Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00How much cardio should you do to lose fat?
00:02Some say you don't need any,
00:04whereas others say you've got to do it every single day.
00:07But after speaking to some of the top natural
00:09bodybuilders in the industry,
00:11interviewing the smartest experts in the world
00:13and reviewing the latest science, here's what I found.
00:16But first, we need to figure out how helpful cardio
00:19actually is for fat loss.
00:21And the answer might surprise you.
00:23While cardio is great for heart health, longevity,
00:26and provides plenty of other benefits,
00:28it's not nearly as effective as most people think
00:31when it comes to losing fat,
00:32at least in the way most people do it.
00:34You see, typically you'd expect
00:36if you did 300 calories worth of cardio,
00:39you'd burn 300 more calories that day.
00:42But back in 2016, researcher Herman Potser
00:45published what's known as the constrained energy model,
00:49proposing that the more calories you burn through cardio,
00:52the more your body will try to save energy
00:54and burn less calories the rest of the day
00:57to protect its fat stores.
00:58And it does this subconsciously by taking fewer steps
01:01the rest of the day or little things
01:03like not moving your hands around
01:04when you're talking, for example.
01:06Not to mention diet compensation as well.
01:09Some people tend to subconsciously eat more
01:11in response to doing more cardio,
01:13to the point where the 300 calories of cardio you did
01:16can theoretically cancel out completely.
01:19Unfortunately, shortly after this research came out,
01:22major news outlets took interest
01:24and shared it using clickbait headlines
01:26that made it seem as if exercise
01:28was pointless for fat loss.
01:30Now, although this is an exaggeration,
01:32the compensation effect is definitely real
01:35and well-documented.
01:36Most research has shown that people who start doing cardio
01:39without any changes to their diet,
01:42tend to lose only 20 to 50% of what they'd expect
01:45from the calories they've burned.
01:47But now you're probably wondering,
01:48what about different types of cardio?
01:50Surely sprints and HIIT type workouts
01:52we see all the shredded influencers doing
01:54would be great for fat loss, right?
01:56Well, Daniel Plotkin, one of our Built with Science researchers,
02:00recently published a study comparing all different types
02:03of cardio on fat loss.
02:05Here's what he found.
02:06So what we did is we took all the studies
02:09that we could find that compared high intensity training.
02:12So training that was either sprint intervals
02:15or biking intervals and compared that
02:18to low and moderate intensity aerobic exercise.
02:21So that could be incline walking,
02:23that could be moderate intensity cycling.
02:25So we wanted to see which of these modalities
02:28created more fat loss.
02:29And what we found was that there was no difference
02:31between these two modalities at all,
02:34which wasn't super surprising.
02:35But what was surprising is that whether it was high intensity
02:39interval training or moderate intensity training,
02:42there was essentially no fat loss effect,
02:45even compared to nothing.
02:46I think the magnitude of effect was 0.5 pounds
02:51over eight weeks of aerobic training.
02:54What we can conclude from this is that at least
02:56at the doses given for the high intensity training,
03:00the average weekly minutes was 30 minutes.
03:03And for the moderate intensity,
03:04it was an average weekly minutes of about 120.
03:07Cardio alone isn't very effective for fat loss.
03:10Okay, but what about even higher amounts of cardio?
03:13Does that lead to more fat loss?
03:15Well, in studies like this one by Ross and colleagues,
03:18very high doses of cardio, in this case,
03:21doing 700 calories worth of cardio every single day,
03:24the equivalent to about one to one and a half hours
03:26of jogging does actually lead to quite a bit of fat loss.
03:30So without changing your diet,
03:32you've probably got to do a whole lot of cardio
03:34for it to have a meaningful effect on fat loss,
03:37which isn't a very efficient or realistic approach
03:39for most people.
03:40But I didn't make this video just to tell you that cardio
03:43doesn't work, because it does,
03:45but only when you use it properly.
03:47And to find out exactly how to do that,
03:49let's take a look at this recent meta-analysis,
03:52which ranks several different fat loss protocols
03:54from most to least effective.
03:56As expected, cardio alone with no changes to diet
03:59was the least effective method.
04:01But take a look at the most effective methods.
04:04Notice how they are all combinations of some form of exercise
04:08with a proper diet. Think about how much easier it is
04:11to eat 500 calories less than it is to try
04:14to burn off 500 calories every day.
04:16I illustrated this in my last video
04:18where I ate a bunch of McDonald's and figured out
04:20the hard way just how difficult it was to burn off.
04:24So think of cardio not as a sole method you'll use
04:26to lose fat, but rather as a supplemental tool
04:29that you can stack on top of your diet to speed things up.
04:33But now that I've hopefully convinced you to start tracking
04:35and following a diet, how much cardio should you then add
04:38to this?
04:39Well, let's start by asking the only people in the world
04:42who have truly mastered the art of controlling their diet
04:46while using cardio to get them into incredible shape.
