How Much Slow Cardio Do You Need?

How much SLOW cardio do you need for faster fat loss?

…You see it all the time in the gym, people from all walks of life jogging on the treadmill and gliding along on the elliptical reading their magazine…

Yet, is this REALLY burning enough fat for them to help them reach their goals?

This past week, I’ve been thinking about this a lot…

Why is it that bodybuilders and physique athletes do long, slow cardio in a fasted state in the morning?

Does it REALLY work?

When I worked at my previous gym, the cardio machines at 5AM were a mix of physique athletes (people SUPER low in body fat) and people who weren’t in very good shape…

So what’s the difference here…

Here’s the straight truth about slow cardio:

If you are low in body fat, adding in 20-30 minutes of fasted cardio in the morning WILL help burn off that last bit of stubborn fat…

However, that can’t (and shouldn’t) be your workout for the day.

It should be an ADD ON.

The physique athletes that I used to see in the morning at 5AM doing their fasted cardio… They were ALWAYS back at night to get in their “real” workout of the day which consisted of a few hours of weight training…

Of course, not everyone has this kind of time… And not everyone is already that low in body fat…

If you are, awesome. Try adding some slow fasted cardio in the morning and you’ll see a nice bump in your fat burning…

If, however, you are over 8% body fat (for men) or over 15% body fat (for women) I recommend sticking with a high intensity interval training protocol or sprint program for your cardio workouts.

This will melt your fat much faster.

Then, once you do reach lower levels of body fat, you can ADD IN slower cardio workouts to help burn up that last bit of fat…

Because remember…

SLOW cardio does burn a good amount of calories…

However, if you aren’t super low in body fat right now, fasted cardio probably won’t make much of a dent in your fat burning…

Instead, stick with a solid HIIT program or add in sprint workouts 3-days per week until you reach the point where you can add in some slow cardio to really take your fat burning to the next level…

P.S. When it comes to slow cardio, if you have time for it… You can always add it in on top of your current workouts… I just don’t recommend doing it daily…

And I don’t recommend doing more that 20-30 minutes 2-3 times per week…

HIIT workouts and sprint workouts can take a lot out of your body which is why 3-5 days is far enough to get you the results you’re looking for…

Then if you wanted, add in 20-30 minutes of slower cardio on off days.

P.P.S. In terms of walking… Try for at least 30-minutes a day. This is a good goal to shoot for.