What that said, despite confirming that early morning
fasted cardio does burn more fat than cardio done later
in the day, this does not mean that more total calories
are used if intensity and duration were the same. This is
where things get interesting because other research has
shown that the most important factor for fat loss is not
when cardio is done. Instead, for fat loss to occur, your
total energy expenditures for the day (weight training,
cardio, non-exercise activity thermogenesis) must
exceed your total daily caloric intake. So it really
doesn’t matter when you get your cardio done. The
most important thing is that you actually get your
cardio done. Sounds simple, right? Well not for
everyone.
Real Life
Application
As with much scientific findings, what is found to be
true in the “lab”, quite often can be difficult to execute
in “real world” application. I realize there are some
genetic freaks that can get shredded on little or no
cardio, and there are always going to be exceptions,
but generally speaking most of you will need to
schedule your gym time around your work,
appointments, your kid’s school and activities.
After coaching so many athletes over the years, I have
found for most people leaving their cardio for the end
of the day can quite often lead to running out of time
and the session being missed. There’s already stress in
the day running between errands for you and your
family, but having enough energy left at the end of the
day to get in a good workout can become a limiting
factor as well. So, my empirical evidence that I have
observed over my 14+ years of coaching clearly
indicates that leaving cardio until the end of the day
dramatically increases the likelihood of your cardio
session being missed. So what is the solution?
"I realize there are
some genetic
freaks..."