Best Cardio For Weight Loss: Top 7 Picks To Lose Pounds And Stay Fit!
TV, Radio, and now social media have given us tonnes of weight losing ads and have glorified so-called magical weight-loss pills and powders. Guess what? Weight loss needs more than a pill and that, my friend, is a hard pill to swallow.
The body transformations that you see scrolling through the apps have a whole series of stories behind them. The stories of sweating daily, religiously following healthy diets, avoiding alcohol, a whole lot of dedication, and one strong intention — to be a fitter and healthier version of oneself.
So, to help you ace your weight loss journey, I will give you the exercises mantra that will make you hop off the bed every morning and get you kick-started on a path to your ideal self.
Before we get into the exercises, let’s start by understanding what Cardio is and how it can benefit you.
What Is Cardio?
Cardio, short for Cardiovascular training, is a rhythmic activity or repetitive contraction of a large set of muscles, that makes your heart beat faster, targeting the heart rate zone where you burn most of your fats and calories.
You must have heard the phrase, “The way to someone’s heart is through their stomach.” Although this phrase is used for how tasty food leads to a happier heart, we’ll be using it differently. We’ll see it as — As we do more cardio exercises, our heartbeat increases and gets into the zone where our stomach loses chubby by losing fats and calories.
Cardio exercises demand elevated oxygen flow in your body, which makes you breathe harder. Consequently, it strengthens your heart and lungs.
So, now you know how your regular cardio exercises, can not only improve your heart health but also make you fitter and healthier.
What Are The Benefits Of Cardio?
It’s no news that cardiovascular activities are good for you. But how does it exactly improve your overall health? Let’s see:
✅ Improves Cardiovascular Health: If you have any intention of keeping your heart healthy, you should consider cardio. Cardio exercises help counter heart diseases. It helps lower blood pressure, increases good cholesterol, and decreases bad cholesterol in the blood.
✅ Lowers Blood Pressure: Regular cardio exercises increase heart efficiency and enable it to pump blood more efficiently. This helps in lowering blood pressure and setting it on an ideal level.
✅ Regulates blood sugar: Cardio is especially helpful for people with diabetes as it helps in maintaining blood sugar levels. It also helps in regulating insulin by allowing cells to better utilize glucose from the blood for energy.
✅ Better Sleep: All desires put aside, the superpower of sleeping like a baby is what we all need. If you find trouble sleeping, cardio can help you. Cardio has been considered a good exercise for treating insomnia.
✅ Maintains Weight: Running or jogging 4 miles a week can burn 320 to 480 calories. Studies have shown that even if you keep your diet the same and cardio daily, you will see significant weight loss. That’s good news.
How Does Cardio Aid In Weight Loss?
Weight loss happens when you reduce your calories. While you might think that cutting calories from your meals and dieting will help you with weight loss, It might not be the best way to get into shape. Instead; cardio, strength training, and a balanced diet are all good components of healthy weight loss.
Cardio helps in weight loss since it:
When you engage in assiduous physical activity like running and jogging, your body needs the energy to sustain the increased physical efforts. This energy comes from the stored fat and carbohydrates in your body. Thus, when you exercise your fat and carbohydrates act as fuel to give you energy in the physical activity.
The best thing about cardio activity is that it keeps you going even several hours after the workout. High-intensity workout elevates your metabolic rates resulting in activeness throughout the day.
Excessive fat is a concern for many. Cardio particularly helps in aiding fat loss. When your body engages in aerobic activities, it pulls out energy from reserved fats.
Regular aerobic exercises help in controlling your hunger by promoting a feeling of fullness. Such exercises decrease hunger hormones that keep you from overeating. Make sure that you make the best out of your controlled appetite by consuming healthy diets
Now let’s get into the power-packed stuff. Below are the top 7 exercises to get you up and about in your weight loss journey. Let’s go
Top 7 Cardio Exercises For Weight Loss
There is more than “weight loss” to Cardio. It promotes your heart’s health and counters conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke.
So, keeping the most and best benefits of cardio in mind, let’s get into the 7 cardio exercises and strength-training exercises that will get you into shape while keeping you active all day long.
1. Low-intensity Cardio
While getting started on your weight loss journey, you don’t wanna go crazy with high-intensity workouts. Low-intensity cardio is also beneficial in losing pounds, just be consistent with your workout.
Low-intensity cardio includes jogging, Jogging, Bicycling, Power walking, and aerobics. You can start on less intensity and gradually up your game as these exercises fit into your capacity and routine.
1 hour of low-intensity cardio for 5 days a week is the right way to start your workout. Later, you can increase the timing and intensity of your workout as you get fitter and more comfortable with these exercises.
2. High-intensity interval training
When the low-intensity workout gets s little monotonous and you are looking for more adventure in your workout, you can go on with high-intensity interval training. It basically involves intervals of high-intensity workouts and rest or low-intensity workouts.
The high-intensity workout could be burpees, jump squats, high knees jumping lunges, box jumps, etc. Then follow to recover by resting or doing low-intensity workouts like cycling or brisk walking.
This kind of workout work efficiently at burning higher amount of calories manages diabetes, and improves heart health significantly.
3. Jump rope
Jump rope is a great full-body workout that not only improves your heart rate but also enhances your coordination and cognitive function. And let’s face it, Jump rope is much more interesting than running or jogging. Besides, jumping rope can burn up to 1300 calories per hour, according to sources.
4. Stair climber
Adding stair climber exercise to your overall cardio workout makes it significantly impactful. Stair climber engages large muscle groups in your legs, glutes, and core which leads to increased cardiovascular endurance. It also increases heart rate and burns a good amount of calories. Stair climber can help you whoosh away 360 to 520 calories in an hour.
5. Burpees
Burpees is a power-packed combination of squats, jumps, and pushups that help you burn fats from various areas of your body. This is a high-intensity full-body workout that engages multiple muscle groups like your chest, legs, and core. Quick successive sessions of burpees lead to increased calorie burn and improved cardiovascular endurance and fitness.
6. Running
Now see, different kinds of workout helps you achieve the calorie depreciation that you’re looking for. But once you get comfortable with running, there is no going back. Running is a fulfilling cardio exercise that helps you lose calories while keeping you active throughout the day.
Running also strengthens your muscles, enhances your mood, and gives you that athlete kinda body. And who doesn’t love that, right?
7. Cycling
Another cool way of burning calories is cycling! And the best thing about cycling is you can do your outdoor chores like picking up groceries by cycling to the market.
If you wish to tone up your abdominal muscles or fancily, abs; then cycling can be your best bet. Cycling is also another great exercise for making you healthier and fitter while boosting your mood. A great option for losing weight.
The Final Verdict
Weight loss might seem like a tough journey to many people but once you get into the rhythm it becomes the most fulfilling activity you can do in a day. The drill is to decide which type of exercise suits you the best. Is it running that acts like therapy to you or is it the high-intensity workout that leaves you all pumped up for the day? You choose your path to a fitter you.
Anyway, some time for cardio in a day will keep the doctors away and with you in fitter shape, it will make you slay every day.
FAQs
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. It depends on what suits you the best. While running might be someone’s go-to cardio exercise, weight-lifting could be someone else’s favorite.
You should do cardio exercises for at least 5 days and up to 250 minutes a week. However, you can adjust the period and intensity of your workout based on your capacity and schedule.
Cardio exercises involve a rhythmic activity or repetitive contraction of a large set of muscles, that makes your heart beat faster, targeting the heart rate zone where you burn most of your fats and calories.
According to the studies, Running burns the most calories, followed by bicycling, jogging, and swimming. A high-intensity interval workout is another great way of losing calories effectively.
