Wondering what the best cardio for weight loss is? Weight loss is the most searched word on google. You’re not alone! People usually gain weight due to various reasons.
But the best part is; that you can lose weight with the help of many ways. It is usually a combination of a healthy diet and a great workout routine.
Many YouTube videos claim to help lose 10 kgs in 10 days by following a certain workout routine but beware of such videos. These are all ways to tempt you to fool you into believing that it is possible to lose weight this fast.
This article will, however, provide the best cardio for weight loss and how you can easily accommodate it according to your needs.
1. What Is the Cause of Weight Gain?
Healthline, a reputed health and wellness blog, provides that several reasons can cause weight gain, not just a sedentary lifestyle. They include eating many calories, pregnancy, hormonal changes, underlying health conditions, side effects of certain medications, stress, and so on.
Hypothyroidism, Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and increased cortisol are some diseases and conditions promoting weight gain.
Women sometimes experience weight gain around the time of their menstruation cycles.
If you experience unintentional weight gain without knowing its actual cause, it is suggested to examine it at the earliest medically.
2. Why Is Weight Gain Detrimental to Your Health?
When a healthy body consumes more calories than it burns, the excess calories are stored in the body in the form of body fat.
A healthy body requires just enough calories to function properly and perform basic life functions. Usually, for a healthy adult female, it is around 2000 calories; for a healthy adult male, it is around 2500 calories.
However, it is just an estimate. The correct calories required are calculated by considering gender, height, weight, and a person’s activity level.
You can calculate the calories required by your body with the help of this calculator.
Now that you’ve understood the basics of weight gain and why it is caused, it is time to find a perfect solution for the problem: losing weight.
One of the key components of weight loss is a healthy diet and doing cardio workouts.
3. What are Cardio Exercises, and How do They Help in Weight Loss?
Cardio exercise is a vogue term used for cardiovascular exercise. Cardiovascular is made from two syllables, including “cardio,” which relates to the heart, and “vascular,” which relates to vessels.
Cardio workouts, therefore, mean workout which involves oxygen-rich blood pumping through the heart and raising the heartbeat.
As the heartbeat increases, the fat burn also increases. Cardiovascular workouts are also called aerobic workouts.
4. Types of Cardio Workouts
Cardio workouts are of three types: steady-state cardio workouts, moderate-pace cardio workouts, and high-intensity workouts, also called high-intensity interval training (HIIT workouts).
5. Best Cardio for Weight Loss: 16 Options You May Try
5.1) Walking at a Casual Pace
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As surprising as it may sound, walking is one of the best cardio for weight loss. It is the most inexpensive, least exerting, and lightest cardio workout. Walking a specific number of steps in a day increases your total activity of the day and consequently burns calories.
Walking is steady-state cardio and increases the Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, also known as NEAT. This helps to lose weight faster by increasing the number of calories burned.
It can be called fat-burning cardio since it burns more calories daily.
Aim for about walking between 7000 steps to 10000 steps daily to increase your NEAT, and you will realize that it is indeed the best cardio for weight loss.
It is also the cheapest cardio exercise you can perform without any equipment.
5.2) Light Jogging
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You can perform light jogging which will count in as a cardio workout. You can burn fat and calories by light jogging for 30 minutes.
The best part is that you do not need any equipment for this, which makes it one of the best cardio for weight loss.
It is comparatively more effective in burning fat than just simple walking since it requires more intensity to perform and burns more calories.
5.3) Cycling at a Usual Pace
Cycling is also one of the best forms of cardio for weight loss. Cycling is a great hobby to enjoy outdoors and build a great physique.
Cycling also helps in building stamina and balance in the body. A 30-minute cycling session is an effective workout to lose fat.
It focuses on the lower body fat and helps tone the muscle groups in the lower body region.
Remember to wear a helmet if you are planning to hit the road!
Alternative: If you do not know how to ride a bicycle, you can use a stationary one too!
5.4) Brisk Walking
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Brisk walking is just another term for walking at a faster speed. It burns more calories than simple walking at a casual speed, so it helps burn more fat.
It is more intense than walking and sometimes pressures the knees and ankles. Therefore, one should try to perform a combination of brisk and casual walking to calm the knees and prevent them from hurting them.
5.5) Dancing
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Dancing is expressing yourself with movements that you love. The best part is dancing can make you lose weight and is one of the best forms of cardio for weight loss.
Dancing for 30 minutes daily with a proper diet will help you lose weight since it involves various movements.
You can pick any dance form (Zumba, Hip hop, or Contemporary) which you’re comfortable with. You can either do it yourself or refer to youtube channels for further guidance.
Dancing will help you lose weight and lift your mood. So put on a Bollywood song and get in the groove!
