Advice for cardio

[PixelFive]

Im currently running an upper and lower split, 4 days a week. My rest days are Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. My aim is to lose body fat (although add muscle where possible).

I have an indoor fitness bike and wonder what would be the appropriate intensity to start with (and progress to) if i was to cycle on 2 of the 3 days off? Should i be having it on low intensity and cycling fast as possible or add some intensity? Looking for some ideas.

Let me know if you need to know anything more.

Thanks

[SuffolkPunch]

If your goal is purely fat loss, you need not do any cardio - just control your calorie intake.

Of course, you can increase your deficit by adding cardio although I think it is an unproductive use of time purely for that goal. If it suits you to eat more and do more, that's a more personal decision.

[ezra76]

I do walking and use a stationary bike. For the bike I like to only do about 15 minutes. I do it on manual and go like level 3 for a few minutes, up to 5 and then 7 where I'll take the rpms over 100 for a minute or so then go back down to 3 at like 75-80 rpm.

Walking I just have the step counter. I usually end up around 2-2.5 miles.

I've found it a good balance for building muscle, losing some fat slowly along the way. You can do no cardio and eat less of course but I prefer the energy that comes from some cardio and more food than sitting around being hungry.

[EliKoehn]

If your goal is purely fat loss, you need not do any cardio - just control your calorie intake.

Of course, you can increase your deficit by adding cardio although I think it is an unproductive use of time purely for that goal. If it suits you to eat more and do more, that's a more personal decision.

For maintaining overall fitness during the process of weight loss, what are your thoughts on including it, and to what degree do you think it is important in that context?

[sowilson]

For good cardiac health the recommendation is 45 minutes most days of the week. Any form of cardio you like and it can be additive (i.e. 45 minutes doesn't have to be all at once). So walk, ride a bike, swim, hike, row, run, anything to elevate your heart rate for a minimum of 15 minutes. I like to walk and hike during the summer, in the winter go for a walk (if streets are clear) in the neighborhood or a mall, or more recently a rowing machine. On your "rest" days make that "active rest". It's fine to play pickup basketball, yoga, swim, whatever.

[GeneralSerpant]

Following the notion that fat loss is strongly diet based, whatever works best for your training schedule is going to be best for you.

IMO low intensity is ideal for if your muscles are tanked from a workout and you're not worried about running stronger as you practice, or you're really just doing it practically to kill time for like 2 hours on an off day.

I see a lot of people suggest there are weight loss adaptations to untrained exercises, and I feel like progressive training seems to trim me up more. That starts complicating it a bit though, and people tend to emphasize energy balance strongly in spite of that.

[adelinagerber]

If you want good cardio, you need to run long runs.