CARDIO.. How much, when, and why?

I see it everyday..  As I walk through the gym and glance into the cardio room, I see the swarm of cardio bunnies sweating their buns off. And I wonder to myself, “Are they doing that because they enjoy it?  Or are they doing it because they feel they HAVE to in order to look better?”  Now, I know there a lot of people out there that enjoy running and enjoy doing lots of cardio, but if you are anything like myself, you DEFINITELY do not.

So what’s the deal with cardio?  Do we HAVE to do it to get into great shape?  Or are we just putting ourselves through torture for nothing?

You guessed it…  Another blog post from Chaz telling you to break the trend.  “Eat the foods you want.” “Track your macros.” “Don’t do cardio.” Blah, blah, blah…

chaz

Well, that picture you see on the left:

That’s me about two and half years ago.  I was in the gym everyday, I tried to eat only “healthy” foods, I ran around two miles repeatedly a few times a week thinking it was what I had to do in order to lose weight and get that “toned” or “ripped” look.

The picture on the right:

My current physique.  I eat the foods that I want each day,  I loosely track my calorie intake consistently, and have done pretty much next to no cardio.

…………… Drop the mic and walk away.

How did I do it?  When trying to lose weight, the most important aspect is calorie intake and calorie expenditure.  If your body expends 2500 calories each day from your regular activities that you do day in and day out, then you should only be taking in around 2000 calories each day in order to lose weight each week.

The annoying part:  after awhile the body will adapt to this amount of calories that are being taken in, and stop losing weight and stall out.  Also known as a plateau.  At this point in time, you have two choices to choose from to keep progressing.

  1.  Drop your calorie intake by eating less to send you into a deeper calorie deficit to kick start the weight loss affect again.
  2. Keep eating the same amount of food and add in a few sessions of monitored cardio a week to burn more calories and send your body into a deeper calorie deficit.
Do you see where I’m going with this? Both solutions are basically the same thing.  You have a choice in the equation.  Don’t just do cardio for the sake of doing it if you don’t enjoy it!  Fitness isn’t about torturing yourself in order to lose weight and look better.  It’s about finding what is most enjoyable for you and going with it.  That’s what we teach here at LostandLifting AND practice ourselves.  What’s the point of working on something everyday if you can’t enjoy the process?
Take your health into your own hands and let us help you find what will work best with your lifestyle.   Email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.  I would love to hear from you guys.
HAPPY TRACKING!

 

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About chaz

Chaz is the co-founder/owner and head coach at Lost & Lifting. He also owns his own gym – Fit Factory, located in Preston, Idaho (his hometown). Chaz works with clients all over the country to take control of their body composition through evidence based and sustainable strategies. His passion has turned from building his own body to educating and helping others do the same through his online coaching platform.

Listen to L&L Talk

L&L Talk (hosted by Chaz), is the Lost & Lifting podcast where we dive deep into nutriton, training, and lifestyle to help you become more educated inside your journey to produce the result you want faster, and in a more sustainable manner