The "Calories Out Only" Study


I constantly hear that cardio is not good for fat loss.

I even see well-respected fitness experts claim that you should never go to the gym to train for fat loss.

They say you should only train for strength or building muscle.

Logically, that doesn't make sense at all.

If you performed cardio that burned 1,000 calories 4-5 times per week without changing diet, you would be leaner than if you didn't to that same amount of cardio.

Luckily there's a study that examined this.

Here's how it was set up.

  • 14 moderately overweight, sedentary identical twins
  • Lived in a research facility for months
  • Every meal prepared and monitored
  • Maintenance calories (50% carb, 15% protein, 35% fat)
  • 2 hours of daily cardio (stationary bike, light to moderate intensity)
  • 1000 calorie deficit from exercise alone
  • 93 days total

Here are the results.

  • Average weight loss: 11 pounds
  • Range: 2 to 17.5 pounds
  • No significant muscle loss

There is one additional thing that is worth noting.

Based on CICO math (calories-in calories-out), the researchers expected more fat loss.

The mathematical models predicted 14 pounds of fat loss.

They "only" lost 11 pounds of body fat.

I've discussed this before. It's because the body adapts a bit by moving less when you burn a lot of calories with cardio.

*There's a law-of-diminishing returns with cardio.

So if you burn 1,000 calories with cardio maybe you burn 200 less the rest of the day because you move a little less.

But don't make the mistake of thinking that this means cardio is bad for fat loss.

You still burned 800 calories more than if you didn't do cardio!

Obviously, 2 hours per day, as done in the study, is excessive for most people.

I did a one-year experiment where I did about 90 minutes of cardio a day.

It was WAY too much time spent.

I like about 30 minutes per workout most of the year and I'll push that to 45 minutes, if I want to get extra lean.

I tend to get my leanest when I use the StepMill for high-intensity interval training and the Treadmill for longer intervals and mellow steady-state cardio.

What type of HIIT and cardio works best?

I cover this in detail in Visual Impact Ageless.

I talk about "Full Spectrum Cardio".

  1. LISS – Low Intensity Steady State Cardio
  2. MISS – Moderate Intensity Steady State Cardio
  3. HIHR – High Intensity High Rest Intervals
  4. MIMR – Moderate Intensity Moderate Rest Intervals

You want to do a mix of these for the best calorie burn and VO2 max benefits.

All the strategies are covered here.

Visual Impact Ageless

You will absolutely accelerate fat loss with the right cardio workout setup.

Cheers,

-Rusty
Visual Impact Fitness

P.S.

If you have a StepMilll machine in your gym and want to work up a sweat your next workout?

Give this workout a shot.

This is one of the "HIHR" (High Intensity High Rest) interval workouts I cover in the course.

Pyramid Interval Routine on the StepMill.

  • Level 6 for 1.5 minutes
  • Level 15 for 30 seconds
  • Level 6 for 1.5 minutes
  • Level 16 for 30 seconds
  • Level 6 for 1.5 minutes
  • Level 17 for 30 seconds
  • Level 6 for 1.5 minutes
  • Level 18 for 30 seconds
  • Level 6 for 1.5 minutes
  • Level 19 for 30 seconds
  • Level 6 for 1.5 minutes
  • Level 20 for 30 seconds

The sprint portion is 30 seconds and the walking portion is 1.5 minutes. Although this workout is only 12 minutes, it’s tough and does the trick most of the time.

If I know I’m not going to be training for a few days for some reason… or feel like I have energy, I’ll work my way back down. Level 19, recover, level 18, recover, etc.

After this workout, I typically walk on the treadmill for 15-20 minutes.

For more details on how to maximize cardio for fat loss...

Check Out Visual Impact Ageless

Visual Impact Fitness

Fat loss and muscle definition strategies by former personal trainer to fashion models, Rusty Moore.

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