The Best Cardio for Weight Loss (And How Much You Really Need)

We'd wager very few people actually enjoy climbing to nowhere for 90 minutes on a stair climber. Cardio works for fat loss, but it doesn't do you any good if you're constantly committing and then de-committing and giving up because it sucks.

There definitely is cardio that burns plenty of calories without beating you up or being a complete pain in the butt (literally in the case of the stair climber). You don't need to do endless hours of it to lose fat, either. And yes, you can keep your muscle while doing cardio for weight loss (we have the science to prove it).

Does Cardio Burn Fat?

Cardio most certainly burns fat. During cardio, your body pulls more of its energy from stored fat, and if you do cardio training consistently, you'll be able to burn more fat during exercise over time.

More intense interval training also slightly increases your calorie burn after you stop, though the afterburn is smaller than the internet claims, somewhere around 30 to 70 extra calories over the next few hours, or roughly 10 to 35 more than you'd get from a steady session. A nice little bonus, but a lifetime of afterburn still won't outrun a bagel.

In the end, fat loss happens over weeks and months when you burn more than you eat. Exercise on its own won't really do a whole lot unless you also decrease your food intake. What cardio can do is increase your daily burn a bit to support the deficit from your diet. You'd have to do an exhausting amount of cardio to out run a normal appetite in most cases.

What's worse is your body fights back by making you fidget less, take the elevator, and send the kid to grab the remote. It's called metabolic compensation, and that baddie cancels out about a quarter of what you'll burn during your planned cardio sessions (boo!). Some lucky people who have very adaptable metabolisms will only lose about half the weight predicted by the math.

Cardio vs Weight Training for Fat Loss

Cardio leads to faster scale weight and fat mass loss than lifting simply because 40 minutes of running burns more than 40 minutes of lifting with rests (and mirror checks, no shade). But when researchers match the total work between them, they burn the same amount of fat. So, it really comes down to calorie burn per minute, similarly to how more intense cardio burns more calories per minute than steady state.

Lifting pays off over the long haul, though, because dieting without strength training can cause you to lose up to a quarter of the weight as muscle loss, which lowers your metabolism and sets you up for regain. Resistance training protects that muscle during a calorie deficit and helps you keep moving normally after the weight comes off, which is part of why people who lift regain less weight. For the best overall body composition, including losing more belly fat, you'll want to do both cardio and strength training.

Read More: Cardio vs Strength Training and How to Build Muscle and Lose Fat

The Best Cardio for Weight Loss

The best cardio for weight loss should technically be whatever burns a lot of calories while costing you little fatigue, soreness, or joint wear. If you're doing fat loss cardio several times a week for 8 to 12 weeks over a weight loss phase, you need to balance your energy or you'll crash and burn. You also don't want to trash your quads on the step mill right before you have squats and not be able to recover.

Get Enough Steps

Try to get about 8,000 to 12,000 steps a day to keep fat burning going. This doesn't have to be structured cardio, it's whatever you do during the day. Grab a step tracker, even a cheap one, so you know what you're getting every day. You can also strap on a Strata™ Weight Vest to turn a walk into harder cardio without adding the impact a run does to your joints.

Do Steady State Cardio

When you're already low on energy from a calorie deficit, it's not the time to be HIITmaxxing. Most of your cardio should be at a conversational pace, which is under about 140 beats per minute, or where you can chat but not sing. Good options are:

• Incline walking
• Cycling
• Swimming
• Elliptical training
• Rowing
• The 12-3-30 treadmill workout

Add in Intervals

You can still do intervals, just don't rely on them every day. High intensity interval training cuts body fat percentage and visceral fat at least as well as longer steady state cardio, but takes a lot less time. It's just much more fatiguing, so stick to one or two sessions per week.

Rotate What You Do

Cardio can be boring and hard on your body, so add variety to prevent injuries and burnout. You can swap between walking, cycling, rowing, or whatever you prefer so you're not beating up the same joints by doing the same motions all the time.

The Best Cardio Machine for Weight Loss

For raw calories per minute, the treadmill takes the crown. Across seven indoor machines tested head to head, the treadmill burned the most energy, with the stair climber a close second, then the elliptical, bike, and rower. Running also burns fat at a higher rate than cycling because you're hauling your whole body weight instead of sitting on it.

However, just because a machine burns more calories per minute, doesn't mean it's the best one for you because if you hate it and never want to do it, or if it hurts your joints, it's no bueno. One of the better options is the Strive™ Curved Treadmill because you can go from easy walking to all-out sprints with no motor and no buttons, since you control it with your own speed. If you prefer cycling and want a whole body burn, the Strive™ Air Bike featuring VPR™ has an adjustable fan blade to go from lighter steady state to more intense interval intensities. It's also ideal if you need low impact cardio for fat loss.

How Much Cardio Should I Do a Day?

How much cardio you should do a day for fat loss will be different for everyone and depends hugely on your metabolism, current weight, and diet. A good place to start is about 8,000 to 12,000 steps daily plus three to six 15 to 60 min cardio sessions per week. Beyond about 45 to 60 minutes of real cardio six days a week, you'll be looking at fatigue and muscle loss risks being higher than the extra calories are worth, and you'd be better off cutting out a little more food.

Here's an overview of where to start based on your daily steps:

Start off with three sessions of 15 minutes at a pace that just gets you breathing hard, then add time or intensity every week or two. If you're able to keep lifting like normal and aren't losing strength, then you're likely holding onto your muscle, but if your lifts start to suffer, pull back on the cardio before cutting more calories.

Takeaway

The best cardio for weight loss is a combo of your daily steps and planned workouts including mostly easier ones with an interval session or two each week. Do whatever type of cardio you enjoy (or at least tolerate) that also doesn't beat up your joints too much, adding variety to prevent injury and boredom. Definitely keep your lifting up so your muscle and metabolism don't take a hit, and watch that calorie deficit.

FAQs

Does cardio or weight training burn more fat?

Cardio burns more calories per minute than weight training tends to, depending on how you're doing either one, so cardio can lead to greater fat mass loss in less time than lifting alone. Weight training preserves muscle, though, which protects your metabolism and helps prevent weight regain. Doing both will give you the best results for fat loss and body composition.

Should you do cardio before or after weight training?

If you're going to do cardio and weight training in the same session, lift first and only do easier cardio under 30 minutes (ideally, sip a protein and carb shake while you do it to start recovery). Doing hard cardio right after lifting, especially using the muscles you just trained, will interfere with the muscle building signal from the workout. Separating them by at least four hours or doing cardio on its own days avoids the issue almost entirely, and easy cardio before lifting works well as a warmup.

Is 30 minutes of cardio a day enough to lose weight?

Yes, as long as your food intake is also in check. Thirty minutes of moderate cardio five or six days a week plus 8,000 to 12,000 daily steps sits comfortably in the range that produces steady fat loss without wrecking recovery. The scale won't budge if that cardio replaces your usual daily movement or dinner grows to match it, so track your steps and keep your portions honest.