04:49Professional bodybuilders.
04:51First, I spoke to Alberto Nunez,
04:54an extremely knowledgeable coach and lifetime drug-free
04:57pro bodybuilder who's known for getting into insane levels
05:01of leanness.
05:02I didn't use cardio at all, really.
05:05I just, I'd rather diet a little bit longer
05:07and rather eat less and have to go perform
05:10some other sort of exercise, especially exercise
05:12that I don't necessarily enjoy.
05:14But this last prep was, it was nice.
05:17It was nice to actually do some cardio.
05:19And so I'm like, oh, I get to eat a little bit more
05:21because I'm doing this cardio.
05:25I also feel that it helped with just some of the recovery
05:28aspects because even though I know better, like I'm prone
05:31to just after training, just being garbage and just
05:34like laying around.
05:35I also spoke with Lee, a natural bodybuilder,
05:37just a few weeks out from his show.
05:39I honestly think that we could probably get through this
05:41entire prep without cardio.
05:43The other alternative was again, to not do cardio,
05:46but then decrease calories further.
05:48But you know, like the lower the calorie deficit,
05:51the less good essentially you got to feel.
05:53So it turns out that by using either a longer
05:56or more aggressive diet, these guys didn't really need
05:59cardio to get into crazy shape, but including it
06:02had its benefits.
06:03Now, what also surprised me was the importance they placed
06:06on their daily step count and how they use it as part
06:10of their overall cardio plan.
06:11Our bodies are fantastic at surviving and they will figure
06:15out ways to slow down the rate of loss.
06:18I first started to note, and this was like with my check-ins
06:20with my athletes, as they were getting leaner, their rooms
06:23just started to get messier.
06:25Like you could see like legit the fact that they weren't
06:28doing much other than like going to work, going to the gym
06:31and then just like couching it up.
06:34A lot of our actual modifications are going to come to diet,
06:38cardio, and the steps are just kind of there in place to make
06:42sure that you don't sloth around.
06:43I'm this type of person who would either be at home
06:46playing games or be at the gym.
06:48I was doing about like hardly any steps at all.
06:50So in like 2000 steps per day, we were just like, I need to
06:53move around more and that way we can keep your food as high
06:56as possible.
06:57So we initially started with 10,000 steps per day.
06:59We lost about roughly about 30 pounds until we started
07:04introducing cardio.
07:05But now I wanted to find out on top of their daily steps, how
07:09much actual cardio is required to get to very low levels of body
07:13fat, the smaller, the athlete, the more cardio we want to do.
07:18And it helps so they can, so they can eat a little bit more, which
07:20is obviously going to help with the mental component to some extent.
07:23And then also with women, since they're smaller systems, they tend
07:26to clear up a lot of the fatigue that cardio might add to the situation.
07:31I'm just like, wow, we're doing like an hour each day, six days a week.
07:38And you're still progressing with your training.
07:42Like that blows my mind.
07:43Alberto also emphasized how it depends on your lifestyle.
07:47I've had people do nothing, nothing.
07:49And usually this has to do with the occupation.
07:52I mean, if they don't move, they just get fired.
07:54Servers, personal trainers, labor intensive jobs, things like that.
07:58But for most of his clients, here's what he recommends.
08:017000 steps on average, like just set there, like, is there a baseline?
08:06You have that set.
08:07I'd say most people are on top of that to get to their goal.
08:12Like we're talking about like, you know, like pretty freaking mean.
08:16So roughly around like closing in on like 10, 11, 12% body fat for men.
08:21Could add like 10% to that or for women.
08:24They're going to require like four to five days of cardio a week,
08:28ranging anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes.
08:33There's almost no exception.
08:36I feel even with the steps.
08:38This seemed to line up with Lee's protocol as well.
08:40On top of 10,000 steps a day and lifting weights four times a week,
08:44he's also doing 30 minutes of cardio five times a week.
08:48But remember, this isn't just to get six-pack abs lean.
08:51We're talking shredded.
08:53And they also don't go from zero cardio to five times a week right away.
08:56They build up to it over time and only when they need it.
08:59Whenever fat loss is stalled and they're not making progress,
09:02that's typically when they decide whether or not they should add more cardio.
09:06Probably not a bad idea to ask them, okay, what would be the least invasive thing to you?
09:11Logically, the rest of your life.
09:13So I might consider cardio or I might just consider cutting calories.
09:17But yeah, like also like appetite.
09:19Maybe my appetite's been like in check.
09:22So I'm like, all right, you know what?
09:23Just slash those calories because that's going to be the most passive one.
09:26At around six weeks out, at this point, I was pretty hungry.
09:28So rather than decreasing calories further to increase weight loss,
09:33we decided to, well, let's increase cardio.
09:35So we burn more calories essentially.
09:37Now, as for the type of cardio they use, I found a common theme between both of them.
