How Much Cardio Do You Need To Do Daily To Lose Weight

The answer depends on your goals. Do you want to use cardio to lose weight, achieve a ripped physique, or build a fitness foundation?

In this article, we dive deep into the science of cardio and its numerous benefits, plus practical examples you can use immediately for fat loss, mass gain, or general fitness.

If you want to see your abs, cardio by itself won’t get you there. However, combined with a sensible diet, aerobic exercise or interval training can accelerate and improve your fat loss results[*][*][*].

How Much Cardio Do I Need To Lose Weight? Here's What Works

And not only that, but cardio paired with a weight loss diet can also help reduce dangerous visceral adipose tissue (VAT) or belly fat, more effectively than diet-only[*].

And not only that, but increased fat oxidation from cardio is also fantastic for your health: studies show that obese people and people with diabetes sometimes have trouble burning fat, but cardio can help correct their metabolic issues[*][*].

Or, if you’re currently healthy, increasing fat oxidation by performing cardio also makes your cells more resilient and lowers your risk of type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases[*].

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Research suggests that if you perform cardio at the correct intensity and you’ve dialed in your dietary approach, you may preserve more muscle during fat loss.

For example, according to findings from a peer-reviewed paper published in Frontiers in Physiology in 2017, aerobic exercise plus diet preserved lean body mass 28% better than diet alone[*].

Your aerobic or fat-burning energy system is the main contributor after about 3 minutes of physical activity, and it can sustain energy production for up to 120 hours of continuous physical activity[*].

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Firstly, many of the other cardio benefits (such as weight loss, increased fat oxidation, and better heart health) stem directly from aerobic fitness improvements.

And additionally, aerobic fitness can also help athletes like soccer players, basketball players, soccer players, wrestlers, or fighters “gas out” less often and outperform their opponents[*][*][*].

If you want to build strength and power, you should spend most of your training time on exercise that stimulates type 2 muscle fibers — such as heavy, explosive lifting and plyometric movements.

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However, your type 1 muscle fibers and aerobic energy system also contribute to force production — even during short-burst “anaerobic” activities lasting 10 seconds or less[*][*].

And peer-reviewed research confirms cardio can enhance force production in individuals ranging from young to old, men and women, elite track athletes, and combat sports athletes[*][*][*][*][*].

Therefore, even if you’re a strength-and-power athlete or someone who values explosiveness, you shouldn’t neglect cardio as one part of your regimen.

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Additionally, HIIT and other forms of interval exercise are fantastic for increasing force production and recovery from explosive effort in concert with your overall fitness[*].

As any experienced athlete or gym rat will tell you, recovery matters. The better your recovery, the harder and more frequently you can train, and the better your overall fitness results become.

First of all, cardio can act as a form of “active recovery” to increase blood flow to the muscles you’ve exercised recently[*].

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Finally, cardio also helps lower cortisol levels by converting cortisol to its inactive form, cortisone, which in turn helps prevent overtraining and decreases feelings of stress[*][*].

Regular cardio may help you live longer by reducing your risk of heart attacks, but the changes aren’t instantaneous. Some published data suggest any heart health benefits occur only after about 3 months of consistent aerobic exercise[*].

Researchers chalk these striking effects up to post-exercise increases in compounds like endorphins and endocannabinoids, as well as decreases in cellular stress and inflammation[*][*][*][*].

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Is a form of exercise that pairs higher-intensity “work periods” with lower-intensity rest or recovery periods. Popular examples include running or sprinting combined with walking, or a combination of cycling fast and slow.

And high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is the best-known form of interval training, but you can also utilize lower-intensity work periods (low-intensity interval training or LIIT).

Is the simplest, most basic form of cardio. Unlike interval training, during steady-state cardio, you maintain the same pace throughout your session.

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For steady-state cardio, people often choose walking, running, or cycling. However, you can use any activity as long as you can sustain it for 20-60+ minutes.

The biggest difference is that HIIT targets entirely different energy systems than steady-state aerobic exercise, making it more suitable for improving short-burst fitness qualities as opposed to aerobic endurance[*].

In contrast, a separate 2017 meta-analysis found that HIIT may not be more time-efficient for calories burned, and that spending more time with low-intensity steady-state cardio could be the best strategy for fat loss[*].

