Why Cardio Sucks for Fat Loss

When someone wants to shred body fat, the usual first thought is to marry the treadmill and do a whole lot of cardio.

I don’t blame them – the fitness industry has done a poor job in educating the average person on this topic, and it doesn't help that cardio is a staple for fat loss protocols in the bodybuilding scene where a lot of people seek guidance on improving their physique.

Now, before I go any further, I am not saying cardio is useless. Cardio does have good health benefits and is the best way to increase your endurance. However, in the realm of fat loss, it is very ineffective if it is the cornerstone of your fat loss protocol.

There are three primary reasons...

1. Cardio teaches your body to not want to burn calories.

Simply put, cardio sends the signal to your body to be very efficient with calories – meaning that your body will adapt to use less calories over time leading to plateaus and a harder time to lose weight. Remember, to lose body fat you have to be in some sort of a calorie deficit – meaning burning more calories than you're consuming. When your body becomes efficient with calories, a calorie deficit is harder to achieve as it is being told to conserve energy and not burn calories.

2. Cardio is catabolic.

Unlike lifting weights which sends an anabolic signal (meaning to build muscle) to your body, cardio sends an catabolic signal – meaning to break down muscle. This is the exact opposite of what we want to do when undergoing a fat loss phase. In a fat loss phase, we want to preserve as much muscle as possible. This is because muscle helps maintain our metabolism. When muscle is broken down, our metabolism slows down which hinders our potential to lose body fat by not being able to burn as many calories. Cardio tells our body that we don’t need the muscle because it is a too expensive tissue to keep. 

Think about it, have you ever seen a jacked endurance runner?

3. Your body adapts to cardio very fast.

If you have ever played sports, I’m sure you remember the dreaded hell week and two-a-days your coaches would put you through before the season started. When you weren’t busy puking your guts out and wondering why you even signed up for the damn team, you started to notice that after a couple days, it got a whole lot easier. Soon enough you were ready to play a full game without needing to hug the trash can. That’s how fast your body adapts to cardio.

When you try to use this method for fat loss, your body will adapt very quickly, which is why it seems you need to do even more cardio to try and see results. Simply put, if you're using cardio to burn more calories, you'll adapt quickly and will need to continue upping the amount of cardio you do in order to maintain than same caloric burn. This is not sustainable in the long run and I haven't met anyone who wants to spend their lives on the treadmill – if this is you, please check in to a psych ward immediately (I still love you though <3). 

So what works then?

If your main goal is to lean down, then the most effective method for fat loss is strength training and managing your nutrition. Strength training sends the signal to your body to preserve muscle when you are in a fat loss phase. This will ensure your metabolism will be maintained and avoid harsh plateaus along the way. As mentioned before, when it comes to fat loss, you must be in some sort of a caloric deficit. Using your nutrition to put yourself in a deficit will make this process much easier and effective as opposed to countless hours on the treadmill to try and have the same adaptation.

In the end, the most optimal fat loss protocol is a combination of the three with the primary focus being strength training, facilitated by your nutrition, and supplemented with cardio. However, oftentimes we don’t live in an optimal world. So prioritizing strength training and nutrition will seek the results you are after without the unnecessary rebounds. Regardless of the method, when you’re in a fat loss phase your primary focus should be to preserve muscle mass as this will achieve the lean physique you desire, while mitigating the negatives that comes with dieting.

So file a divorce with the treadmill — it wasn’t your type anyways.