sebastianmaclean

Sebastian,

I just started using your system again Naturally Massive lean down phase and I'm trying to drop some weight first. I'm doing cardio every day 30 to 60 mins. I'd like to do this for a month, and then start the weights. Is this alright as a head start to loosing some weight and fat off the belly. Any suggestions.

Thanks

Rick.

Hi Rick,

Great to hear you are back on routine again.

There are a couple of ways to look at your cardio question. The most effective way to burn fat tends to be with shorter and more intense interval training. This also prevents you from losing excess muscle tissue, which can appen with a lot of long cardio workouts. The reason for this is that your metabolism will begin to slow in order to sustain your body's energy consumption over these longer endurance stretches.

Short and intense bursts of speed interspersed with short slow downs for recovery, tend to force rapid enrgergy consumption and an elevated metabolic rate. I often point to sprinters vs marathon runners as an example of how the srinters short and intense cardio training patterns tend to keep them leaner and more toned.

All that said, if you are starting with a lot of excess weight, then sometimes it is necessary to start with slower paced and longer cardio sessions, since joints and ligaments can be seriously impacted with a lot of high speed cardio when your body weight is up or you are just getting started.

Once you are feeling your body make the adjustment for the impact that cardio has on the joints, I would suggest you go with more intense interval training, trim the time down to 30 minutes and don't exceed 4 days a week on cardio.

In all this your diet is vital of course. Long cardio or short cardio, you won't get the results unless your eating is dialed in, but that's another topic (grin).

I hope that helps.
Best,
Sebastian