@goliathliftzz: Ok, so what if I told you we could choose a cardio intensity that makes our bodies use more fat for fuel? Wouldn’t that be exactly what we want when we’re trying to get lean? Well, we actually can influence which fuel our bodies use during exercise. As intensity increases, we generally rely more on carbohydrates, while fat oxidation tends to peak somewhere around a moderate intensity. That’s where the whole Fatmax and Zone 2 conversation comes from. But here’s where things get interesting: burning more fat during a workout and losing more body fat over time are two different things! I’ve experimented with pretty much every approach myself. I’ve done HIIT, harder steady-state cardio where I’m running at a decent pace and spending a lot of energy, and very easy, slow cardio where I can comfortably hold a conversation. And over time, I’ve stopped looking at them as competing methods (like I often say, things aren’t black and white // “either or”) Research comparing HIIT with moderate-intensity continuous training generally finds similar changes in fat mass. Meanwhile, a large meta-analysis by Jayedi and colleagues found that increasing weekly aerobic exercise was associated with progressively greater reductions in adiposity in adults with overweight or obesity. So what do we actually do with that information as bodybuilders? My current approach is to keep most of my cardio easy and sustainable. During a gaining phase, I use Zone 2-style work because I want the aerobic benefits, I like the fact that it encourages fat oxidation during exercise, and I can generally recover from it without taking too much away from my lifting. I’m not assuming that burning more fat during those sessions automatically prevents fat gain, though. When prep comes around, I don’t suddenly switch to HIIT because I need to burn more body fat. I usually keep the same type of cardio and adjust how much I’m doing, my diet, or both, depending on how things are progressing. For me, nutrition is the main lever for creating and managing the energy deficit. Cardio helps increase expenditure, supports cardiovascular fitness and gives us another variable to adjust. But I don’t want the cardio itself to become so demanding that it starts compromising the training we’re trying to preserve. I don’t think we have to choose between maximizing fat oxidation during exercise and maximizing fat loss over time. We can use lower-intensity cardio for its metabolic and recovery characteristics while managing our total expenditure and nutrition for the actual fat-loss outcome. At the end of the day, we need a strategy that helps us lose body fat while keeping the muscle we’ve worked so hard to build, whatever that looks like. Good cardio is cardio that gets done! #goliathliftzz #fatloss #buildmusclelosefat #howtolosefat #gymtipsforsuccess SOURCES * Romijn et al. (1993) — Regulation of endogenous fat and carbohydrate metabolism in relation to exercise intensity and duration. * van Loon et al. (2001) — The effects of increasing exercise intensity on muscle fuel utilisation in humans. * Steele et al. (2021) — Meta-analysis comparing interval training and moderate-intensity continuous training for body composition. * Jayedi et al. (2024) — Aerobic Exercise and Weight Loss in Adults: A Systematic Review and Dose-Response Meta-Analysis. JAMA Network Open.

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Wednesday 16 September 2026 15:37:59 GMT