This YouTube video explains how to use cardio to speed fat loss while minimizing muscle loss. Key claims: cardio can accelerate fat loss and help adherence by allowing more food, but excessive/cardio of the wrong type causes the “interference effect” that impairs muscle size/strength. The creator recommends prioritizing weightlifting and diet, using HIIT (preferably cycling) 1→2×/week and complementing it with low-intensity steady-state (LISS) sessions (1→2×/week, ~20–30 min at ~4/10 effort). Timing: do cardio on rest days or after weights (not before). Progress cardio gradually when fat-loss stalls; target ~0.7% bodyweight loss per week. Links to an example HIIT workout and a written summary on his website are provided.
Questions this video answers
Roughly 0.7% of body weight per week.
Start with one per week and gradually increase to a maximum of about two per week.
One to two low-intensity cardio sessions per week of around 20–30 minutes each.
Around 4 out of 10 perceived effort.
Cycling.
When it comes to fat loss and how to best achieve it, cardio seems to be an area of confusion for most people Now. Although cardio is by no means necessary for fat loss, given that you're creating a calorie deficit through your diet, it definitely can be a good idea to incorporate. Why? Well, aside from the obvious cardiovascular health benefits it provides, it can also one help enhance the rate of your fat loss, especially once you reach low levels of body fat and especially if you're sedentary for most of the day, and 2 rather than creating an energy deficit entirely by just eating less food, incorporating some cardio enables you to eat a bit more while dieting, which can help you better stick to your diet in the long run. However, one thing to keep in mind is that even if your main goal is fat loss, it's vital that you focus on maintaining as much muscle as possible throughout the process to avoid winding up skinny fat by the end of it. And unfortunately, one of the downsides of cardio is something called the interference effect, which which as summarized in this 2011 meta analysis from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, simply means that the more cardio an individual performs and the longer the duration of each session, the more it interferes with muscle size and strength gains. There also seems to be specific forms of cardio that are better than others at retaining muscle while maximizing fat loss. Therefore, it's clear that in this case more is not better and not all forms of cardio are created equally. So it's vital that you set up your cardio routine appropriately in order to see the best results, and in this video I'll guide you through exactly how to do so. For those who are unaware, high intensity interval training, or hiit, simply refers to a cardio protocol in which you alternate between short periods of almost all out effort with longer periods of rest. HIIT has been shown to be Superior at improving VO2 max, various cardiovascular health markers and and insulin sensitivity when compared to less intense forms of cardio. And in terms of fat loss, aside from the fact that HIIT workouts enable you to burn more calories in a shorter period of time when compared to lower intensity cardio, the main reason I do recommend incorporating some HIIT is because of its potential muscle sparing properties. For example, the meta analysis I mentioned earlier found that high intensity cardio interferes less with muscle and strength gains and than lower intensity forms of cardio do so. For this reason, it would likely be the better option over extended amounts of steady state cardio. As for which exercise modality to use for hiit, I'd suggest mainly starting out with cycling, since multiple studies have shown that when compared to other forms of hiit, cycling best minimizes muscle soreness and damage after a session, therefore making it easier to recover from, especially if you aren't used to intense exercise. In addition, as noted in this 2009 paper from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, the the range of motion you use when cycling is very similar to common weight training exercises like squatting and leg pressing, for example, and therefore can help better maintain or increase your strength in those lifts as you're dieting. But with that being said, running and rowing are two other viable exercise modalities for hiit, since they also mimic common weight training exercises and have been shown to be effective for maintaining strength. So ultimately choose what you enjoy the most or have the most experience with. Now, as for when to perform your HIIT workouts, I'd suggest following the Recommendation from this 2016 paper from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research which concluded that performing your HIIT sessions on a rest day, or at least after your weights workout rather than before is ideal to prevent a reduced performance in your weight training workouts. And as for how many HIIT workouts to do per week, I'd advise starting with one session per week and then if needed, you can gradually increase to a maximum of two or so sessions per week, since going past this will likely start to negatively interfere with your recovery from your weightlifting workouts, which should always remain your priority. Now the main downside with HIIT is that it's quite taxing both mentally and physically and therefore can't be used too often, which is why you should ideally combine it with some form of low intensity steady state cardio as well. And your options when it comes to steady state cardio are pretty much endless. It can be anything from brisk walking, swimming, light cycling, and so on as long as you're working at a perceived effort of around 4 or so on a scale of 10. As for what's optimal optimal though based on the findings of this 2009 meta analysis for similar reasons, as discussed earlier, cycling seems to be the ideal option for minimizing muscle loss, and although there's no formal research on this yet, I'd also think that the StairMaster would be a viable choice as well, since it does mimic lower body exercises quite well and doesn't cause much muscle damage. But ultimately choose whatever activity you enjoy the most and will be most consistent with, because in the long run that's what's going to provide you with the best results. And again, as with your HIIT workouts, stick to performing your steady state cardio sessions, ideally on a rest day or at least after your weightlifting workouts as opposed to before. I'd suggest starting with one to two low intensity cardio sessions of around 20 to 30 minutes each and then increasing the frequency and or duration of these sessions if needed as you progress throughout the weeks. So to sum the video up, here's what an initial weekly cardio routine of both HIIT and steady state cardio could look like for you. Keep in mind though, that the optimal amount of cardio will vary for everyone and depends on your overall activity level, but this is definitely a good starting point. And then once your fat loss progress begins to stall, which will happen more often as you get leaner, you can start adding more cardio as per my previous recommendations, but ensure to do so gradually. Your goal should be to lose roughly 0.7% of your body weight per week, so make adjustments based on that and you'll be headed in the right direction. And if you're interested in seeing examples of various HIIT workouts you can be doing, I posted an example workout on my Instagram which I'll link in the description box down below.
Thanks so much for watching guys. Yes, I'm back on YouTube after being MIA for the past few weeks. I've just been really focused on getting my online programs done and getting them perfect. I'm hoping to have them released sometime in August, but I'll keep you all updated so stay tuned for that. But with that being said, I hope you found this video useful. Please do keep in mind though that when it comes to fat loss, your focus needs to be on your diet and your weightlifting workouts. Cardio is an effective tool to use, but if you don't prioritize your nutrition and your weightlifting workouts then cardio will do more harm than good. So just keep that in mind. Anyways, as always, for those interested, you can find the written summary of this video on my website builtwithscience.com and and I'll leave a link to the article in the description box down below. And if you found this video useful, please don't forget to give it a like Leave a comment down below, subscribe to my channel and turn on notifications for my channel as well as this all really does help me out. I'd also really appreciate it if you gave me a follow and connect with me on Instagram and Facebook as well. Thanks so much for all the continued support everyone. I really do appreciate it, and it means a lot to me. I'll see you next time.
