These are the 4 most common cardio mistakes that I see folks making that are slowing down or stopping them from losing fat and in some cases, even making them gain body fat, which sounds kinda wild, but it does happen, so let’s dig right in here…

The first mistake that I see is what I like to call ‘cardio compensation’…

Folks will start doing cardio daily via riding a spin bike at the gym, walking on the treadmill or hitting the stair master and they feel super accomplished once they’re done which is great, the kicker is that they often tend to consciously or unconsciously move around less during the remainder of their day because in their heads they’ve already boxed off their movement.

While it’s true that they did do a cardio session and that’s awesome and all, the trouble is that if you move around less during the rest of your day because you feel as though you’ve quote unquote ‘already exercised’…your cardio session can be a complete wash from a calorie expenditure standpoint or even worse yet, you can burn even fewer total calories than if you were to just have gone about your day regularly without doing that cardio session, for example…

Let’s say that you do 45 minutes on the treadmill at the gym before work…cool, I’m a big fan of kicking off the day with some movement! I’d prefer that that movement be outdoors but hey, it’s definitely better than not moving at all…

Later on, you’ve got a lunch meeting and you think to yourself, ‘the restaurant isn’t that far away, I think I’ll just walk like I usually would,’ but then you remember that you did your cardio that morning and you decide to drive instead.

In the early afternoon you normally grab a coffee (decaf that is because you prioritize your sleep ;)) and instead of walking to your favourite coffee shop, you decide to grab a cup from the communal coffee station at work, which requires 50 steps instead of 2000-3000.

After dinner a friend of yours or your partner asks you to go for a little sunset stroll and you say, ‘nah, let’s just chill on the couch’ because you’re still riding the high of your morning treadmill session and you’re planning on doing another one the following morning.

This is cardio compensation…folks will often implement formal cardio and then either consciously or unconsciously move around less during the rest of their day and it becomes a wash or even worse yet, a reduction in their total calorie expenditure for the day as a whole.

Now this setup is fine if you just prefer to do cardio first thing in the morning and move around less during the rest of your day however, it’s crucial that you don’t move around so much less that you actually end up burning fewer total calories because in this scenario even if you change nothing about your nutrition, this setup can actually have you gain bodyfat via less total energy burned.

Mistake number two is the ‘I earned or deserve this’ pitfall…

When folks implement cardio into their routines, they very often will reward themselves with additional calories throughout the rest of the day because they see that they burned ‘x’ amount on a piece of cardio equipment of their choice and then decide that they earned or deserve more food as result.

When your goal is fat loss, this setup can stop you from losing fat and even more commonly promote fat gain for a few reasons…

One being, that the assumption is that the calories that the machine said that you burned you actually burned and these machines are notoriously inaccurate in favour of overestimating calories burned…they’re far too generous and the same goes for things like fitbits, apple watches and whoop bands.

Personally, I don’t even look at the amount of calories that my apple watch says that I burned, however there is something that I do track religiously on my watch and we’ll touch on that soon.

Secondly, the calories that that machine said that you burned also factors in your resting calorie expenditure meaning, whether you were on the couch or on the treadmill, you would have been burning at least some energy. So if the machine or your wearable said that you burned 300 calories and then you decide to reward yourself with a 300 calorie snack, over time this setup can have you gain bodyfat because a portion of that 300 calories you would have burned regardless of whether you were at the gym or lounging on the couch and again…

That’s assuming that the digit is accurate, which it most likely isn’t…they tend to overestimate caloric burn to a large degree and therefore, let’s say that you actually burned 150 calories not 300…

You’ve now not only overcompensated by an additional 150 calories due to the inaccuracy of the machine, but also because you would have burned some energy just living, so it’s a bit of a double whammy here!

The third mistake that I see is getting too handsy…

I was in Texas last month at a gym where there were a ton of physique competitors that compete in bodybuilding shows and these folks often get prescribed daily cardio by their coaches, the thing is that they’re very often draped all over the equipment, for example…

I saw a bunch of folks on the stair master hunched over and basically laying on the bars with their upper bodies, that burns fewer calories than actually supporting your body weight. I saw other folks ramp up the incline on the treadmill because incline treadmill walking burns more calories than flat treadmill walking however, half of these folks were holding on to the handles and leaning back to a degree that made the angle of the treadmill flat for their bodies…this burns fewer calories too!

Now you might be thinking, how much of a difference can that really make and the answer is not a huge amount in a single session, however if you’re doing 30 or 60 minutes of cardio per day 4-5x per week, that seemingly small amount is going to add up to a lot fewer calories burned over the course of time.