How Much Cardio Does It Take To Lose Weight?

EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), also called “afterburn, ” is a measure of how many calories your body burns after exercise while returning to baseline.

Many people (including plenty of coaches and trainers) believe that heightened calorie-burn from EPOC makes HIIT far more time-efficient than steady-state cardio, but is this belief supported by evidence?

As you can see, the added EPOC calorie-burn from HIIT isn’t going to make or break your results, nor will it save you a massive amount of time.

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Also keep in mind steady-state cardio is easier and results in more calorie-burn from fat (due to heightened fat oxidation) as opposed to carbs[*].

We aren’t saying HIIT is inferior, but it is slightly overhyped. But here’s how you can decide: try both methods and stick with whatever you enjoy most — just remember to ignore those outrageous claims that 4 minutes of HIIT is as effective as 90 minutes of steady-state!

In case you want to maximize your EPOC calorie-burn, some research shows an intensive weight training session increases afterburn more than HIIT or steady-state cardio[*].

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People sometimes focus on a single form of exercise for their goal — like weight training for muscle gain, or cardio for fat loss.

However, you’re better off focusing on several different types of training, not just one. As we’ve already discussed, research shows that combining various forms of exercise works better for all goals, including mass gain[*].

Additionally, at Levels, we’ve found that hitting the 5-hour threshold for weekly exercise is relatively easy, but results in dramatically better body composition and performance compared to less activity per week.

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Simply total up your weekly activity in your exercise log, on a post-it-note, on a whiteboard, or wherever you prefer, and aim for 5 hours. If you can do more, great, but try to get at least 5 hours consistently each week.

On the other hand, you wouldn’t track any time spent on yoga, stretching exercises, mobility work, or sauna visits, for example. Those activities are still fantastic for your health, but they aren’t vigorous enough to count towards your weekly total.

Likewise, don’t count time spent walking to your car, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or grocery-shopping. Being as active as possible is far better than being sedentary, but it’s not the same thing as exercising.

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And now that we’ve established general best practices around cardio and activity volume, here’s what research and experience say about the proper amount of cardio for specific goals.

Fat oxidation may increase when you spend longer than 20 minutes exercising, so for best results, be sure to schedule cardio sessions of 20-60 minutes if your goal is fat loss[*].

Also, fasting or restricting carbs prior to cardio increases the rate of fat oxidation[*]. Therefore, consider an approach like intermittent fasting or cyclical keto if you want to maximize fat-burning — or just perform fasted cardio before breakfast.

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The timing of your session also makes a difference. One study showed a full 24-hour increase in fat oxidation participants performed fasted cardio before breakfast[*].

If you want to lose fat as fast as possible, you could potentially use extremely high-volume cardio to enhance your rate of fat loss.

For example, if you’re on the ketogenic diet, you may be able to burn over 1.5 grams of fat per minute during cardio, or 90 grams of stored fat per hour[*].

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Translation: with the correct diet, for every 5 hours of cardio, you may be able to shed an additional pound of stored body fat.

Feel free to choose accordingly if you’re ever in a fat loss contest for money. Otherwise, though, stick with the slow-and-steady route for your health and wellbeing.

Want to learn how fasting can maximize fat-burning and other health benefits of cardio? Don’t miss Fasted Cardio: Is It the Best Cardio to Burn Fat?

How Much Cardio Do I Have To Do Each Week To Lose Weight?

Cardio is an essential component of a lean bulking regimen. It speeds your recovery, enhances fat oxidation, and keeps fat gain to a minimum.

Similar to cardio for fat loss, the most effective way to perform your cardio for lean bulking is during a fast or while carb-restricted, in blocks of 20-60 minutes.

Here’s why you shouldn’t do cardio before weights if you want to add muscle: your strength levels may go down after cardio, which could interfere with your performance (and, as a result, diminish your bulking progress)[*].

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On the other hand, the inverse is also true: if you’re an athlete looking to get more aerobically fit, you should perform cardio before weights — or ideally, schedule them separately[*].

The type of cardio you choose for lean bulking is up to personal preference, but keep in mind that high-effort exercise like HIIT and sprinting could potentially slow your recovery,