5.6) Yoga
Yoga is an ancient exercise with its roots in India. Yoga has many health benefits. It is also used to treat many diseases and is one of the best cardio for weight loss.
You can start doing yoga in the morning to have a healthy start to your day. It is easy to perform with movements like Surya namaskar. You can refer to any youtube channel to look up new movements.
Some common Yoga poses are Virabhadrasana or the warrior pose, Balasana or the child pose, Uttanasana or standing forward bend, etc.
A guide to various yoga poses and how to do them can be found here.
5.7) Jumping Rope
Jumping rope is also viewed as the best cardio for weight loss. Jumping rope for 10 minutes will burn around 500 calories. Sounds amazing, right?
Jumping rope helps with improving the cardiovascular health of the body. It helps in both burning the fat as well as losing weight.
Many boxers and athletes incorporate jumping rope in their workout routine to lose weight and improve their stamina.
It will help if you have a jump rope and good sports shoes to start doing it. As you get better at skipping rope, you can incorporate different movements and advanced styles into your jump rope.
5.8) HIIT Workout
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HIIT workout or high-intensity interval training is one of the best cardio for weight loss. It makes the heart beat go high and low, causing fat loss. It involves high-intensity cardio in short intervals of time.
HIIT can be modified according to the fitness level of the person. Youtube is filled with so many amazing HIIT workouts for all levels.
For beginners, HIIT is usually difficult. Therefore, they can resort to steady-state cardio workouts for the same HIIT exercises.
5.9) Rowing
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Rowing is yet another one of the best cardio for weight loss. It involves a total body workout focusing on the upper and lower body.
Do not fear going into that water to do some rowing. You can do rowing conventionally or with the help of rowing machines in the gym.
You need access to the gym with a rowing machine, and you are good to go!
5.10) Sprinting
Sprinting is amazing and one of the best cardio for weight loss. Sprinting helps in losing body fat and hence reduces body weight.
Sprinting is running at high speed for a shorter period and taking rest periods in between to bring that high heartbeat down. Doing this repeatedly helps lose body weight and makes it one of the best cardio exercises.
5.11) Burpees
Burpees are an entire body (lower and upper body) workout and are one of the best cardio for weight loss.
It involves different muscle groups of the body and burns fat effectively. It involves muscles of legs in the form of squatting, arms in the form of push up, and jumping too.
You can finish as many burpees as possible in 50 seconds and rest for 10 seconds. Perform this exercise for 4 sets.
5.12) Swimming
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Swimming is often taken as a hobby in our school, but little do we know the health benefits that swimming provides us.
Swimming is no doubt one of the best cardio for weight loss.
It is a full-body workout since it involves all body muscle groups. The swimmer must utilize the arms and the legs to keep swimming, making it an intense workout to burn fat.
Swimmers are often the people with one of the best physiques out there. Swimming is considered one of the best cardio workouts since one is going against gravity to perform this exercise.
5.13) Boxing
No! Boxing is not just for professional boxers only. It is one of the best cardio for weight loss. One can learn boxing as a part of a hobby or a workout to help one lose weight.
Boxing is great for the overall upper body, including the core. This is high-intensity cardio and would make one sweat and burn calories.
5.14) Kickboxing
Kickboxing is one of the best cardio for weight loss and is just a variation of boxing. It impacts and strengthens the core, leg muscles, and lower and upper body.
It is also high in intensity and burns around 800 calories in 1 hour.
5.15) Kettlebell Swings
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Kettlebell swings are one of the best cardio for weight loss. It is a mixture of both cardio and strength training.
To do a workout with a kettlebell, one should start with a kettlebell accordingly. Make sure the weight is appropriate for you.
Kettlebells can be used to perform several exercises, including squats, lunges, and swings over the head.
Always control the kettlebell when swinging over the head by controlling the motion. It should be you who should be controlling the weight and not vice-versa.
5.16) Stair Climbing
Stair Climbing is one of the best cardio for weight loss. It can be done anywhere or in the gym using a stair master.
It burns many calories and provides a good workout for the lower body.
6. How to Choose “YOUR” Cardio?
Choosing the best cardio for weight loss is as important as doing them correctly.
One should keep their fitness levels and goals in mind to choose the right workouts for them.
For example, an absolute beginner will find it extremely hard to complete the “Chloe Ting” workouts since they lack the basic stamina and endurance to perform them.
These are built over time. Therefore, beginners should try to choose basic cardio workouts like starting with daily walks (hitting a step goal), trying cycling, etc.
Intermediates can pick a mix of exercises since they have considerable stamina and endurance built by now. They can understand each exercise’s form, technique, and tempo.
