How Much Cardio Do You Need To Get Lean?

Have you ever wondered how much cardio you should be doing to get lean and stay that way for life?

It seems like every time you walk into a gym, 90% of the people there are on treadmills or some other form of cardio machine, supposedly getting their “workout on”.

Then, I’d guesstimate the other 10% of them are in the “weights” section … and of that 10% a full 80% are doing some type of nautilus inspired machine movement and the remaining few are split up between doing curls in the squat rack and tricep kick-backs in front of the mirror!

Which begs the question …

How Much Cardio Do You Really Need To Get Lean?

Well, first and foremost (and this is becoming truer the more and more I see people start up exercise programs) — you can NOT out-train the kitchen table.

Getting lean is always going to be about how much food you’re shoving down your gullet. And in most cases the types of foods you’re putting in your mouth.

Now, one could argue that if you’re an olympic athlete who spends 6-8 hours swimming all day like Michael Phelps that you could eat whatever you want and stay lean … and you’re right. But you’re no Mikey baby

The extent of your caloric expenditure is probably sitting at a desk all day, the commute home in rush-hour traffic and 3 hours of primetime t.v. so get over the idea that you need to be constantly “fueling your working muscles”!

Resistance Training Is The Best Form Of Exercise

Even when it comes to “cardio” which is what most people have dubbed running in the “aerobic” zone (since aerobics became super popular a couple decades ago) … resistance training is still best.

There’s only one way to activate your cardiovascular system and that’s by using your muscles. The harder the resistance, the more your muscles work, the more your cardio system is activated.

Hence, the best form of “cardio” in the first place — is resistance training (for our purposes we’ll call this strength training).

A Revealing Study …

I read the results of a study recently, and it was pretty surprising. 69 obese women were put on an extreme 520 Calorie per day diet,  then divided into 4 groups

• Group 1 did not exercise
• Group 2 did endurance exercise for 60 minutes 4 days per week.
• Group 3 did strength training 4 days per week
• Group 4 did strength training AND endurance exercises 4 days per week

At the end of the 90 days all 4 groups averaged a ridiculous amount of weight loss –  over 40 pounds.  (Eating only 520 calories per day will give you some extreme weight loss that’s for sure!)

The interesting finding was that there were no differences between the four groups in terms of the amount of weight or body fat that was lost …  even though … group 4 was doing massive amounts of exercising every single week!

Does This Mean Exercise Doesn’t Matter?

No, not at all … because what you need to understand is that without some form of resistance training, when you go on a reduced calorie diet — your body might preferentially burn muscle instead of fat.

This is NOT good (yes, even if you’re a woman!) because the more muscle you have the healthier you’re going to be — period!

So it’s important to include resistance training when you’re dieting … but cardio may not be all that important when it comes to losing weight.

When SHOULD You Do Cardio For Weight Loss?

In my opinion, I think it’s pretty easy to get down to around 10% body fat for guys by just doing a good amount of strength training and controlling your diet pretty well.

This is a body fat level where you’ll probably be introduced to your abs, but you’re not quite “Brad Pitt From Fight Club” ripped.

To get to an extremely ripped level like that, I would say that cardio does have its place … in moderation & doing it smart (not a lot of steady-state low intensity stuff!)

Wrapping It Up …

So don’t get “cardio blues” because you feel like you should be doing something else to get yourself lean. Just focus on the two most important things:

1. Controlling what goes into your mouth … and …
2. Building strength in your muscles (resistance training) because muscle is the most valuable weight you can have on your body!

That’s my answer for how much cardio you need to lose weight … and I’m sticking to it!