If you are trying to lose some body fat there is no doubt that daily cardio will make the process a whole lot easier. It burns extra calories and get you in much better shape, but how many calories do cardio burn and what can you do to increase that number?
The amount of calories that you burn during exercise is obvious, you just look at your hear rate monitor or another tracking app, but what is not so obvious is what you burn AFTER you have done cardio.
In fact, your body burn a lot of calories after you have done cardio as a result of your cardio.
This phenomenon is called the afterburner effect and is activated by daily cardio.
If you do cardio you wont just burn the calories during exercise, but you are also going to burn a lot of calories after your cardio session.
Your body is in overdrive so it is ready to perform at any moment, this uses fuel - calories.
Now let us look at how much the Afterburner Effect burns, when you are just sitting still and not moving- after you have done cardio.
Those numbers varies from person to person, but what I am going to tell you will give you a rough estimate.
To achieve those extra burned calories you have to do cardio every day and for at least 20 min each time. As you will see the afterburner is not so powerful if you only do 20 min but starts to really kick in when you pass the 40 min mark. If you do 60 min you will burn so many calories from the afterburner effect alone that it is criminal. Lets look at the numbers:
20min = 190 calories + 50 calories = 240 calories
40min = 400 calories + 350 calories = 750 calories
60min = 550 calories + 550 calories = 1100 calories
Time Spent Doing Cardio
Calories Burned During Cardio
Calories Burned By After Burner
Total Calories Burned Each Day
So as you can see, fat loss hasn't to be that hard, just discipline yourself to do daily cardio and your afterburner will handle the rest of the work.
For those of you who are trying to put on some muscle mass and aiming for a caloric surplus, remember to include the amount of calories burned by the afterburner effect in to your daily calorie goal.. Else you will lose fat and not gain all the muscles you are aiming for.
No more excuses for not losing fat, what are you waiting for get out there and activate your after burner ;)
