Decreasing Calories or Adding Cardio to Speed up Fat Loss?

Hi CT. So I know this is kind of dumb but 3 months ago I finished Lyle Mcdonald rapid Fat loss with amazing results. The only issue is I stayed on it for 11 weeks which is quite long. I reversed dieted after that and I add about 6 lbs of fat in 10 weeks raising my calories from 1000 to 3000 over that period and tappering down cardio. About 2 weeks ago, I decided to start a moderate cut on 2000 calories and 30 min of cardio daily while resistance training 5 times a week. The results are mediocre so far as I only lost 1 lb of fat over 2 weeks. So, I was wondering which is the better option, increasing cardio until achieved desired fat loss or reduce calories even further.
I am a 5ft7 male weighing 75 Kg with about 14% bodyfat.
Thank you :slight_smile:

I will always prefer to add cardio instead of cutting calories. First because food has micro-nutrients. The more you cut food, the less micronutrients you have. Second because it can be harder mentally to eat less and less.

That having been said, cardio does have a limited effect on fat loss and you certainly don’t want to end up training like an endurance athlete.

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Thank you so much Coach. Also, I don’t plan on going above 45 min-1 hour daily which I hope is enough to get me to 1 pound of fat loss per week.
Thank you so much for your knowledge :slight_smile:

Hi guys. So I know this is kind of a dumb question but I would really appreciate your input on it. about 3 months ago I finished Lyle Mcdonald rapid Fat loss with amazing results. The only issue is I stayed on it for 11 weeks which is quite long. I reversed dieted after that and I add about 6 lbs of fat in 10 weeks raising my calories from 1000 to 3000 over that period and tappering down cardio. About 2 weeks ago, I decided to start a moderate cut on 2000 calories and 30 min of cardio daily while resistance training 5 times a week. The results are mediocre so far as I only lost 1 lb of fat over 2 weeks. So, I was wondering which is the better option, increasing cardio until achieved desired fat loss or reduce calories even further.
I am a 5ft7 male weighing 75 Kg with about 14% bodyfat.
Thank you :slight_smile:

Neither. You’ve been doing things in extremes over a very short period.

Losing about a pound a week is pretty good. Even half a pound a week is fine. At your weight, 2000 calories isn’t much, but you should be able to keep losing fat at that intake without increasing cardio. You could probably lose fat without cardio at 2000 calories a day.

Honestly, though, your best bet would be to work towards stabilising your body composition and weight while increasing calories until you hit a sustainable maintenance level. Then hold there for a while - at least three months - before trying to do anything else.

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Thank you for your answer , it is really appreciated. and I know that even 1/2 a pound a week is still ok, I am really not that patient. But, I guess I should be this time to avoid crushing my metabolism. Thank you!

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You have to do both. This is what worked for me. I am someone who has slow metabolism and may be a mesomorph.
You don’t mention about your weight training. I think if you are training enough and hard enough recovering without a decent enough diet can be extremely difficult.

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Up your calories to maintenance and run through Thibs programs that have a metabolic componenent like this …

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Do you track your NEAT at all? You’re most likely inactive at other times during the day when you’re not at the gym. Get a minimum of 10000 steps a day & keep it consistent, you’ll need a fitness tracker or the phone app to keep track of it. Cardio is great and all but it doesn’t do much if you’re not keeping active during the day.

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I actually have a sedentary job but I fidget a lot and I also tracks my steps and they average between 8000 and 12000 since I walk to the gym. So, I suspect it is because of NEAT.

Yeah definately keep an eye out. when I get deeper into a cut I usually up my NEAT and it gets things going again. So if you currently range from 8-12k a day, maybe you can up that to 13-16k a day.

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Yeah that’s definately my plan once I start to get around the 10% mark and I am no longer able to add extra cardio or cut extra calories.

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