Aerobic exercise vs. anaerobic exercise burning fat. Which is better for burning fat? People want to get in the best shape of their lives by losing some fat. So which form of cardiovascular exercise (cardio) is best?
I have a little insight into this because I’ve lost 50 pound twice in my life. I also recently went on a mini weight cut to lose 20 pounds. This time I’ve kept it off. Throughout my fitness journey, I’ve gained a lot of insight into weight loss!
Just hung out with my friends last night and ended up eating six slices of pizza and two brownies. Do I regret this and am I going to starve myself today? Absolutely NOT! It’s all about balance! I also kept my calories lower earlier in the day, so it’s all good!
Anywho, aerobic vs anaerobic exercise! There is a lot of information about both all over the internet, a lot of misinformation too; that being said I’ll be discussing everything you need to know in this post today. I’ll also be taking scientific data into consideration!
Commonly searched things are “aerobic exercise vs anaerobic exercise burning fat weight”, “aerobic exercise vs anaerobic exercise burning body fat”, “does anaerobic exercise burn fat” or “does aerobic exercise burn fat or carbs”? We’ll be discussing this and more!
Everything About Aerobic Exercise Vs Anaerobic Exercise Burning Fat
Before diving into this, I’ve said this in five of my past posts, if not more; if you are not in a CALORIC DEFICIT, it doesn’t matter what you do, you will gain weight. Doesn’t matter what type of cardio you are doing, if you are eating more calories than you body requires, you will gain weight.
Talking about how many calories you need as an individual is beyond the scope of this article. If you want to know everything about that, read my article, Calculating Calories.
As for the question, does aerobic exercise burn fat or carbs? It doesn’t matter. If it burns the fat, the carbs will be later used for energy. If it burns carbs, fat will be used later for energy. Either way, you’ll end up in the same spot.
Just be an caloric deficit, stop complicating this, it’s easier then you think. Stop listening to all the nonsense on the internet, please.
1. Aerobic Exercise (LISS)4
Aerobic exercise can also be called low intensity steady state cardio (LISS).
It’s exercising at moderate intensity over an extended period of time, such as maybe 30 minutes or an hour.
The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio throughout the week.
It’s when you exercising in the range of 50-70% of your maximal heart rate. So, how do you calculate that?? Fear not! I shall tell you!
You can calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. To get your suggested range for moderate intensity cardio multiply that number by 0.5 to get the lower number of you range and by 0.7 to get the upper number of the range.
Example – Age: 20
- Maximum heart rate: 220 – 20 – 200
- 50% of a maximum heart rate for a 20 year old: 200 x 0.5 = 100
- 70% of a maximum heart rate for a 20 year old: 200 x 0.7 = 140
- Goal range for heart rate for moderate intensity cardio for a 20 year old: 100 – 140
As a side note, I never monitor my heart rate. I just make sure I sweat. Just try to push yourself, don’t just to through the motions.
Here are some example of aerobic exercise:
- Going for a walk (at a pace of 2.5 mi/hr as recommended by the American Heart Association, but do what you can!!!)
- Light jog
- Pedaling on an elliptical
- Just riding a bike
- Gardening
- Stationary bike at home or the gym
- Naruto running (briskly)
- Walking to McDonalds for some french fries, pies, Mcflurry, a few sandwiches and a diet coke
You don’t have to got to the gym as you can see! Just get outside and walk after eating your entire cheesecake! Maybe don’t do the eating of the entire cheesecake part!
2. Anaerobic Exercise (HIIT)1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11
Alright my deep dish pizza lovers, it’s time to talk about anaerobic exercise. You can also refer this as HIIT cardio. What is HIIT cardio? Is it when you hit on your crush and walk away in rejection? When you hit something while doing cardio? No!
HIIT stand for high intensity interval training, you silly goose!
It’s recommended to only perform HIIT cardio for 20-30 minutes 2-3 times a week. This is because it’s more intense and it’s advisable to give yourself recovery time so you don’t increase you chances of injury.
For HIIT, the recommended heart rate is 70-85% of your maximal heart rate.
The purpose of HIIT is to exercise more intensely, so you don’t have to exercise for a longer period of time. It’s so you can burn more calories in a shorter period of time. It’s also reported you burn more calories after performing the cardio as well because your body has to recover from the intense training, but we’ll touch on this more later.
With LISS, you don’t have to push as hard, but you will have to exercise for longer. Perhaps 45 minutes or an hour. You can also perform LISS every day if you wanted to.
Other examples of HIIT include interval sprints, circuit training or interval training on an elliptical.
3. Aerobic Exercise Vs. Anaerobic Exercise Burning Fat
Lets compare the two. Here are pros and cons charts for both for things I could think of, please feel free to add your suggestions/opinions.
| Aerobic Activity (LISS) | |
| Pros | Cons |
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Anaerobic Activity |
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Pros |
Cons |
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From looking at it like this, it might seem HIIT is better without a doubt, right? You don’t have to exercise as long, less times a week; you even get the EPOC effect! It’s potentially less boring. Don’t get too excited yet. Lets look at some scientific studies.
I. Aerobic Exercise Vs Anaerobic Exercise Burning Fat – Scientific Literature
Out of the NINE studies I went trough comparing HIIT and LISS, only ONE found that HIIT cardio burnt more calories than LISS cardio. This was study by Viana et al. The LISS group had a 6% reduction in body fat and the HIIT group at a 6.2% reduction. Even then, that’s only a 0.2% difference. Doesn’t impress me, at all.
