Cardio exercises are effective for cardiovascular health and weight loss. Cardio refers to exercises that increase your heart rate to a certain rate. These exercises may be done with moderate, low and high intensity. All these exercises can have their own benefits. In this article, we want to suggest you the best cardio exercises for weight loss.
Does cardio exercises help weight loss?
Resistance and cardio exercises are two examples of exercises that are recommended for weight loss. You can choose the best sport according to your interests and conditions. But it is clear that both cardio and resistance training are effective.
Cardio exercises help to lose weight in several ways:
- They burn a lot of calories.
- They increase blood circulation.
- They increase insulin sensitivity.
- They have a positive effect on lipolysis.
How much cardio exercise do you need to lose weight?
We need to talk about one important thing before suggesting best cardio exercises for weight loss. The American College of Sports Medicine suggests that 150 minutes of physical activity per week is effective for significant weight loss. Of course, If you increase this time to 200 or 250 minutes per week, you will lose more fat.
You can devote this time to cardio or resistance training or both. In the following, we will present the best cardio exercises for weight loss. You can choose one or more of them according to your interest and available facilities.
Swimming
Swimming is the first cardio exercise for weight loss. As we said in the article “cardio benefits“, swimming strengthens your muscles, burns a lot of calories and improves cardiovascular health.
A 70 kg person can burn at least 400 calories in one hour of swimming. This amount of calorie burning is significant and will be useful for fat loss.
In one of the related studies, the volunteers were asked to swim 3 sessions of 60 minutes per week. After 12 weeks, the swimmers’ fat percentage decreased significantly. So if you like swimming, you can definitely use it to lose weight.
Burpees
Another cardio exercise for weight loss is burpees. This is a high-Intensity exercise, so it is prohibited for beginners and those who are overweight.
- If you are overweight, use other safe cardio exercises such as brisk walking, jogging and swimming to lose weight first, then use burpees to increase the intensity of the workout.
- If you are a beginner, prepare your body for this exercise by using other exercises such as jumping jacks and high knees.
But if you have the ability to do Burpees, you can definitely use it to lose weight fast. Burpee is a full body workout and burns at least 250 calories every 30 minutes. This amount of calorie burning is significant and effective for those who are looking to lose weight fast.
Jumping squat
Like burpees, jumping squats are not suitable for everyone. This exercise is one of the best cardio exercises for weight loss, but it can cause injury. So, if you are not ready to perform this high-intensity exercise, use other safe exercises first.
One of the most effective ways to prepare before jumping squats is to squat without jumping! body weight squat or dumbbell squat can strengthen your muscles well and still cause weight loss.
High knees and jumping jacks
High knees and jumping jacks are two other examples of cardio exercises for weight loss. These exercises do not require any special facilities and almost everyone can do them. We brought these two types of exercise together because it is better to combine them to make them more fun and effective.
Running
One of the best cardio exercises for weight loss is running. This sport does not require special facilities or preparation. It means that you can use this exercise to lose weight in any situation with any facilities.
There are different types of running.
- You can run on a flat surface at a constant speed.
- You can also run on incline surface to increase the intensity.
- Another effective method is interval training. In this type of training, you run fast for a short period of time, for example, 20 seconds, then you run slowly for 40 seconds, and repeat this for 6 to 10 sets.
This method of running can increase weight loss.
Brisk walking
Like running, brisk walking is always available and everyone can use it. This exercise is perfect for those who are very overweight and currently decide to lose weight with a diet.
Some people think that brisk walking is not a good way to lose weight, but they are wrong. Brisk walking will be effective in some situations. It is better to walk at least 5 km/h. You can increase the speed and duration every week to improve the results.
Cycling
Another cardio exercise for weight loss is cycling. One of the advantages of this exercise is strengthening the leg muscles. Those who suffer from knee pain can use cycling instead of other exercises because it leads to high calorie burning and also relieving knee pain in some cases.
Jumping rope
Jumping rope is fun and effective. Several methods of jumping rope are suggested for weight loss.
- The first method is jumping rope with a low jump and steady intensity.
- The second method is high-speed jumping.
Both methods are effective for fat burning. If you want to experience more fat burning, it is better to increase the jumping speed or training duration every week.
Dancing
Any activity that increases your heart rate and sometimes involves your muscles is effective for weight loss. Dancing is another cardio exercise for weight loss. Those who are not interested in mentioned exercises can try dancing.
Ballet, Ballroom, Hip Hop, Tap Dance, Irish Dance and etc. are the most popular dances for you to be in shape.
Better exercise suggestion for weight loss
Everyone wants to get in shape as soon as possible. If you want to lose weight fast, combine resistance training with cardio exercises. Cardio exercises alone may lead to weight loss plateau or muscle loss after a while. For this reason, resistance training is necessary to protect muscles and increase metabolism.
As we said in the article “weight loss for women“, studies have shown that a combination of cardio and resistance training leads to faster fat burning. You can use body weight training, weight training, TRX, etc.
Do not forget this important tip
In this article, we suggest the best cardio exercises for weight loss, but you should not forget one important tip! As shown in this study, cardio and resistance training without diet may not have significant effect on weight loss.
In some studies, only the effect of high-intensity training on weight loss has been confirmed, although this effect is very small compared to the combination of exercise and diet. So if you want to lose significant weight, follow a good diet along with cardio exercises to lose weight.
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