Today let’s talk about the age-old questions, which is better for weight loss?

 

Long slow low intensity cardio or high intensity interval training, The simplest answer to this question is the “best” one is the one that you do.

 

Let’s start with low intensity cardio; now there is nothing inherently wrong with it however, it does not give you the most bang for your buck. Now you may have heard the age-old saying that you burn more fat when you do low intensity. Now while that statement is partially true there is just one little problem with that.

 

The percentage of fat versus carbohydrates that your body will use during low intensity cardio is higher. However the total amount of calories your body will burn during that time will be lower than if you did a higher intensity workout in even less time.

 

There are two things to keep in mind that are extremely important.

 

First, when I say your body is using fat as it’s energy source I simply mean a molecule of fat not fat stored as tissue on your body.

 

Second, the most important factor in weight loss is the amount of calories you are burning, in comparison to how many you are consuming.

 

Now all of these numbers are going to be made up and I will keep it as simple as possible.

 

Let’s say you burn 60% fat and 40% carbohydrates, which equals 200 calories while doing low intensity cardio.

 

Now lets say that is switched you burn 40% fat and 60% carbohydrates but overall you burn 250 calories doing higher intensity intervals.

 

You may say to yourself, “well if I burned a greater percentage of fat I will lose more fat.”

 

Unfortunately that is not true, remember what I mentioned before, the most important thing for weight loss is the amount of calories you burn.

 

Along with burning more calories during your workout you will continue to burn calories after your workout as your body is trying to reach homeostasis.

 

Now that I have talked about the science as to why higher intensity conditioning may be superior the last thing I want to mention is fun!

 

Again there is nothing inherently wrong with long slow cardio but frankly I think it is pretty boring. I personally find medicine balls, ropes, ladders, and sled pushes much more fun.