The Cardio-for-fat-loss myth

There’s a great misconception out there about fat burning and doing an insane amount of cardio work.

Many “fitness & medical professionals” are spreading the message that this is the way to go, and its wrong!

Just because someone spent numerous years in school doesn’t necessarily mean their source of information is correct, it is largely due to assumed and untested effects… there was also a time when flat earth theory was taught in universities.

“Cardio” is short for cardiovascular endurance training. The belief seems to be that you have to raise your heart rate for a long duration like take an hour-long aerobics class, spending an hour or two on the treadmill or running multiple miles everyday, is the best answer to the question about getting rid of the extra layer of skin around the waist area.

People struggle to actually get results from these activities and are fooled to believe that “if I just put in another hour per day I will get the results I’m seeking” which later commonly translates into “I’m probably not trying hard enough”… and finally “I’m just not good at this” because the scale are not speaking the same language as you expect.

Theres prominent evidence showing that larger amounts of cardio causes:

Lung shrinkage
Muscle shrinkage
Lowers your hearts pumping strength
Weakens your bones
Lowers sex drive

In other words, it actually speeds up your aging and when it comes to longevity this is an absolute no go, so if you want to stay healthy, stop doing it.

This kind of exercising is just not natural. Your ancestors didn’t jog for multiple miles at a time. They didn’t jump around for an hour doing aerobics to the paleolithic version of Jane Fonda. They had short bursts of activity – sprinting to catch food, or avioding being food. Thats how they stayed lean and strong.

The concept of cardiovascular endurance exercise – like marathon running or aerobics – goes against how your body was built to move.

What the problem is with today’s fitness “experts” who tell you to do cardio so that you can get into the “fat-melting zone.” is that the actual effect of low intensity endurance training is adaptation – storage. Your body is trying to adapt to the situation and releases signals to collect and keep fat as a source of fuel for later.

You are likely to have a very high energy output while doing the cardio but what matter is what happens to your body when you stop the activity!

When you finish a cardio workout, your body goes to work storing fat to fuel your next workout. That’s why those last few stubborn pounds never seem to come off by just doing more cardio. Its working against you.

High intensity workout programs restore your body’s natural metabolism and retrains your body to store energy in your muscles, just like your ancestors did… And it reprograms your body to dump that extra fat.