Written by Michael J. Rudolph, Ph.D.
02 April 2019

19bestcardio-fatloss

Best Cardio for Fat Loss - Low Intensity or High Intensity?

 

 

Low-intensity cardiovascular exercise is the most common way to reduce body fat, despite mounting scientific evidence showing this form of cardiovascular training may not burn body fat as effectively as high-intensity cardio. In addition, low-intensity cardio has also been shown to inhibit muscle growth1,2, making the use of this approach to enhance your physique even more questionable. Low-intensity cardiovascular training inhibits muscle growth because it burns a great deal of energy. In order to restore this lost energy, certain energy-consuming pathways, such as muscle protein synthesis, are shut down, ultimately diminishing muscle growth.3 Furthermore, if the energy deficit caused from cardio is too severe, the body will oxidize muscle protein for energy, essentially driving muscle loss.

Because of these shortcomings associated with low-intensity cardiovascular exercise, a different form of high-intensity cardio, known as high-intensity interval training (HIIT), has become more prevalent. Most notably, HIIT has a remarkable capacity to reduce body fat more potently than low-intensity cardio, without wreaking havoc on energy levels within the muscle cell, which enables optimal muscle growth as well.

 

HIIT Drives Fat Loss While Boosting Testosterone

HIIT entails working at 80 to 90 percent of your maximum capacity for roughly one minute, accompanied by less intense recovery periods at 40 to 50 percent of maximum capacity, for approximately one minute. Interestingly, studies have found that subjects performing HIIT increased cardiovascular capacity4,5 and burned considerably more body fat than those who did low-intensity cardio programs6, while simultaneously promoting a more anabolic environment that supports muscle growth. In fact, one study by Boutcher et al.7 showed that HIIT increased testosterone levels, while standard low-intensity cardio actually lowered testosterone. What’s more, several other studies have shown that low-intensity cardiovascular exercise can actually suppress circulating testosterone levels for as long as three days.2,8

It’s also been found that low-intensity cardio not only reduces total testosterone levels, but it also lowers the bioactive form of testosterone.9 This was shown in a study by Hackney et al., which compared the total testosterone and the bioactive form of testosterone in 11 untrained and 11 endurance-trained males. The overall testosterone and free testosterone levels were much lower in the trained group, indicating that endurance training lowers testosterone and, more importantly, the bioactive form of testosterone in men.

Scientists have shown additional muscle-building effects associated with HIIT. This type of training increases insulin signaling and improves glucose influx into the muscle cell, providing greater energy to the muscle cell for improved muscular performance— while also enhancing muscle protein synthesis for greater muscle growth.7

Altogether, the extended reduction in testosterone levels for several days from low-intensity cardiovascular training will most likely promote considerable loss of muscle mass, while HIIT tends to favor a more anabolic hormonal environment that enhances muscle growth.

 

Fat Burning Lasts Longer With HIIT

In addition to HIIT burning fat and supporting a more robust anabolic setting, additional research has shown that HIIT also burns fat for longer periods of time, post-workout, relative to low-intensity cardio.10 Researchers believe this may be due to the ability of HIIT to uniquely increase production of PGC1-alpha 1, which stimulates mitochondrial function within the muscle cell.11,12,13 Because mitochondria are the power-producing organelles within the cell that oxidize fat, the ability of HIIT to enhance the activity of mitochondria directly increases the ability to burn fat, both during exercise and after exercise. In fact, studies have shown that high exercise intensity is required to increase caloric burn after exercise, as only high-intensity workouts increased excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), which indirectly measures the amount of calories burned after exercise.14

 

HIIT Directly Triggers Thermogenesis

The ability of HIIT to increase PGC-1 alpha levels in muscle has additional benefits outside of the muscle cell, where it directly influences adipose tissue. More specifically, it has been shown that increased levels of PGC-1 alpha within the muscle cell induces the expression of a recently identified protein called irisin, which binds to receptors on the surface of white adipose tissue (WAT).15 The binding of irisin to receptors on WAT activates a process known as thermogenesis, which boosts energy expenditure and fat loss. Consequently, exercise protocols such as HIIT— that robustly increase PGC-1 alpha levels in muscle tissue— likely prompt the expression of irisin, driving thermogenic activity in WAT for superior levels of fat loss.

