Is Cardio Necessary To Burn Stomach Fat?

If you want to lose weight, and I'm guessing you do, is it necessary to do cardio?  Do you have to do cardio to lose stubborn weight?  I say no.  Here are my reasons for you to stop doing cardio and still lose fat.

by Ed Scow, NSCA-CPT (aka The Fit Dad) - Fitness and Nutrition Expert to the true superheroes - busy Moms and Dads! and Author of Fat Loss To Go

If you want to lose fat, especially if you want to lose stomach fat, you have to do long, mind-numbingly boring, monotonous cardio in your “fat burning zone” in order to achieve your goal.  Right?

That’s what you’ve always been told by the “fat loss experts”, right?

They’ve always said, “If you want to lose fat, do lots of cardio.”  But is that true?  Do you really have to pin your fat loss hopes and dreams on doing 60 minutes of cardio every stinking day of the week?

Absolutely not!  And if you do want to do cardio, you sure as heck don’t have to do it for that long.

There is a better way…a far better way to lose fat, especially stomach fat.

You need to focus on doing resistance training if you really want to lose stomach fat.  And if you do it correctly, you won’t even need to do a traditional cardio session again!

When I say “do it correctly”, I mean that you need to focus on doing full body workouts that focus on working large muscle groups, rather than attempting to split your body into sections and working one thing at a time.

All too often I hear guys say that they’re going to spend today’s workout session on Back and Biceps or Chest and Abs, etc.  I’ve got news for you, the body just doesn’t work that way.  You can’t just split the body up into pieces and expect to get superior results, especially if you don’t have much time to spend working out.

The ladies are not immune to this phenomenon either.  I always hear ladies saying they want to work their triceps and “inner thighs” or “saddle bags” in an effort to “tone up.”

Sorry ladies, but that’s just not going to happen if you train that way.  Especially if you finish that workout up by hopping on the treadmill for 60 minutes (or more) of fast walking because you don’t want to leave your “fat burning zone.”  A zone that doesn’t exist by the way. 

So now that I’ve told you what doesn’t work, let’s get to what does work.  As I said earlier, what works, and works very well, is full body workouts that focus on working lots of muscle because muscle is what burns fat.

Did you know that?  Muscle is the ONLY tissue in your body that burns fat.

So doesn’t it make sense that to burn fat you work your muscles?

Anyway, here’s a typical workout that I prescribe to my clients.

Warm-up for 5 minutes by doing a circuit of medicine ball wood chops, push-ups and bodyweight squats.

Then perform the following supersets (2-4 sets each).

1A)  “T” Push-up – 10 reps

1B)  Dumbbell Bent Over Row – 8 reps

2A)  Reverse Lunge – 10 reps per leg

2B)  Incline Dumbbell Chest Press – 8 reps

3A)  Dumbbell Rear Flies – 8 reps

3B)  1-Leg Stability Ball Leg Curl – 10 reps per leg

4A)  Mt. Climbers – 30 seconds

4B)  Stability Ball Rollout – 12

Then I have my clients perform interval training for their cardio.  This comes in many different types, but at its root, all interval training consists of is mixing bouts of intense activity with bouts of lower intensity activity.

This could mean mixing running fast (but not sprinting) for 20 seconds with walking for 90 seconds for 10 minutes or it could mean doing bodyweight circuits for 15 minutes. The sky really is the limit with this type of “cardio”.

The point is that you need to get out of the cardio mentality that so many of the so-called experts have you trapped in and break free and try something new.  Something that will work and is proven to work.  I’ve been using this style of training with my training clients for years with fantastic results.

Give it a try today, follow it for a couple months and I guarantee you’ll be leaner and stronger.