#24: What Cardio Is Best For Fat Loss?

Considering cardio for fat loss, our eyes often shift towards low intensity steady-state (LISS), moderate-intensity steady state (MISS), and high-intensity interval training (HIIT).

Each has own advantages and disadvantages. But which would bring the best results? The question was answered by Paul Revelia, who ranked the pros and cons of low, moderate and high intensity cardio.

What Determines ‘Intensity’?

The easiest judges of intensity are VO2max or maximum heart rate, with the latter being an easier measure.

Light-intensity cardio can be done for hours on end because heart rate is kept relatively low. Moderate-intensity cardio is a scale higher, and can often be considered an activity managed whilst having a conversation with a peer. High intensity, in turn, means ‘all out’ activity, usually lasting about 15-20 seconds. It may sound menial, but beginners usually max out after 3-5 sprints, if done seriously.

LISS Vs MISS Vs HIIT

Fun

The term ‘cardio’ is seldom linked to ‘fun’. In fact, LISS has the amazing advantage of being able to do stuff like listen to audiobooks or watch movies or even enjoy the great outdoors as you leave your body on ‘auto-pilot’. Some may argue MISS allows this too (albeit to a lesser extent).

You can’t really listen to an audiobook whilst training HIIT. But it doesn’t really matter if you enjoy doing HIIT or MISS.

I trained taekwondo at elite level for almost ten years. And most of that training was, in fact, HIIT. Had I not liked it, I wouldn’t have done it. Today is a different story. I have enough injuries and general dislike of bodily exertion to avoid high-intensity activities.

I’d choose a walk over HIIT and MISS any day. But that’s just me. Ultimately, the best form of cardio is the one you are willing to do regularly.

Clear winner: none

Time

When it comes to ‘burning calories’, all three modes of exercise can do the job. But if your goal is to burn 100 calories, HIIT will get you there quicker than MISS and LISS.

Beginners can wreck themselves with as much as three to five all out sprints lasting around 15-20 seconds . And considering that the activity is done in a relatively short span of time, it offers the best bang for your buck - especially if you’re kept busy throughout the day.

MISS and LISS are done over a longer course of time, and thus requires a little more commitment from your end.

Clear winner: HIIT

Skill

HIIT may have won the battle of time. But let us now consider skill. The act of ‘sprinting’ undoubtedly requires some skill since it involves an all-out explosive movement in a short span of time.

MISS activities, such as jogging, also requires some skill (for instance, in making sure your feet land on the ground the way they’re supposed to). But considering the spread of time and the space you are allowed to concentrate, one could argue that the amount of skill is less.

Then you have LISS, such as walking, the activity which requires the least skill of all.

Clear winner: LISS

Recovery

Recovery involves resting our metabolic machinery (that emit stress hormones like cortisol), But what about soreness? What about the impact exercise has on our day-to-day life as we go about our daily labours?

Naturally, what you do throughout the day is also important. Because if you’re sitting at a desk all day, then you can probably get away with HIIT (even though it makes you an ‘exercising couch potato’) but doing so gives you plenty of time to recover.

People with primary goals, such as bodybuilding or combat training, would find HIIT as the most taxing activity on their recovery. And thus, it would be disadvantageous to partake in the activity regularly.

If your recovery isn’t on point, you might as well not be doing anything at all. And as you get older, recovery becomes all the more important if you want to start seeing some serious results. For this reason, it’s worth being more attuned with how your body’s feeling at any given time.

With this in mind, an initial phase of LISS, followed by a gradual stepping into MISS can be a safe way to get those fat-loss results without putting your body in the wringer.

LISS can start from basic walking, but your trainer can make you work harder by adjusting the incline and the speed until you eventually ‘evolve’ into MISS.

The answer to this is a little more nuanced considering the wide spectrum of lifestyles we experience. However, there is no question that LISS offers the least taxing activity on one’s body, and the best window of recovery.

Clear winner: LISS

The Interference Effect

The Interference Effect is a phenomenon suggesting that the higher amount of cardio you do, the more negatively it affects your strength. It’s kind of like chasing two rabbits at once and catching none, because more cardio means more muscle breakdown (catabolism). And conversely, more strength training means less cardio adaptability.

If we are doing steady-state cardio, we are creating an adaptation response where our body wants to be ‘good at cardio’, but this does not go hand-in-hand with getting us more muscles. And we do want more muscles because more muscles means better health.

This is not saying that all cardio is bad. Quite the contrary, in fact. Cardio will help us become more metabolically healthy. It will help fight disease in its own way. But it’s a question about balance and keying in on the correct mode of exercise for your lifestyle.

Here, MISS would probably be the worst of the three, because it doesn’t only require a sound recovery, it also pushes the body towards a greater ‘cardio’ adaptation.

Doing HIIT can be the way to go, so long as you are not negatively impacting the muscles you are targeting through strength training. Doing a lower-body HIIT on the same day you have a lower-body strength training session will impact your results.

That leaves us with one winner - LISS - the mode of exercise that would probably cause the least Interference effect.

Clear winner: LISS

Fuel

What fuels (fat or carbs) are we using when we exercise? If we’re burning 100 calories from each exercise, how much has been burned from carbs and how much from fat and even protein?

The body does not have to be ‘depleted’ of carbohydrates before it can start burning fat. The intensity of the exercise dictates the fuel source, but the ability to create an energy deficit is what dictates fat loss.

LISS and MISS are both excellent fat-burning tools, with the latter being better because you are increasing the effort without having recruit the body’s carbohydrate stores (which are normally reserved for high-intensity rounds). In MISS, around 60% of the calories burned are coming from fat.

Clear winner: LISS

A cat can be skinned in more ways than one. LISS seemed to be the clear winner of the ‘Best Cardio For Fat Loss’ competition. At least with the criteria investigation. That being said, it all goes out of the window if you absolutely hate doing it.

Again, it all boils down to what you are willing to do on the regular. But if your preferred form of cardio is LISS there are plenty of tools to help you. Fitness trackers, although notoriously unreliable, can still give you a baseline to go by as far as tracking your daily activity or steps.

Personally, I am a big advocate of LISS and consider walking to be one fundamental exercise we should engage in daily. Irrespective of your background, walking 10,000 steps per day will render you an ‘active person’. Moreover, it is an activity long-living folks have practice throughout their entire lives.

As far as high-intensity exercise goes, we cannot really say the same. In fact, the more frequently you engage in high-intensity exercise, the more likely you are to be overtrained if not also suffer metabolic stress. But if you like that shit then hey, don’t let me stop you.