 

Low-Intensity Cardio Inhibits Muscle Growth

In addition to low-intensity cardiovascular exercise being inferior to HIIT at burning fat, it reduces the capacity to pack on muscle mass. This occurs because low-intensity cardio consumes a great deal of energy, which tends to activate the cell’s central energy-sensing molecule, AMPK. Although activation of AMPK promotes considerable fat loss, it also prevents muscle growth by inactivating the enzyme mTOR, which is directly responsible for muscle protein synthesis and thus muscle growth. Consequently, cardiovascular exercise promotes considerable loss of bodyweight. However, a considerable portion of this weight loss has been shown to be muscle mass.1

In summary, while low-intensity cardiovascular training regimens increase PGC-1 alpha levels, exercise protocols like HIIT induce PGC-1 alpha more potently— resulting in greater fatty acid oxidation without causing the muscle loss associated with extensive low-intensity endurance exercise.

Now, don’t get me wrong— despite all of the condemnation of low-intensity cardio in this article, I’m not suggesting that you stop performing low-intensity cardiovascular work. Low-intensity endurance exercise has very positive effects on your overall health. However, I do highly recommend replacing some, or most, of your low-intensity cardiovascular work with HIIT, especially when your primary objective is to build muscle mass and gain strength. On the other hand, if you’re willing to sacrifice some muscle so you can get extremely ripped, then by all means crank up the low-intensity cardio and watch those pounds melt away. Just remember, some of that lost weight is going to be that hard-earned muscle mass you spent countless hours building in the gym— that certainly didn’t come without hard work, and won’t be easy to gain back.

 

For most of Michael Rudolph’s career he has been engrossed in the exercise world as either an athlete (he played college football at Hofstra University), personal trainer or as a research scientist (he earned a B.Sc. in Exercise Science at Hofstra University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Stony Brook University). After earning his Ph.D., Michael investigated the molecular biology of exercise as a fellow at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University for over eight years. That research contributed seminally to understanding the function of the incredibly important cellular energy sensor AMPK— leading to numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals including the journal Nature. Michael is currently a scientist working at the New York Structural Biology Center doing contract work for the Department of Defense on a project involving national security.

 

References:

1. Willis LH, Slentz CA (2012). Effects of aerobic and/or resistance training on body mass and fat mass in overweight or obese adults. J Appl Physiol 1985,113, 1831-1837.

2. Guglielmini C, Paolini AR and Conconi F. Variations of serum testosterone concentrations after physical exercises of different duration. Int J Sports Med 1984;5, 246-249.

3. Mounier R, Lantier L, et al. Important role for AMPKalpha1 in limiting skeletal muscle cell hypertrophy. Faseb J 2009;23, 2264-2273.

4. Gormley SE, Swain DP, et al. Effect of intensity of aerobic training on VO2max. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2008;40, 1336-1343.

5. Helgerud J, Hoydal K, et al. Aerobic high-intensity intervals improve VO2max more than moderate training. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2007;39, 665-671.

6. Tremblay A, Simoneau JA and Bouchard C. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism 1994;43, 814-818.

7. Boutcher SH. High-intensity intermittent exercise and fat loss. J Obes 2011;2011, 868305.

8. Kraemer RR, Kilgore JL, et al. Growth hormone, IGF-1, and testosterone responses to resistive exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc 1992;24, 1346-1352.

9. Hackney AC, Hosick KP, et al. Testosterone responses to intensive interval versus steady-state endurance exercise. J Endocrinol Invest 2012;35, 947-950.

10. Little JP, Safdar A, et al. An acute bout of high-intensity interval training increases the nuclear abundance of PGC-1alpha and activates mitochondrial biogenesis in human skeletal muscle. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2011;300, R1303-1310.

11. Arany Z. PGC-1 coactivators and skeletal muscle adaptations in health and disease. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2008;18, 426-434.

12.Burgomaster KA, Howarth KR, et al. Similar metabolic adaptations during exercise after low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance training in humans. J Physiol 2008;586, 151-160.

13. Short KR, Vittone JL, et al. Impact of aerobic exercise training on age-related changes in insulin sensitivity and muscle oxidative capacity. Diabetes 2003;52, 1888-1896.

14. LaForgia J, Withers RT and Gore CJ. Effects of exercise intensity and duration on the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. J Sports Sci 2006;24, 1247-1264.

15. Bostrom P, Wu J, et al. A PGC1-alpha-dependent myokine that drives brown-fat-like development of white fat and thermogenesis. Nature 2011;481, 463-468.

 

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