pound (3500 calories) per week, you’ll need to burn 500 calories daily, every day, seven days a week, just to lose that weight.
That’s a lot of cardio, which isn’t sustainable. Doing just the right amount will ensure you lose weight quickly. You want to hit that 500-calorie mark each session for noticeable results. If you try to do too much, you’ll burn out. Therefore, finding the right balance is crucial.
The Importance of Weight Lifting and Diet
You can’t separate diet from exercise when it comes to weight loss. Yes, you should be doing cardio for weight loss, but you also need to lift weights to see actual results. To understand this, we need to look at the concept of ‘caloric deficit’.
Caloric deficit means that if you burn more calories than you consume, you’re in a deficit. This is key to losing weight. To maintain your current weight, you must consume the same calories as you burn.
That’s why you need to add weights to the mix. You want to build muscle while you’re shedding fat. This will help you lose weight faster and keep it off long-term. Read Beginners Weight Training Advice to get started.
Cardio in a Weight Loss Routine: Jumping to Action
If you want to start seeing results, you need to kick things into gear. So what do you do once you’ve built up the motivation to start? The best thing you can do is to put together an effective plan. Consider the one we’ve outlined below to kickstart your journey towards healthier living.
- For one week, step up your water intake.
- For one week, track your food. It will help you get a better idea of what you’re eating. You can use an app like MyFitnessPal to log your food intake and monitor your calorie intake.
- For one week, reduce your sugar intake. Sugars are empty calories, and they’re easy to overindulge in. Start by reading nutrition labels and look for hidden sugars in foods you wouldn’t expect.
- For one week, eliminate unhealthy fats from your diet.
- For one week, add more protein to your diet
You should ease into your weight loss routine. Jumping straight into high-intensity exercise might be too much for your body right off the bat.
You should tailor your exercise routine to your fitness level. For example, if you’re just starting, you might want to start slowly and ease into more intense exercise as your fitness level improves.
You should tailor your exercise routine to your health issues. For example, if you have a health condition, you’ll want to speak to your doctor about what exercise is best for you.
The Trouble with Running: Why It’s Easy to Stop
As we’ve seen, running is a great way to lose weight. But it isn’t sustainable. When you’re exercising, your body releases endorphins, which make you feel good. But when you stop exercising, those endorphins go away.
Running is especially hard to stick with because you’re putting a lot of stress on your joints. The more you exercise, the more your joints take a beating. As time goes on, they’ll become more and more painful. So what do you do? How do you keep your endorphins flowing when you’re not exercising? For one, you could try workout machines that eliminate joint stress, like a rower with on-demand workouts.
The Bottom Line
The best cardio routine for weight loss has you working hard without stressing out your body. The best way to do this is to mix up your cardio exercises. You can do this by alternating between high- and low-intensity exercises like cycling, walking and swimming.
This will help you break out of the monotony of doing the same thing every day while still giving your body a good workout. If you’re just starting out, ease into your cardio routine. Start slowly and ramp up your intensity as your fitness level improves. You can expect results in as little as six weeks with the right plan.