Cardio

Running and other cardio exercises are also often misunderstood to be essential for burning fat or losing weight.

You may have heard before or even thought yourself that – to lose weight you need to do cardio.

Again just because you are out of breath, tired and sweaty, doesn’t mean you are burning fat.

If you are doing some cardio, you will be burning energy, burning calories, but unless you are in a calorie deficit – you won’t lose weight.

Cardiovascular exercise has a huge range of benefits.

- boosts mood, releases endorphins
- improves cardiovascular health, strengthens your heart!
- lowers blood pressure

All things that will positively impact on people’s health.

However again, it does have its cons.

Exercise like jogging or running can put a lot of pressure on the joints and bones because it is high impact exercise, especially as I mentioned previously, if you are perhaps overweight and new to training. Which long term can lead to problems for people such as bad knees, back, hips and so on.

But in my opinion its biggest con is the belief that you need to do cardio to lose fat.

Because for people who are just starting out on their fitness or weight loss journey, it can be very difficult and uncomfortable to do

It is easy to feel hopeless when you get tired having only ran for 30 seconds, if you believe that the only way to lose weight is to do cardio.

Because if that’s all you can manage then how can you possibly make any progress!

Thankfully now you know, that isn’t the case - you don’t need to do cardio to lose weight.

I would never want to discourage you from doing any form of exercise, especially if you enjoy it.

I only care about ensuring that you are doing it for the right reasons and have the right information to make educated decisions on what is best for you

So if you love running, or enjoy cardio, or have a goal that is to complete a certain physical challenge like a 5k, then great that’s awesome.

But if you are forcing yourself to do cardio solely for the purpose of losing fat, you may want to reconsider and find a type of exercise that you enjoy more.