Do You Have To Run To Burn Fat?

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Table of Contents

• Must Read Article💡

• Parker’s Breakdown: Cardio Level 🔑

• The Study 📖

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Must Read Article💡

What Is LISS Cardio? A Detailed Beginner’s Guide

You don’t need to run! And you don’t have to do cardio 5 times a week!

Just stick to LISS! What is LISS? In this article by Everydayhealth.com, they discuss the importance of low intensity steady state cardio, and why you should be doing it. Here are a couple of the main points. 👇👇

• Low-intensity steady-state (LISS) cardio involves slower aerobic activity done for an extended period, like walking, jogging, or cycling at a comfortable pace.

• Beginners should start with 20-30 minute sessions, eventually aiming for 60 minutes several days a week.

• Lower risk of overuse injuries compared to more intense workouts.

Parker’s Breakdown: Cardio Level 🔑

My clients are always asking me about cardio intensity and frequency. They ask how much and what type of cardio they need to be doing when they are trying to lose fat?

Or they tell me that they don’t mind running and are ready to start running multiple miles every day?! (Even though they haven’t ran in years)

Every time my clients are shocked when I tell a majority of them to just start with walking for an hour, one day out of the week. They always ask me “Is that enough?” or "You know I’m trying to burn fat and not bulk right?”

People get in this mindset where they are going to start super intense cardio every day and lose all this fat in a month and become shredded and jacked. When that simply is not the way to approach fat loss.

The reason I tell my new clients to just walk one day out of the week is because:

1. Fat loss is a marathon, not a race.

   1. Immediately jumping to intense cardio everyday is just going to mostly target muscle, and will retain the fat for “energy stores” for later because our body still thinks we are primates trying to survive every day. So will you drop lbs on the scale? Yes, but you will still look like a melted ice cream ball. Slowly increasing how much cardio you do each week is the best way to allow your body to adapt, allowing it to retain muscle and burn fat.

2. Spiking your cardio can result in burnout!

   1. Raising your cardio to 3-5 times a week when you were not doing any at all or immediately getting into difficult high intensity cardio like running will most likely result in burn out after 2 weeks. Which will result in you completely stopping all your fitness endeavors, which result in you being a fat slob forever.

3. Low intensity steady state cardio is easier for recovery than high intensity.

   1. If your goal is to build a great physique, then running 5 times a week is not your best bet. I’m not saying running is terrible for you, but if a great looking physique is your main goal, then recovery needs to be your number one priority and low intensity aerobic exercise will allow for that.

The Study 📖 

Slow and Steady, or Hard and Fast? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Studies Comparing Body Composition Changes between Interval Training and Moderate Intensity Continuous Training

This study was a systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis examining the effects of interval training (IT) versus moderate intensity continuous training (MICT) on body composition. The researchers searched multiple databases for randomized controlled trials comparing IT and MICT in healthy children and adults, with training performed at least once per week for 4+ weeks. They included 54 studies in the final analysis. The researchers extracted data on fat mass, fat-free mass, and other variables from the studies. They conducted meta-analyses to compare the overall effects of IT vs MICT, as well as secondary analyses looking at adherence, adverse events, and potential moderating factors. The methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the PEDro scale.

Here’s what they found:

• There was no meaningful difference between IT and MICT for changes in fat mass (So why do high intensity cardio, when you could do easy cardio and get same results?)

• Adherence was higher in MICT

• The overall changes in body composition from exercise alone were small and likely not clinically meaningful

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