The factor we are going to consider here is if cardio burns a significant amount of calories, hence lose weight / burn fat, while performing the aerobic activity.

Well, obviously, any activity you perform, whether it's cardio, lifting, mowing the lawn, etc., requires the body to burn calories for fuel and energy.

So, yes, cardio burns calories / fat / weight.

However, what we want to know is if the amount of calories that cardio burns is significant, if it even makes an impact or dent on weight loss.

First off, let me start by saying that if you do cardio using some kind of machine, whether it be a stairclimber, treadmill, or elliptical, don't even bother looking at the "calories burned" number that the machine gives you.

There is no way in the world that a machine can accurately tell you how many calories you just burned.

Why?

Because our age, gender, training experience, metabolism, physiological make-up, etc., all are what determine how many calories an individual requires to perform a certain task.

And when it comes to that, we are all individual.

You could have one person that doing cardio for 30 minutes will burn 100 calories, and then have another person do 30 minutes of cardio, at the same speed as the other individual, yet instead of burning 100 calories, only burned 50.

A 30 year old male weighing 230 pounds with 14% body fat is going to burn a totally different amount of calories than an 18 year old female that weighs 105 pounds at 7% body fat........even if they are performing the exact same cardio activity at the same intensity.

So, don't get all excited if you think you've been burning hundreds and hundreds of calories while on that elliptical, because you probably aren't burning anywhere near that much, and, again, as a result lose a lot of weight / fat.

Yes, again, cardio does burn calories.

But, the amount of calories is really not that significant, it's not that high.

For example, if you were to perform intense cardio for 45-60 minutes, you may, probably at best, burn 200 calories, on average.

Here's the thing, as soon as you eat a piece of bagel, which is about 400 calories, or some other food, regardless if it's made up of protein, carbs, or fats, you would have instantly counter-acted those 200 calories you burned sweating like crazy on the machine.

Remember, your body must have less calories available than what you are giving it in order to burn fat and stay ripped and toned.

If you burned 200 calories on the treadmill, but eat something that was 200 or more calories, you just wasted that entire hour doing cardio.....for nothing!

One of the many reasons so many people that do cardio day after day, hour after hour, never ever really lose weight or burn body fat!

I don't know about you, but I'd rather just cut out a piece of food here and there than to slave away on a machine...........since it all achieves the same goal!!!!

Again, the amount of calories that cardio burns is not that much to make an impact.........unless you have the time to do 7 hours of cardio per day.

Period.