Differences Between Aerobics and Cardio Exercise

One common question I get asked on a regular basis is, what are the differences between aerobic and cardio types of exercise?Generally, aerobics tends to be easier, consistent and longer in duration. Cardio differs in that it tends to be a harder type of exercise. Harder cardio training helps maintain or improves fitness because it works the heart and cardiovascular system much more.The different exercises can be referred to as either high or low intensity of effort. So it will probably be better to answer the details of this question in the context of low or high-intensity exercise, so what are the differences, and which is best for losing weight?High-intensity exercise generally means regularly providing more effort during a movement or moving at a faster pace, either results in burning a great amount of energy. Typical examples would be sprinting, weight training, football or basketball. Low-intensity exercise generally means working out with less effort, but keeping up a consistent pace. Some examples would be walking, speed walking, cycling, aerobics classes and light jogging (for those with average and higher fitness levels).To lose weight, any exercise will play its role as all will burn a greater amount of calories than doing nothing. For many overweight people, low-intensity exercises will probably be best, even though they don’t burn off as much energy as high-intensity activities. The reason is that low-intensity exercise doesn’t upset or stress the body too much when completed and as a result, can help regulate the appetite. Activities with a lower intensity also tend to burn a greater degree of fat for fuel, even though less total energy is burned per hour. This can be adjusted by simply increasing the duration of the session.High-intensity exercises often cause the muscle cells to break down much quicker, resulting in a greater loss of nutrients which require more replenishment over the following few days. What this means is that many people may experience an increased appetite to encourage us to eat more nutrition to provide for sufficient recovery. It’s our body’s way of gaining a fast and complete recovery from stressful exercise. The more we eat the more nutrients are available for recovering post-exercised muscles.As a result, your body may be craving excessive nutrition in order to aid recovery. The problem with this is that it often means excessive calories consumed which also affects the potential to lose weight.Here is a report published in a scientific journal about the results of a study:”When it comes to achieving optimum weight loss results, lower-intensity exercise may be preferable over high-intensity training, a new study finds. Published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, the study compared women who followed a three-month regimen of moderate-intensity workouts, such as brisk walks, with those who engaged in more high-intensity exercise such as sprinting. At the end of three months, the moderate-intensity exercise group was found to have shed significantly more weight than the high-intensity group, an average of seven pounds each compared with four pounds each. Researchers suggested that women in the high-intensity exercise group may have engaged in post-exercise overeating as a result of fatigue”.It may be a good idea to have a mixture of both types of exercise when trying to lose weight. However, for the majority of overweight people I think low-intensity exercises would be best to begin with for the reason of health and safety. When the body has adapted to this type of exercising, and especially if the results have started to slow down, then gradually introduce another type of exercise, one which can be completed without too much strain. At this stage a form of exercise at a higher intensity may help boost the body into losing further weight.