Why Cardio Doesn’t Work For Weight Loss or Total Body Toning

When it comes to weight loss, its seems like everyone is looking for the newest way to "lose weight fast" The prevailing weight loss and toning "wisdom" in the fitness community seems to have always viewed 45 minutes to an hour of intense cardio as absolutely essential to achieving any weight loss goals. The truth is, this repetitive over training philosophy has created plethora of stressed, immune-compromised, frustrated, injured and confused people in its wake. Quite simply we are not designed to chronically aerobicize at the sustained high intensities that so many people believe they need to.

At least if the results were there you could understand why people do it, but the truth is, the results are almost always unimpressive. Anyone who’s done years of hour upon hour on the treadmill or elliptical and hasn’t done much to shed those extra pounds can tell you this is true. You aren’t going to get fast weight loss or total body toning running your body ragged.

There are very specific reasons why the repetitive cardio method fails. There are also easier, more effective, and more fun ways to burn fat, build  lean muscle and optimize the human body and your life.

Too much cardio exercise has a number of harmful effects on the body:

- Increased inflammation

- Increased oxidative damage

- Decreased fat metabolism

- Depressed immune system

- Disruption to cortisol levels

Overtraining is especially damaging because of its effects on cortisol. Too much exercise disrupts the body’s natural cortisol rhythm it first drives levels too high, and eventually depress them over time. Unfortunately for anyone looking to lose inches especially around the belly, cortisol dysregulation actually promotes abdominal fat gain and muscle loss!

What might be even more shocking is according to Dr Kurt Harris there is evidence that frequent endurance exercise may actually increase heart disease.

The truth is, current main-stream ideas of health and exercise are being challenged by science on a daily basis. Its important for both the health of your body and your fitness and weight loss goals that you keep a flexible mind when choosing your fitness routine.