How to Lose Weight Fast With Cardio

Losing weight too fast can crash your metabolism and make long-term weight-loss goals hard to reach. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies one to two pounds of weight lost a week as healthy. Cardiovascular activities can keep you on track to losing that weight fast within the recommendations. Cardiovascular workouts are most effective when combined with a healthy diet of 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day based on your height.

Instructions

1

Stretch before working out. Get your muscles warmed up by rotating your arms, doing lunges and swinging your legs.

2

Walk for five minutes as a warm-up; if biking or hoping on the elliptical, maintain a slow and easy pace for five minutes, and then begin to increase your intensity toward the end of the warm-up.

3

Increase your workout intensity to a pace where you could carry on a conversation but feel winded. Work out for 60 to 90 minutes each day to see the fastest results.

4

Increase your workout intensity to almost maximum for 20 seconds, and then reduce back to the talking-but-winded pace for 50 seconds. This type of interval training is better for weight loss, according to Mayo Clinic.com. Repeat these intervals throughout the workout. Do not do interval training on consecutive days, but instead alternate with a normal cardio workout.

5

Reduce your workout intensity to cool down. Do this for five minutes. Stretch after you get off of the machine or stop your cardio workout.