Excessive Cardiovascular Exercise May Sabotage Your Weight Loss Efforts

 Cardiovascular exercise has numerous benefits. It strengthens your heart and lungs, burns calories and sometimes fat and can help you build endurance. However, you can get too much of a good thing. According to exercise physiologist Dr. William Wong, excessive cardiovascular exercise can have significant disadvantages, such as joint injury and loss of muscle tissue. Losing muscle tissue can inhibit your ability to burn fat.

 Burning Calories and Fat

 Your body uses carbohydrates and fat as energy during cardiovascular exercise. Low-intensity cardio such as walking, uses mainly fat. The contribution from carbohydrates rises as you increase your intensity, for example, by running. You expend more energy and calories at higher intensities. For example, Harvard Health publications says if you weigh 185 pounds and walk for 30 minutes at four miles-per-hour, you will burn 200 calories. Running at six miles-per hour will burn 444 calories. According to IDEA Health and Fitness Association, the higher energy expenditure means you burn more overall fat.

Muscle Tissue and Your Metabolism

Your metabolism determines the rate you burn calories and fat at rest. Muscle tissue elevates your metabolism. Men generally have more muscle and less body fat than women of the same age and weight. As you get older, you lose muscle, your metabolism slows and you gain fat.

Keep the Cardio in Check

 Prolonged cardio, for example, more than 90 minutes, may deplete your glycogen stores--carbohydrates stored in the muscles--This makes your body burn muscle for energy. This isn't desirable says Exercise Scientist, and American Council on Exercise-certified personal trainer, Pete McCall. Burning muscle reduces your amount of lean muscle tissue. This depresses your metabolism and inhibits fat loss.

The After-burn Effect

Minimize the risk of excessive cardiovascular exercise by substituting regular cardio with high-intensity interval training. This involves short spurts of intense exercise followed rest intervals. Apply this to any cardiovascular activity. For example, on the elliptical machine, warm up at a gentle pace for five minutes. Work at an intense pace for one minute, then drop to a sedate pace for two minutes. Repeat the intense pace and sedate pace sequence five times for a 15-minute fat-burning workout. According to the ACE, HIIT increases your heart rate, burns calories and increases your metabolism post-exercise, enhancing your ability to burn fat.



References

• Mahler's Aggressive Strength: A Conversation with Dr. William Wong on Training, Testosterone, Growth Hormone, Acting like A Man, and Rites Of Passage
• Harvard Health Publications: Calories Burned In 30 Minutes For People of Three Different Weights
  
• IDEA Health and Fitness Association: Burning Fat: Myths and Facts
  
• American Council on Exercise: 6 Workout Rules To Ignore
• American Council on Exercise: Resting Metabolic Rate: Best Ways to Measure It—And Raise It, Too