hi guys i remember watching scott herman video explaining you need to do some cardio 3 to 4 times per week to burn fat but is unclear how intense you need

to do your cardio im still cutting but im below 20% fat i dont like doing hiit im more of endurance but i do it something like hit when i do cardio at the gym i go in the threadmill ussually 10-15 minutes at between 5-7 speed and keep the incline at 0.5 as im not trying to get my conditioning up just there to burn the calories then i take a 5 minute break or longer then i jump on the eliptical for another 15 minutes this time my heart rate is around 140-145 then i take another 5 minute break then jump back on the threadmill for 10 minutes i do that once a week and the other 4 days i do 20 minutes 10 minutes before lifting to warm up and 10 minutes after anyways i can burn lot of calories when i do a 40 minute cardio session i burn 600-900 calories and on the days do 20 minutes of cardio with the weightlifting i burn 700 plus calories.

ps to track my heart rate and calories burned i use the sportline you buy at walmart for 40 dollars i use that as a a guideline.

Aaron,

You're tracking the right metric - heart rate. You need to keep your heart rate up to burn the most body fat the most efficient way. This is why HIIT is so effective. While I am not a fan of steady state cardio, it does have its place for some people. You just need to be careful not to rely on it too much as it does not assist muscle growth and as your body adapts you actually burn less fat. If what you are doing now helps keep your heart rate elevated, you will burn body fat.

The most visual example of this is a marathon runner versus a sprinter. A marathon/endurance runner looks like a concentration camp survivor. They have no fat but they also have no muscle. Sprinters on the other hand are lean and muscular. Sprinting by definition is a HIIT type of activity.

John

I agree with John - HIIT all the way.

If you are worried about burning too many calories, there are two solid options...

1) Eat more food to compensate for your cardio

2) Don't do as much cardio.

While you might not be a fan of HIIT, it is great for making gains but still keeping fat levels in check. Depending on how much you want to build muscle as opposed to staying shredded will determine how much cardio you want to do.

Maybe you could try doing just 15-20 minutes after your workouts, 2-3 times a week. Then, once you feel like you have made the progress you wanted to (And if you are eating well, any fat you do put on won't be much), then you can maybe start doing more cardio again and see how it goes.

Also, I would suggest you try and avoid cardio before your workouts. a five minute warm up at a really slow jog might be OK, but 20 minutes is too much in my opinion, before you lift. You want to conserve that energy to hit the weights as hard as possible! #HTH

Jordan

Agree with above two posts. I would also add the advantage with HIIT is you can do it on either alternate days (up to 45 mins) or right after a weights session assuming kept to 15 / 20 mins.

You'd need to do a greater amount of cardio using steady-state and as already mentioned, it's most likely to eat away at muscles, as opposed to HIIT that will elevate your metabolism and keep you burning fat (whilst retaining muscle) for a longer period of time due to epoc.

Literally any activity can be done as a HIIT activity - pick a sport or exercise and do quick bursts of that at high intensity, with brief periods of rest and repeat for the alloted time. How often you do so, partly depends on how many lifting days.