Do You Really Need Cardio If You Want to Lose Weight?
When you think of exercise geared specifically toward weight loss, you likely imagine spending long hours on the treadmill or elliptical. And while it’s true that doing steady state cardio probably will help with weight loss, experts say it’s totally unnecessary if your main goal is fat loss. In fact, you can lose weight just by lifting weights. (Yes, really. Just peep these weight lifting body transformations.)
However, that doesn’t mean you should never do cardio. Here’s why you might want to prioritize strength training if shedding pounds is on your to-do list—but you can’t forgo breathing heavy forever.
Why You Don’t Need Dedicated Cardio Sessions to Lose Weight
“Cardio is one of the least effective fitness modalities for weight loss,” explains Jillian Michaels, health and fitness expert and creator of My Fitness by Jillian Michaels app. That’s because you lose weight by burning more calories than you eat, and to many people’s surprise, strength training is actually better at doing that than steady state cardio.
Excerpted from InStyle
