While strength training is important to boost your metabolism and burn more calories at rest, you also need a cardio workout for weight loss. However, fitting in a solid cardio workout each week might be challenging for most people. Plus, you may not even know what form of cardio you like.
This article will give you a refresher on why cardio matters and share the best cardio workouts you can do to lose weight!
How does cardio contribute to weight loss and fat loss?
To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume—which is known as being in a calorie deficit. You can achieve a calorie deficit by adjusting your diet and increasing your physical activity, but the best approach tends to combine the two.
But how can cardio help you stay in a calorie deficit?
Weight loss occurs when the number of calories burned through physical activity is greater than the number of calories consumed. If someone is consuming the recommended number of calories and engaging in cardio workouts that burn more calories than they are consuming, their output will be greater than their intake, leading to weight loss.
Along with that, cardio alone works in favor of fat loss as it increases your heart rate, and once your heart rate is high enough (and you've used all the usual blood sugars and carbs up), your body is forced to convert fat into energy.
Best Cardio Exercises for Weight Loss
There are many enjoyable and easy cardio workouts that can help you lose weight by burning fat and calories. Here are seven options to try:
1. Rope Jumping
Recommended duration: 10 minutes
Average calories burned: 200 calories
Equipment required: jumping rope
How to do it
- Begin by holding a handle in each hand and flipping the rope over your head to your back.
- Start hopping at a low speed and jump over the rope.
- After completing 25 jumps, increase your speed and jump over the rope 50 times.
- Take a 10-second break before continuing.
2. High-Intensity Interval Training
Recommended duration: 35 minutes
Average calories burned: up to 500 calories
Equipment required: none
How to do it
- To perform the high-intensity cardio workout, you can try exercises such as burpees, jumping squats, jumping lunges, high knees, and step jumps.
- Make sure to perform these exercises with proper form.
- Do a set of 10 reps of each exercise, then take a 10-second break before moving on to the next exercise.
- Do not extend your break period.
3. Swimming
Recommended duration: 60 minutes
Average calories burned: 500-700 calories
Equipment required: swimming pool
How to do it
- Get into the water and do freestyle strokes.
- Do about 10 laps so that you engage all the muscles and get a good workout.
- To increase your speed and calorie burn, try learning other strokes as well.
4. Cycling
Recommended duration: 20 minutes
Average calories burned: 200-300 calories
Equipment required: stationary bike or gear bike
How to do it
- Start pedaling at a medium speed.
- After about a minute, increase your pedaling speed so that you feel the burn in your thighs in just a minute or two.
- Do not stop pedaling for 3 minutes.
- Slow down a bit for a minute and then do high-speed biking for 3-5 minutes.
5. Kettlebells
Recommended duration: 30 minutes
Average calories burned: 400-600 calories
Equipment required: kettlebell
How to do it
- This is a mix of cardio and muscle building strength training.
- Grab a kettlebell (not too light or too heavy) and use it to do squats with kettlebell lifts, plie squats, walking lunges with turns, walking lunges with one hand kettlebell lifts, etc.
- Adding weights will provide you with the perfect resistance to help you burn more calories.
Burn your calories, increase strength, improve your aerobic endurance, and aid coordination with our Cardio Conditioning class! This class features a set of intensive exercises designed to improve your cardio strength and endurance.
