Cardio For Weight Loss
There is no denying that a regular cardio workout improves cardiovascular health and increases the overall longevity of our Life. If your goal is to lose weight then Cardio exercise can help you greatly to achieve that.
In this article I am going to discuss 5 simple and easy to do cardio exercises that can help you burn the unwanted body fat fast all from the comfort of your home.
How Cardio Helps You Lose Weight
Well, let us face it, if you are trying to lose weight, you know what it takes. Basically, you must do regular exercises both cardio and strength training along with maintaining a proper diet.
You can learn the basics of cardio and how a beginner can take advantage of this then you can have a look on our Beginners guide to cardio exercise.
To lose weight you must burn more calories than you eat. While some people consider dieting for this. But the recommended way would be to do regular exercise along with maintaining a healthy low calorie diet.
Cardio plays a key role in weight loss because when you do cardio, your heart rate increases and reaches a target heart rate zone. you start sweating and inhaling more oxygen than normal which helps burn the stored fat in your body and promotes weight loss.
How much Cardio you need to lose weight?
As per the Guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Adults should do at least 30 minutes – 1 hour of moderate-intensity or 15-30 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity. They also recommend that one can combine this with strength training to increase the strength and endurance while losing the unwanted body fat
It has been found from studies that one needs to burn around 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of body weight. So in general if you can burn 500 to 1000 calorie per day then you can lose 1 to 2 pound in a week.
That being said, the amount of calories you can burn during a cardio workout session depends on several factors like your age, genger, body weight, metabolic rate etc etc.
Factors that affects weight loss
- Age – The more your age, the less is the weight loss
- Body Weight – The more your body weight, less you lose.
- Gender – Male lose more weight than women.
- metabolic rate – The more your metabolic rate, more easily you can lose weight.
Planning your cardio workout for weight loss
So before you start with your cardio workout journey for weight loss you need to keep a few things in mind in order to get the optimal results from the workout sessions.
If you are just starting out then should consider the following few points for long-term success.
Schedule your workout – It’s really important to schedule some time each day for your workout. Preferably 1 hours in the morning time should be enough.
Get yourself good quality shoes – Since most of the Cardio workout involves heavy involvement of the lower body, legs play a vital role in that. So getting yourself comfortable quality shoes would going to pay off.
Start with warm-up – It’s always recommended to start slow with a little warm up preferably 5-10 minutes of low intensity movements.
Maintain a healthy diet and Hydrate yourself properly – Make sure you are taking a healthy diet and hydrating yourself often during the entire day to get the max results.
End with Cool down and stretching – Including a cool down followed by stretching after each cardio session is really crucial.
Switch exercise – In Order to ensure that you don’t get bored by doing one particular type of exercise everyday, you can mix different kinds of exercise. For example if you are doing 3-4 days of high intensity cardio workout, then you can consider to include 1 – 2 days of power yoga in between. Which helps you in muscle recovery.
Word of caution: Before you start with a Cardio workout plan for weight loss you should keep in mind not to over do it. For most people anywhere between 20 – 60 minutes of cardio workout would be helpful for healthy weight loss.
Types of Cardio workout that helps in weight loss
Out of different types of cardio workouts that are available out there it has been found that HIIT (High intensity cardio workout) are by far the best type cardio workout to consider if you are planning to lose weight.
Have listed below some really effective HIIT Cardio that you can do from the comfort of your home.
Running stairs
Running stairs is an intense cardiovascular exercise that can be performed from the comfort of your home, absolutely no equipment required. Everyone can get access to a set of stairs.
The best part about running stairs is that you get to leverage gravity thus the heavier you are and the fast you climb the stairs the harder you are forced to work and the more calories.
How to do running stairs:
You can do this like interval cardio training by just climbing the stairs as fast as you can for 20 – 30 seconds and then take a 20 seconds of break and repeat the process. You can use a timer for this.
Time duration and Calories Burned –
You can burn 19 calories per minute running up stairs and 4 calories per minute walking down stairs. So you easily burn a good amount of calories by doing it 30 – 40 minutes a day.
Jumping Jacks
Jumping jack is a great form of cardio workout that can help you burn maximum calories in a short amount of time. Jumping jacks is considered a good exercise for total fat burning.
How to do Jumping Jacks:
Begin in a standing position, arms at your side, feet together. Jump and create an “X” with your arms and legs. Jump back to standing, arms at your sides, feet together.
Time duration and Calories Burned:
If your goal is to maximize fat loss in a short amount of time, then you can consider doing Jumping jacks the HIIT way. For example you can do it for 20 seconds and then take rest for 10 seconds. That way you can reap maximum benefits out of Jumping jacks.
A person weighing 120 pounds can burn nearly 8 Calories per minute while a 250 pound person can burn 16 calories/minute with Jumping jacks.
Burpees
Burpees are a challenging exercise that works on all the major muscle groups in your body. If you are looking for a way to burn calories while building strength and endurance and cardiovascular fitness then burpees could be great help.
Burpee is essentially a combination of 4 exercises. It consists of a jump, squat, plank and push up. Burpees are really effective if you do that properly as it is a total body strengthening exercise.
How to do Burpees :
Stand upright with your feet hip width apart. Crouch down and place your palms on the ground, jump back with both feet extending your knees and hips completely then drop your lower chest to the floor.
Push up and lift the chest off the floor jumping forward with both feet at the same time. Stand upright and jump up clapping your hand overhead. Repeat the entire sequence.
Time duration and Calories Burned:
Burpees can be done as part of HIIT workout. If you are a beginner then try to do at least 8-10 reps in a row then take rest. It’s always better to start slowly as burpees are one of the most exhausting exercises out there.
As your fitness level increases you can increase the number of reps you can do 40 seconds burpees and take 20 seconds rest. Burpees are a great form of exercise that can burn somewhere around 10 – 15 calories per minute.
Mountain climbers
The mountain climbers basically target the legs and the lower abdominal. It’s a great exercise to burn your lower body fat simultaneously improving your cardiovascular health.
How to do Mountain Climbers:
Start with a plank position, pull your right knee into your chest. Quickly switch and pull the left knee as you extend the opposite leg. Repeat this movement while maintaining a neutral spine and strong core.
Time Duration and Calories burned:
You can do mountain climbers non stop for 40 seconds then take 20 second break.
A 130 lb person can burn around 10 calories per minute with mountain climbers.
Alternate Jump Lunges
The lumping lunges are basically an advanced variation of the basic walking lunge. It helps in strengthening your glutes, quadricepses, hamstrings and calves at the same time it creases your cardiovascular health while helping burn the lower body fat.
How to do Alternating Jump Lunges:
Stand upright with the feet hip width apart. Jump into lunge position bending both knees by 90 degrees. Jumping again, switching the feet position and landing into lunge position again. Keep your torso upright.
Time Duration and Calories burned:
If you want to reap the best results out of Jump lunges then you can continue doing it for 40 second and then take rest for 20 seconds. You can do 2 rounds of it in a circuit and take 1 minute of rest in between. A 140 lb person can burn around 80 calories with just 10 minutes of Jump lunges.
The Bottom Line –
No matter which exercise you do, you need to be regular with your routine and monitor your daily calorie intake to get the best results. So don’t listen to anybody, set a goal, stick to it and enjoy a healthy fit body. After all Health is the true wealth!