Cardio exercise is such a
strange thing. In theory, it should work so perfectly well for all men
and women, but as anyone who has tried it knows, the practicality of it
just doesn't add up.
Most of people who work in a cardio program
do seven, ten or more hours per week, and still have fat in their waist
to burn for a long time. But there are other people who look great with
the same or with even a smaller lapse of time. Some researchers in Great
Britain went insight into this paradox, and studied 35 overweight men
and women, who weren't previously exercising.
The subjects
exercised for 12 weeks, 5 times per week. That's a lot of exercise and
it helped the subjects lose an average of 8.2 pounds, but it worked
better in young men, who need the help the least!
If we analyse
the results we'll find some surprises. The best subject lost 32.3 pounds
in 12 weeks, but the worst subject actually gained 3.74 pounds. That's
an inmense variance in fat loss terms.
So, these were not good
news for the scientists. At least not for the ones that wanted to go
home. They discovered there were 2 groups of people, they called them
"compensators" and "non-compensators". The first ones were hungrier and
consumed extra calories every day, whiping the slate clean in cardio
results terms. So, they lost just small amounts of weight.
Does
your appetite increase when you do slow cardio? If it does, research
shows it will ruin your cardio efforts. So if your cardio program is not
working for you, check your appetite and calorie intake to see if you
are "compensating" for your efforts. If you are, you might be better off
using a program of high-intensity resistance and interval training
(i.e. Turbulence Training) for your weight loss efforts.
The
research of a professor in Australia (Professor Steve Boucher) has show
that interval training increases hormones called catecholamines. If that
hormone increases, causes fat-burning benefits like reducing appetite,
among others.
In the real world, few people lose 33 pounds after
12 weeks of cardio. Heck, few even achieve an average weight loss of 8
pounds with aerobic exercise.
What you have to do is check your
appetite, and consider giving high-intensity exercise a go for your next
workout program. Beat the curse of cardio with high-intensity
Turbulence Training.
