The BEST and WORST Cardio for Fat Loss (SURPRISE!)

If you are doing cardio to lose fat, there is a good chance you are making the worst cardio mistakes everyone makes for fat loss without even knowing it. In this video, I am going to show you why the treadmill, elliptical, StairMaster, bike, and even your fitness tracker may be lying to you about how many calories you burned. If you use those numbers to decide how much more you can eat, you could be wiping out your calorie deficit.

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The first cardio mistake for fat loss is using cardio as the main way to create your calorie deficit. Cardio can help you lose weight, but it should not be the foundation of your fat loss plan. You cannot outrun a bad diet. One bad meal, snack, or portion mistake can erase an hour of cardio fast. If you want to lose fat and keep it off, clean up your nutrition first and use cardio to support those efforts.

The next mistake is trusting the calorie number on the machine. Most cardio machines estimate calories using METs, or metabolic equivalents. Many estimates are based on one standard body weight, often around 154 pounds. If you weigh more or less than that, the number on the screen is already wrong. If the machine does not ask for your body weight, do not trust the calorie count.

Another mistake is not realizing that some machines may count calories you would have burned anyway. Your resting energy expenditure is the energy you burn sitting around doing nothing. If a treadmill says you burned 420 calories, that may not mean you burned 420 extra calories from the workout. Part of that number may include your resting burn, which means you are overestimating your true exercise calories.

Leaning on the machine is one of the biggest cardio mistakes people make. Holding onto the treadmill, leaning over the bike, hanging on the StairMaster, or unloading your body weight with your arms makes the exercise easier. Easier means less work and fewer calories burned. If your goal is fat loss, stand tall, keep your hands off the rails when possible, and make your body do the work.

Cutting your range of motion short also kills cardio results. On the stepmill or StairMaster, short, choppy steps reduce the work you do and prevent full hip extension. The elliptical can lock you into a shortened range of motion too. Just like a half rep curl is not as effective as a full rep, half reps on cardio are not giving you the best fat loss return.

Some cardio machines are more inaccurate than others. The stationary bike is usually one of the better options, especially when it uses watts and lets you enter your body weight. The StairMaster can be fairly close if you are not leaning on it. The treadmill can be off because of calibration issues. The elliptical is the worst offender because the calorie estimates can be way off.

If you think you burned 130 more calories than you actually did and eat those calories back every day, you can erase your deficit. Over time, that mistake can be the difference between losing fat and gaining weight.

If you want better cardio for fat loss, choose machines that make you do more total work. The air bike, rowing machine, and ski erg are great options because they involve both the upper and lower body with real effort. They are harder, and that is the point. The more muscles you involve, the more work you do, and the more calories you burn.

If you still want to use your favorite cardio machine, use one that allows you to enter your body weight. Then stop staring at the calorie display. Throw a towel over the screen and judge your effort by your breathing. If you can easily carry on a conversation, you are probably not working hard enough. If your breathing is challenged, your effort and calorie burn are likely higher.

A simple rule is to take the calorie number the machine gives you and cut it in half. Do not assume your fitness watch fixes the problem either. Wearables can be inaccurate too, so use them for trends, not as a precise calorie calculator.

If you are looking for a complete step by step training and nutrition plan designed to help you build muscle, burn fat, and look your best, be sure to head to athleanx.com and use the program selector tool to find the plan that matches your goals.

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