You can think about it like this…

Adding an additional tablespoon of peanut butter per day to your toast is about 100 calories, not a huge digit, but that’s 700 calories over the course of the week and almost 3000 over the month. Small things add up to big things when they’re compounded.

The fourth mistake is thinking that more sweat equals more calories burned…

Sweating a bunch can correlate with more calories burned, however this can be super deceiving due to a very obvious factor which is temperature…if you’re in a hot gym vs. a cold gym or you’re wearing heavy clothing vs. light clothing and you apply the same effort and time to your cardio session, you’re essentially burning the same number of calories. So, just because you do a hot yoga class and sweat a bunch or your spin studio is super warm, it’s a mistake to think that it’s making an appreciable difference in terms of energy expended.

Also, thinking that you burned even more energy is more likely to lead to further compensation during the rest of the day via movement and/or calorie consumption…psychology plays in big time with movement and eating behaviour!

If anything, working out in a colder environment is going to have you burn more energy because your body has to work to keep you warm hence, we shiver, which is involuntary muscle contraction aka the body is working to avoid hypothermia.

So as you can see…between cardio compensation, quote unquote earning additional calories, taking a borderline nap on pieces of cardio equipment and thinking that more sweat equals more energy burned…

You can absolutely implement cardio into your day to day routine and not only not lose any fat, but even gain fat if you compensate to a degree that has you burning less total overall energy and/or taking in more calories, so…

Now the question becomes, what should you do? How do we sidestep these potential issues...?

First of all, track your step counts because this takes the movement compensation pitfall out of the equation because all you’ve gotta do is look at your total step counts for the day and you know whether you’ve compensated or not, for example…

If you normally hit 10k steps per day and when you start implementing cardio you see that your step counts dip down to 6k subconsciously…that’s a 4000 step reduction per day…we don’t want that, so be sure to track your step counts and this issue is super easily avoided.

Secondly, if you’re going to reward yourself for activity, be sure that the reward contributes to your overall goal vs. is in direct conflict with it, for example…

Maybe you reward yourself with a new pair of walking shoes or headphones vs. with more calories because it’s so easy to out-eat activity levels…this is why we see overweight marathon runners and gym goers all the time!

Third, hit 10k steps per day or 70k over the week as a whole and then if you’d like to add ‘cardio’ on top of that, go for it, but don’t let cardio sessions replace your step counts because…

Walking burns more calories than workouts…yes, you read that right!!

Walking is also amazing for appetite regulation meaning, folks who hit their 10k steps per day have better blood sugar management and appetite signalling, which is huge in terms of reaching your fat loss goals.

Also, fortunately you’re required to support your own weight when walking vs. when you’re on something like a stationary bike…it makes a difference from a calorie burn standpoint and there are no hand rails to grab onto outside, so it takes the napping on the treadmill or stair master dealio out of contention as well.

In terms of psychology, you’re far less likely to think, ‘I burned x amount of calories on that walk and therefore I can eat more’ whereas you’re much more likely to do this post cardio gym session…this is purely psychological because we don’t tend to think that walking is an intensive calorie burning activity and therefore we’re less likely to eat more as a result of getting our steps in.

Walking is also typically done outside, which means you’re getting light exposure in your eyes and light exposure is awesome, vital in fact for anchoring your circadian rhythm, which is just a roundabout way of saying, it’ll improve your sleep at night…wins all around!

Walking is an amazing stress reliever…cardio can be too for some folks, however there’s just something about walking outdoors in terms of reflecting and problem solving that’s unique and special in my experience…tons of my clients have mentioned this same phenomena too!

And the most important thing in this entire article is the following…when your goal is fat loss, address your NUTRITION first…adding activity can assist in your fat loss efforts however, the primary input by a LONGGG shot is diet.

You’ve likely heard that fat loss is ‘80% diet and 20% exercise’…to be honest, that’s underselling diet and overselling exercise, for example…

I have folks come to me all the time saying, ‘Marcus, help me…I exercise regularly but I just can’t seem to lose weight, it’s not working’…and I’m like ya…it doesn’t!

My personal experience with this is quite literally why I became a nutrition coach, dietary change yields the best results no ifs, ands or buts about it.

I would love it if exercise was an effective route to take for fat loss because I love to go the gym, play sports, cycle, hike etc. but it just doesn’t, so…

You can continue to bang your head against the wall and kill yourself via hours and hours of exercise every week or, you can prioritize nutrition and actually get the results that you want.

Having said that, if you choose not to change a thing about your diet, I’d still recommend hitting your 10k steps per day.