09:41If you are going to use cardio, things with minimal impact,
09:46things that are just like a perpetual concentric, like an elliptical or a bike.
09:50So we started doing cardio on the elliptical machine.
09:53And that's just to kind of reduce as much fatigue as we can,
09:55especially since we're still trying to maintain strength
09:58or even try to progress inside of training.
10:00Now, the reason they place such an importance on their weight training
10:03isn't just because they want to look as jacked as possible.
10:07As you diet, your body will need to burn off something for energy.
10:10It can choose from either muscle, fat, or a combination of both.
10:14So although lifting weights doesn't burn as many calories as cardio does,
10:18it does give your body a strong reason to hang on to the muscle you've got
10:22and to burn off your fat for energy instead.
10:24This is probably why in the meta-analysis I showed earlier,
10:28you may have noticed that combining diet with resistance training
10:31was one of the most effective fat loss methods,
10:34performing even better than combining diet with just cardio.
10:37So think of the holy trinity of fat loss
10:40as a combination of diet, lifting weights,
10:43with cardio on top of that to speed things up.
10:46Now, as for how much cardio per week you should aim for,
10:49what I'd recommend is just start with Alberto's recommendation
10:51of walking 7,000 steps a day as a baseline.
10:55In combination with your diet and weight training,
10:58this alone should already be enough for you to start losing fat.
11:01Once you're consistent with that,
11:03you can add in some cardio sessions to get your heart going
11:05and just to speed up the process.
11:07Two to three 20-minute cardio sessions per week should be a good start.
11:11And although Leo and Alberto recommended cycling or the elliptical,
11:14you have plenty of other options.
11:16I personally love variety.
11:17So some days I'll do incline walking,
11:19some days I'll do cycling,
11:20and sometimes I'll go swimming.
11:21The key is to choose things you actually enjoy
11:24and could recover well from.
11:26Now, from here, once your body adapts
11:28and you reach a stall in your progress,
11:30you can choose to either eat a little bit less
11:32or add a little bit more cardio
11:34or increase your steps to continue losing fat.
11:37And you basically repeat this process
11:39for as long as it takes you to reach your desired level of body fat.
11:43Now, we did see on average how much cardio Alberto's clients do
11:47towards the tail end of their diet.
11:49But remember, they're getting very lean.
11:51So please don't just follow that blindly.
11:54The amount of cardio you'll end up needing
11:55will heavily depend on your goal, your body, and your lifestyle.
11:59So you have your cardio plan, but I do have a word of caution.
12:03The last thing you want to do is start doing a bunch of cardio
12:05during your diet and then stop cold turkey as soon as it's over.
12:09That's the biggest mistake people make.
12:10And it's actually when cardio becomes most important.
12:13Here to explain this is well-known fitness scientist
12:16and natural bodybuilder, Dr. Eric Kelms.
12:19So after a weight loss phase,
12:21most people unfortunately are going to regain
12:24at least a proportion of the weight that they lost.
12:27However, what most people do, which is a mistake,
12:30is they stop doing the exercise they were doing
12:32as part of the cutting phase.
12:34You don't have to maintain all of the cardio
12:36you're doing while cutting,
12:37but keeping a certain amount of activity going
12:40can prevent some of that weight regain from happening.
12:43Eric explained it seems to help regulate your hunger
12:46and will also slightly increase
12:48the number of daily calories you burn.
12:49There's a great systematic review
12:51that was recently published in 2019
12:53and they found that doing just 150 minutes
12:57or more per week of activity generally,
13:00which of course could be cardio,
13:01but if you're lifting weights, that counts as well,
13:03is sufficient to prevent weight regain.
13:05If you're already getting weightlifting in that amount,
13:09then we need to look at, okay,
13:10well, what's the maximum benefit I can get here?
13:13And some of the meta-analyses
13:14that look specifically at cardio,
13:16they seem to show that there are some benefits
13:20that are probably maximized
13:23around getting 7,000 to 9,000 steps per day.
13:25This is why for long-term success,
13:27it's so important to choose activities
13:30you can actually stick to,
13:31whether it's watching a movie on the treadmill,
13:33playing a sport, or just going for walks to start out.
13:36Find something you can do regularly to get you moving.
13:39Remember, cardio isn't just something
13:41you should do during a diet
13:42and you shouldn't do it just for the fat loss benefits.
13:45Do it for your overall health and well-being.
13:47And for a science-based program
13:49that shows you week by week exactly what to eat
13:52and what workouts to do
13:53to get you into the best shape of your life,
13:55just head over to builtwithscience.com
13:57and take our quiz to find what program
14:00is best for you and your body.
14:02Highly recommend giving this video a watch next
14:03for a super easy to make,
14:05budget-friendly meal plan for fat loss,
14:07or give this video a watch next
14:09for a step-by-step walk-in plan for fat loss
14:11that you can start doing today.
14:12Thanks so much for watching,
14:13and let's see you next time.