Fat Loss – Body Transformation – Advanced Nutrition

Hey San Antonio,

Today happens to be a cardio day for me, so it made me think about a question that I’m often asked: Am I doing enough cardio? More times than not, when someone asks me that they are usually doing too much cardio. Most people actually spend way too much time performing cardio, in turn, causing them to actually do my harm than good (decrease in lean body mass which is directly relational to a decrease in resting metabolism).

I can’t over-emphasize the importance of having a great cardiovascular system when trying to lose fat. So many people get tied up in the “fat burning ranges” for heart rate and they miss a very important point: when your heart and lungs work efficiently, you are able to more efficiently burn calories. Individuals often neglect this because they don’t want their heart beating too high which will take them out of the fat burning zone. But here’s what they’re missing: when the body burns glucose for energy (like it primarily does during intense cardio) there is an “afterburn” effect once you are finished working out where the body, in an attempt to preserve glucose, will shift to releasing adipose tissue for fuel.

It’s also to important to understand that if you become cardio-efficient, you are able to train at a higher intensity while maintaining a lower heart rate. Other effects of performing intense cardio? There’s a direct carry over to your resistance training – you recover quicker between intense sets, increasing your ability to do more in the same or less time. Also, your body becomes more efficient at buffering lactic acid (that excruciating burn you feel at the end of a set).

During a weight loss program, I feel that it is very important to focus on lower volume, higher intensity cardio at the beginning of your program to develop the cardio-vascular system. As you begin to progress, slowly increase the volume while decreasing the intensity for maximum fat burning effect. However, it is still important to train at a higher (albeit less regular) to maintain the level of conditioning you have achieved.

If you’ve only been focusing on slow-go cardio, try speeding it up for a bit. Worried about training at a high intensity? You shouldn’t: think of athletes who only train in the high intensity range: sprinters and other power athletes. Typically, they are very lean, defined and have a desirable physique, while endurance athletes often look unhealthy, frail and less desirable. This can be attributed to the afterburn effect I mentioned (it goes both ways – when you train at a low intensity, once you are finished, the body will attempt to preserve body fat by, you guessed it, tapping into muscle).

While everyone’s different, this is a typical breakdown of how I’d begin a 12 week fat loss program from a cardio standpoint:
Weeks 1-3 – 3 High intensity cardio sessions (20-30 min)
Weeks 4-6 – 2 High intensity cardio sessions (20-30 min) / 2 Moderate intensity cardio sessions (30-40 min)
Weeks 7-9 – 1 High intensity cardio session (20-30 min) / 2 Moderate intensity cardio sessions (30-40 min) / 1 low intensity cardio session (40-50 min)
Weeks 10-12 – 1 High intensity cardio session (20-30 min) / 1 moderate intensity cardio session / 2 low intensity cardio sessions

Using this set up, you develop a decent cardiovascular base at the beginning of your program, force progression and transfer over to a focus on fat burning (as the body becomes more efficient) while still maintaining a decent cardiovascular base obtained in the first weeks of the program.

Of course, this would vary person to person and depending on how their progress was, I would adjust time, number of sessions and/or frequency. Considering other factors, I may have them performing different types of sessions at different times during the day.

In body transformation, It is important to understand that resistance training is the stimulus for increasing lean body mass. When focusing on fat loss, the primary goal must be maintaining as much lean body mass as possible, due to the lost metabolism by decreasing lean body mass. Cardio is NOT the holy grail of fat loss, and doing more does not mean you are burning more fat. Remember that fat is lost in the kitchen: cardio is simply a way to stimulate the fat burning process while increasing the capacity of the cardiovascular system. From a body transformation and fat loss standpoint, there is absolutely no benefit that can come from performing excessive cardio (you simply cannot preserve lean body mass – losing lean body mass, even though you will lose WEIGHT, will lead to a higher body fat percentage and a less desirable physique).

For body transformation and fat loss, use cardio to supplement your resistance training and nutritional program, not be the basis of it.

Boyd Myers
Personal Trainer in San Antonio
Owner, San Antonio’s Top Personal Training Studio
16613 Huebner Rd (corner of Huebner and Bitters)
210.391.1454