A lot of people argue about the EPOC effect of HIIT cardio as well. What’s EPOC? Great question, it’s “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption”. Yeah, a mouthful I know (that’s what she said, haha, you’re so funny).
With HIIT cardio your body isn’t getting enough oxygen replacement as you’re using a lot because you’re pushing so hard during the workout to regenerate adenosine triphosphate (ATP – that’s energy for your body). So after you’re done, your body burns more calories to replace the oxygen.
You’ll basically be breathing harder even after performing HIIT as opposed to LISS. However, it’s an insignificant amount of calories.
With LISS your body can replace more oxygen during the exercise as your body isn’t consuming as much after the workout.
From the studies I have read, it appears as if the EPOC effect is variable between people, the intervals they are performing and how long they do HIIT cardio for. EPOC can last from under an hour to almost a day.
EPOC only makes a difference when people perform HIIT for prolonged period of time (most likely well over an hour). Let me tell you, that would be tough for most people who aren’t athletes.
People who are attempting to lose weight or starting their fitness journey, EPOC would most likely do nothing for you.
As you can see, it can’t be said that HIIT is better than LISS.
4. My Experience
When I did HIIT cardio, I used to use the elliptical and pedal as hard as I could for 1 minutes and then do 2 minutes of moderate pace pedaling. I started of doing this for 20 minutes and worked my way up to 50 minutes, 5-6 days a week.
I would not recommend that, neither will I ever do HIIT cardio 5-6 days a week again. Or even more than 30 minutes a day, if I ever do it again. It’s very tough on you physically and mentally. I hated it.
It got me so exhausted and I was always mentally dreading it. I’m thankful I didn’t injure my joints either.
It made me not want to exercise because I was so burnt out all the time.
Later on, I went on a small diet again and ended up losing 20 pounds in 16 week, all without HIIT. I just did LISS.
I could have combined HIIT and LISS too keep changing things up, but I’m just not a fan of HIIT. You have more of a chance for injury and in the long run, it doesn’t burn as much calories. It can save you time though.
HIIT isn’t for me. If you enjoy it, then do it! Just make sure to give your body ample time to heal between HIIT sessions.
Overall, HIIT is no better than LISS.
There is no ideal form of cardio. Do ones you like most (or hate the least). Change it up if you want! I gave some aerobic vs anaerobic exercise examples in each of their respective sections if you want some ideas!
My article, Fat Loss Diet Example to Lose Fat Mindlessly: Current Diet and Training Regimen 2023, goes through my diet, weightlifting routine and exactly how I increased my cardio per week to lose 20 pounds in a matter of 16 weeks. That was taking it slowly. Check it out if you’re interested!
This article was allow about Aerobic Exercise Vs Anaerobic Exercise Burning Fat!
Disclaimer: I’m not your doctor. Please consult your doctor, nutritionist or any health care professional before making any changes in your own lifestyle. These blogs are just me sharing my knowledge for you reading entertainment purpose only. None of this is medical advice.
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Resources
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- Su L, Fu J, Sun S, Zhao G, Cheng W, Dou C, Quan M. Effects of HIIT and MICT on cardiovascular risk factors in adults with overweight and/or obesity: A meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2019 Jan 28;14(1):e0210644. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0210644. PMID: 30689632; PMCID: PMC6349321.
- Keating SE, Johnson NA, Mielke GI, Coombes JS. A systematic review and meta-analysis of interval training versus moderate-intensity continuous training on body adiposity. Obes Rev. 2017 Aug;18(8):943-964. doi: 10.1111/obr.12536. Epub 2017 May 17. PMID: 28513103.
- American Heart Association. (2023, May 15). Target heart rates chart. www.heart.org. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/fitness/fitness-basics/target-heart-rates
- Wewege M, van den Berg R, Ward RE, Keech A. The effects of high-intensity interval training vs. moderate-intensity continuous training on body composition in overweight and obese adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obes Rev. 2017 Jun;18(6):635-646. doi: 10.1111/obr.12532. Epub 2017 Apr 11. PMID: 28401638.
- Viana RB, Naves JPA, Coswig VS, de Lira CAB, Steele J, Fisher JP, Gentil P. Is interval training the magic bullet for fat loss? A systematic review and meta-analysis comparing moderate-intensity continuous training with high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Br J Sports Med. 2019 May;53(10):655-664. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099928. Epub 2019 Feb 14. PMID: 30765340.
- Zhang H, Tong TK, Qiu W, Zhang X, Zhou S, Liu Y, He Y. Comparable Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training and Prolonged Continuous Exercise Training on Abdominal Visceral Fat Reduction in Obese Young Women. J Diabetes Res. 2017;2017:5071740. doi: 10.1155/2017/5071740. Epub 2017 Jan 1. PMID: 28116314; PMCID: PMC5237463.
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- Panissa VLG, Fukuda DH, Staibano V, Marques M, Franchini E. Magnitude and duration of excess of post-exercise oxygen consumption between high-intensity interval and moderate-intensity continuous exercise: A systematic review. Obes Rev. 2021 Jan;22(1):e13099. doi: 10.1111/obr.13099. Epub 2020 Jul 12. PMID: 32656951.
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