Is Cardio Exercises Necessary for Burning Fats?

Hi Guys,

Traditionally, when you ask an instructor how to burn fats, get rid of love handles, shrink your waistine etc... Cardio exercies will be the answer.



Cardio exercises are exercises such as running, cycling, swimming aerobics etc. Cardiovascular exercise simply means that you're involved in an activity that raises your heart rate to a level where you're working, but can still talk.

Typically, jogging will be one of the highly recommended exercises to burn fats and i will continue to recommend we continue our cardio regime of at least twice a week because it not only helps to burn fats but also provide the following benefits:

-It's one way to burn calories and help you lose weight
-It makes your heart strong so that it doesn't have to work as hard to pump blood
-It increases your lung capacity
-It helps reduce risk of heart attack, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes
-It makes you feel good
-It helps you sleep better
-It helps reduce stress

Well, actually, almost all exercises help achieve it but cardio does it best.

In contemporary studies and sports science, speed training and weights training are now recommended to help burn calories, fats and lose weight. So why the difference now? Have the human body changed over the years?

My personal deduction would fall back on the simple equation of :
Calories In - Calories Out = Fat Gain/ (Fat Loss)

The traditional behind cardio exercise is that calories are burnt slower since you fall in a lower heart rate zone, but because in cardio exercises, we are usually able to last longer - about 30min to 1 hour and as such, the amout of calories burnt is probably higher than when we do speed training where most people can only last one or two laps.

So although we burn more calories during speed training but we can last shorter distance - say about 2km worth of speed training, and comparng it to a 5km or 10km run, we burn more calories running slower but further. In fact, depending on the intensity, we may actually burn similiar amount of calories in both activities.

For beginners, i will still recommend cardio rather than high intensity training such as speed training or weights training. The reason being that if you are a beginner, your muscles are not as conditioned and the chances of getting injured in high intensity exercises is much higher. Also your heart and lungs may not be able to take the sudden huge amount of blood and oxygen flow needed and the pain you experience may be strong enough to dscourage you more further exercises.

So if you are a beginneer, startng on your journey to a V Shape Body, cardio exercises would be a great way to start! But if you are a seasoned sports person, do not give up cardio exercises as they are good for our heart and a good way to relieve stress with its relatively light tempo, but do add in higher intensity exercises such as speed training because the time spent is shorter but the amount of calories burnt is equal or higher.