Lose Weight With Cardio Only

If you are on a mission to lose weight, any type of physical activity is desirable. Losing weight is a mixture of several elements, including physical activity, proper nutrition and discipline. Weight loss is usually achieved by consuming fewer calories than you spend.

To successfully burn fat you need to create around 500 calorie deficit per day. You can create this deficit with lowering your food intake or increasing physical activity. So the answer is that you can lose weight doing only cardio workouts if it creates a daily calorie deficit.

However, human body is an adaptable organism. Doing the same type, frequency and duration of cardio workouts for many weeks or months will force your body to adapt. If you don't see any improvements for at least three weeks you have most likely reached a plateau with your current diet and exercise regimen.

 This means that you are now probably consuming about the same amount of calories that you spend. To get past the plateau you need to either further reduce your calorie intake or increase the duration and frequency of your cardio workouts or both.

Here comes the discipline factor. If you are happy with the weight you lost you can just continue to do what you have been doing. You have already improved your health because of an increased physical activity and proper nutrition.

However, if you want to lose even more weight you need to start pushing the limits. This is where the negative part of cardio workouts comes. Doing only long cardio workouts will make your body to adapt by losing fat, but you will also lose muscle mass in the process.

Let's say that you have increased the duration of your cardios from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. Your body will respond by losing the unnecessary weight and the heaviest tissue in the body is muscle tissue. Muscles play an important role for your metabolic rate and having fewer muscles means your body now requires fewer calories per day to support its basic functions.

This means that to keep your new weight you need to even further reduce your calorie intake and do hours and hours of cardios per week just to stay at the current level. This can really test your discipline!

The solution for this problem is to build muscle mass by lifting weights or adding the anaerobic element in your cardio workouts. Anaerobic exercises build muscles and have an added benefit of increased metabolic rate hours after you have finished your workout routine.

With this approach, you can spend less time in a gym and don't have to decrease constantly your calorie intake to burn fat. Increasing muscle mass speeds up the metabolism, and your body will actually require more calories just to maintain the new body composition.

5 Reasons Why Muay Thai Training Is a Better Workout Than Running

I trained competitively for cross country skiing for 7 years of my life. In those years I did over 500 hours of training every year, many of which were spent running. I have always enjoyed running, but these are some of the things I discovered when I started training muay thai (MT) over 6 years ago.

1) It's more practical. Running can't help you in a self defense situation, unless you run away. MT can most definitely help you in a self defense situation, but not in the way you would expect. The self confidence you develop from training MT will allow you to stay calm in difficult situations. This self confidence will carry over to all areas of your life, making you a happier, more balanced person.

2) It's more fun. Putting long miles on the road can hypnotize you, and is also hard on your joint. Learning MT challenges you mentally as much as physically. It keeps your mind present, teaches your discipline and is a great stress release. Training with a partner and learning new techniques keeps you constantly engaged, there's no time to get bored.

3) It's a more effective fat burner. When I switched over to training MT, I got my body fat as low as 6%. I had never been able to get it below 10% before then. Here's why: although running does burn more calories per workout, training MT gives a metabolic boost that lasts up to 8hrs afterwards, burning calories even while you're sitting! This boost is created by using your whole body and recruiting a greater number of muscle fibers than long steady running.

4) It increases your strength, agility and coordination. Running is good for building cardio, but MT offers a dynamic set of techniques and challenges that you'll never see on a long run. MT pad training combines strength training with cardio, while you have to constantly be aware of your timing, distance and technique. The first time I tried it I was all over the place, and was way weaker than I thought. It left me thinking about the training even after I was finished, and I couldn't wait to train some more, which is something I hadn't felt in a while.

5) It's a better cardio workout. I know, I just said running is good for cardio, and I didn't believe it either. But the first time I tried muay thai I couldn't even get through one round! This is because you only use your legs when running, so your heart only has to pump to your legs. Whereas training MT, you're using your entire body, and this constant shock keeps your heart pumping blood to your whole body. Since the body wants to minimize this shock the next time it happens, it increases the volume of oxygen in your blood, giving you even better cardio in less time!