You Asked: Cardio Ideas for Fat Loss?

Phew the questions are just flying in this summer, it seems like everybody is trying to squeeze into that bikini!!

Q: Hi Team,

I’m 42, used to be very sporty when I was at school but, like most people who have a relatively sedentary work-life, I’m about 2 dress sizes bigger than I would really like to be.  Added to that is the fact that I have to take medication for periods of time which always make me put on an extra 0.5 – 1 stone in weight.

I eat relatively healthily, although admit to eating probably too much bread and cheese, but apart from that I’m big on salads in the summer, fruit, veg in the wintertime, etc.

I have a very good X-trainer at home and I was wondering whether you could give me some good fat-burning tips for a more productive workout.  I was trying to do 3 or 4 workouts per week of anything between 30 – 45 mins and worked up a very good sweat, but nothing really shifted that stubborn fat.

I’d  be ever so grateful for any tips as this extra weight is getting me down.

Nicky

A: Hey Nicky,

It sounds like you have all of the right components for a healthier lifestyle but perhaps they need to be put together in a different way.  OK so first of all, we dig that you like salads in the summer and fruit and veg in the winter, but we’re hoping that you are getting enough protein and good fat in too!  Salads, fruit and veg are all carbohydrates and whilst they are great for you nutrition wise, you really need to be getting the other important food groups of protein and fat too. Consider your proteins as primarily meat, fish and eggs, followed by dairy.  And then your good fats are from oily fish (also a protein) olive oil, avocados, and nuts.  These are all easy to add to your salads and veg!  This in itself should help to shift some serious fat, food is so much more important in weight loss than people think.  By making these changes, you will already start to lose some fat, even if you made no changes to the exercise part.

OK, now to the workout.  OK, it really depends on what you are doing with your 30-45 minutes.  If you are going at the same pace for all of that time it will probably be having the opposite effect to the one you desire.  Individuals who have a lot of weight to lose will benefit greatly from cardio initially, but after time and some fat loss, changes are necessary to keep on fat burning.  And so we recommend that you shorten the cardio sessions but up the intensity, so that your 20 minute workout leaves you just as tired as your 30-45 minute workout does!  Do this by switching to a ‘hill’ or ‘interval’ setting on your X-trainer and then shifting up a level or two from where you were already working.  Cutting your session down to just twenty minutes gives you time to introduce the exercises that will start to seriously shift some fat…squats & lunges!!  Basically large compound strength moves will complement the changes to your food and cardio to give you the results you are looking for.  Take a look at some of our videos for some ideas.

Good Luck!!

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