Oxygen helps to breakdown the fat and carbohydrates in order to keep our engines running. With that said, both cardio/aerobic and anaerobic exercise can help burn more calories.īut instead of gasoline, our muscles use fat and carbohydrates as their fuel. Your strategy should include being in a calorie deficit and using progressive resistance training over the course of several weeks and months. It’s first important to recognize that exercise is not the only requirement for a good weight loss plan. This is a common question: which type of exercise will help us fast-track the weight loss process? Is Cardio, Aerobic, Anaerobic Exercise Better For Weight Loss? Related Article: Are Exercise Bikes Good For Weight Loss? (Yes, Here’s Why) What DOES NOT Count As Anaerobic Exercise?Īny exercise that is performed at a low intensity, especially over long distances or durations, does not count as anaerobic exercise. Therefore, it can cause a high amount of lactic acid in the blood, which can lead your muscles to burn out and fatigue.Īt that point, you’ll need to slow the pace of your exercise down so that your muscles can be fueled by oxygen, which switches the type of activity from anaerobic to aerobic. This style of exercise uses more oxygen than the lungs and heart can supply to the body (sometimes also known as metabolic resistance training). Related Article: How Does Cardio Burn Fat? In contrast, they aren’t used for longer endurance activities. Fast-twitch muscle fibers are activated when the body nears maximum exertion, especially for short bursts of power and speed. It’s the type of exercise that requires short bursts of energy, such as when you’re lifting weights to improve strength, or when you sprint a short distance.Īnaerobic exercise uses Type II (fast-twitch) muscle fibers. It’s a different category of exercise onto itself.Īnaerobic exercise refers to exercise without using oxygen. Related Article: Can You Do Too Much Cardio? (8 Quick Ways To Tell)Īnaerobic exercise is not cardio or aerobic exercise. However, the heart rate and oxygen intake are not sustained for long enough to be classed as aerobic exercise. With these exercises, you will experience a brief rise in heart rate and oxygen intake. These include weightlifting, strength training, speed training, and power training. Many exercises DO NOT count as aerobic or cardio exercise. What DOES NOT Count As Cardio/Aerobic Exercise? So the rest of this article I will refer to cardio and aerobic together, simply because you can’t have one without the other. When you do a cardio workout, you are working aerobically. Therefore, though cardio and aerobic exercise are technically different, they are occurring simultaneously. However, while “aerobic” and “cardio” are used interchangeably, “aerobic” refers to using oxygen when exercising, and cardio refers to your heart pumping. If you’re involved in activities where you’re sweating and breathing heavy, this means that your body is requiring oxygen and it’s a form of aerobic exercise.ĭuring cardio and aerobic exercise your heart rate and oxygen intake both increases. Related Article: Sprinting On Treadmill vs Outside: Which One Is Better?Īerobic exercise is any form of exercise that uses oxygen. Although, this technical difference doesn’t really matter so much for the lay-person. However, as I’ll describe next, there is one slight technical difference. Cardio can include weighted activities too, but it’s usually done in a circuit-style fashion with the goal of increasing your heart-rate over a longer period of time rather than lifting weights to increase strength, power, or muscle mass.Ĭardio is what most people refer to when they are talking about “aerobic exercise”. Typically, when we talk about “cardio” we’re referring to activities, such as running, cycling, swimming, or rowing. Related Article: The Top 5 Cardio Machines That Are Good For Weight LossĬardio is a catch-all term that broadly refers to any form of exercise that increases your heart rate. What are the difference between cardio vs.