Advanced level people can choose any of the exercises and perform variations to increase the difficulty level of each exercise. For example, if they have mastered doing simple push-ups, they can move on to performing pike push-ups, diamond push-ups, one-hand push-ups, etc.
7. Can Cardio Burn Belly Fat?
One of the most googled questions is “what is the best cardio for weight loss? “ and ” how to lose belly fat?”. Belly fat is problematic and stubborn. It is the evilest thing on the planet.
But the bad part is even if you do hours and hours of cardio, you can not just burn fat from your belly area. The reason for this is that fat loss cannot be targeted.
Our bodies are made differently, and our genes decide where we first lose the fat from. Usually, in the majority of people, belly fat is the last thing to go.
So have some patience and keep working on your overall fat loss. Gradually, you will slim down your belly with a good diet and consistent workout.
8. The Great Question: Cardio for Weight Loss or Strength Training?
The age-old dilemma of choosing cardio exercise for weight loss or strength training? The answer to this question is the fitness goal that you need to achieve.
Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to build muscle? Do you want to become a better version of yourself by getting an overall fit?
If you want to lose weight, cardio exercises should be enough for you! Strength training should be your way to go if you want to build muscle!
If you choose to get an overall fit, then your best choice would be to incorporate a combination of these exercises. Both cardio and weight training are important in a workout routine.
Building muscles not only helps you to lose weight but also helps you to build a strong metabolism. Lifting weight strengthens your bones; therefore, you should do resistance training.
Cardiovascular exercises help build great stamina and endurance and are extremely beneficial for a healthy heart.
9. Is a 20-Min Cardio Workout Enough to Lose Weight?
Our lives are busy, and sometimes adjusting a 20 minutes workout in our adult schedules feels too much.
Do we often wonder if this 20-minute best cardio for weight loss will do us any good? The answer to this question is YES!
Even if you are doing a 20-minute workout, it will help you lose weight, provided you consistently work out and eat a healthy diet free from major processed foods.
10. What is a Fasted Cardio?
Fasted cardio is a recent trend followed by many people who claim that doing cardio on an empty stomach leads to more fat loss than when the stomach is fed.
There have been limited research on the efficacy of fasted cardio and no final research concluding that fasted cardio will help burn more fat.
In light of the limited research, it is the discretion of an individual to perform it or not.
11. Common FAQs for Weight Loss!
11.1) Is Cardio Enough for Weight Loss?
Yes, cardio is enough for weight loss. However, it should be kept in mind that weight loss means losing fat and muscle mass.
11.2) Is Walking Enough to Lose Some Weight?
Yes, Walking is one of the best forms of cardio for weight loss, and one can lose a healthy weight each month if done consistently. Try to keep track of the steps during walking.
11.3) How Many Steps Should I Do to Lose Weight?
One should achieve around 8 to 10 thousand steps daily to lose weight. Absolute beginners can start from 5 thousand and keep progressing every week.
11.4) How Much Weight Loss Is Safe per Month?
Youtube videos claiming to make one lose 10 kgs in 10 days are fake and not based on science. They resort to crash dieting techniques, making one eat extremely few calories, affecting the metabolism.
One should aim to lose 2-3 kgs a month for a healthy weight loss.
11.5) Is It Necessary to Join a Gym or Get a Coach to Lose Weight?
No, joining a gym or getting a coach is not required as long as one doesn’t have specific fitness goals.
Suppose one is clear about the fundamentals of weight/fat loss, i.e., caloric deficit, the importance of nutrition, macronutrients, basics of cardio, and weight/bodyweight training. In that case, they can do this all by themselves.
11.6) Is There Something Like Too Much Cardio?
Everything done in excess is harmful to the body. Doing excessive cardio can do more harm than good to the body.
It can affect the joints since a lot of cardio involves a lot of jumping exercises.
Do not choose high-intensity cardio if you are a beginner. Get the body used to doing cardio and then level up. Please do not overdo it!
12. Takeaways From This Article!
Everybody is beautiful, and body positivity should be promoted. However, it should not be used to promote an unhealthy lifestyle.
Choosing exercises as per your body type is important. Choosing the level of cardio as per your fitness level is important.
HIIT workouts are usually difficult for complete beginners. Therefore, they should try to build their body stamina and start with moderate-intensity workouts progressively.
Hence choosing the best cardio for weight loss is like a trial and error formula. One has to try many exercises to get something that fits their body goals and fitness level.
One cannot expect to get fit in a month or two; therefore, patience and consistency are two key factors in achieving a healthy weight and lifestyle.
Remember that cardio is just a means to lose weight, and there are multiple workouts with different variations.
Every workout should be chosen according to the person’s fitness level to avoid injury.
That is it! These were the basics of cardio and the best cardio for weight loss.
Last Updated on by Sathi
