Cardio Workout for Obese Beginners

This page provides beginner information on doing a cardio workout for obese beginners and which fitness machines you can use to get started.

A cardio workout does a lot of good things for your body. It promotes your cardiovascular system's health and helps your body convert cells faster (called mitochondrial biogenesis) while immediately removing the damaged or dysfunctional cells.

Cardio training also allows you to sleep better. It gives you more energy, reduces your stress thanks to its relaxing effect, and improves your cholesterol levels.

Additionally, regular cardio training is also associated with better mental health.

And of course, you also burn a mountain of calories with it, so it helps with fat burning and slimming efforts.

Cardio Workout for Obese Beginners with Fitness Machines

What type of cardio workout is best for obese beginners?

The best cardio is the workout you can keep doing consistently and periodically and are excited about (those two things usually go hand in hand).

The number of calories you burn depends on several factors, such as your genetic equipment, starting weight, height, and workout intensity (and, therefore, your heart rate).

Although the best-known cardio sports for beginners are cycling, swimming, walking and running, most endurance training is done on fitness machines in a fitness center.

Treadmills, cross-trainers, rowing machines, ellipticals, exercise bikes, step machines, and stairmasters are some of the best-known options you can find in a fitness center.

There are a few different forms of cardio training:

  • Low to medium intensity endurance training
  • Interval training at a higher intensity

Cardio training at low to medium intensity

Recumbent Bike Cross Trainer And 2 Treadmills Cardio To Burn Belly Fat

This is endurance training to improve your endurance and efficiently reach the point where your body begins to burn fat faster.

In other words, this form of cardio focuses on training within your "fat burning zone." This means you train based on your heart rate, which should be between 60 and 70% of your maximum heart rate during training.

Good to know: Your maximum heart rate is calculated by subtracting your age from 220.

Suppose your heart rate is between 60-70% of your maximum heart rate during this form of cardio. In that case, your body can extract maximum energy from stored fat, hence the term fat-burning zone.

However, with this method at low to medium intensity, you will not burn as many calories as with a HIIT workout:

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Exercise Bike Cardio Workout To Lose Weight And Build Muscle In Legs

Interval training at a high intensity is a training method that can help you burn even more calories.

This requires you to exert maximum effort on your body for a short time, followed by a relatively long recovery phase.

By alternating between exercise and relaxation, your body continuously burns calories, even when your heart rate drops back during the relaxation phase.

You can do a HIIT workout in many different ways, such as using a hill workout (hills) or a Tabata workout. The length of the various intervals depends on your fitness level.

For your information: Just fifteen minutes of training this way is enough to speed up your metabolism (and your calorie burn at times of rest)!

What is the best fitness machine to burn fat with?

Cardio machines are excellent for losing weight. So you burn many calories with them (if you use the device as you should), and they are easy to use.

They are also usually equipped with built-in screens to watch YouTube videos and an integrated heart rate measurement function.

But there are so many different types of cardio machines. For example, which fitness machine is the best for burning fat and losing weight through a cardio workout for obese beginners?

In other words, on which device do you benefit from the highest fat burning? Below are the best devices you can use to combat excess fat.

Beware: Burning calories alone won't get you there. After all, it should be easy to maintain, and it should also be fun and varied.

This will allow you to happily stick with it for a more extended period and make losing weight easier.

Below is a list of interesting articles on the best fitness equipment for fat burning, considering factors such as calorie consumption, training intensity and ease of use.

Cross trainer

Cross Trainer Elliptical Workout To Reduce Belly Fat Good For Overweight People

The cross trainer is one of the best fitness machines for burning fat in the fat-burning zone.

On this machine, a lot of muscles in your whole body are activated, so you can take advantage of a full-body cardio workout.

On such a cross trainer, not only your lower body moves but also your upper body.

The bars of a cross-trainer move, engage and strengthens your arms. In fact, while exercising, you should make a pushing and pulling movement with your arms.

Thus, this movement also involves your torso and abdominal muscles and increases the number of calories you burn during a workout session.

Because of the many activated muscle groups, fat burning is therefore exceptionally high. The intensity is in your control but will never be extremely high (unless you overdo it heavily).

So with a cross-trainer, you can organize a good cardio workout for obese beginners that you can easily maintain.

On a cross-trainer, you can lose weight at home, but almost every fitness center has professional equipment.

Good to know

  • A lot of cross-trainers have training programs. You can also monitor your heart rate on them through the built-in heart rate sensors. You can also track the calories burned on it, considering your weight and age.
  • The risk of injury is minimal on a cross-trainer because your lower body has to endure less severe shocks. This makes a cross-trainer a safe cardio device to lose weight with.

The distinguishing feature of a cross-trainer is that this fitness machine provides an upper body workout in addition to the lower body workout that is possible by default using an elliptical:

Elliptical

Cardio Training On Elliptical Machines To Build Up Muscle And Lose Weight

Ordinary ellipticals have static bars you can hold while you train your legs.

In other words, unlike a cross trainer, an ordinary elliptical can only provide a workout for the lower body and not the upper body because there are no moving handles.

The same is true for stationary bikes such as spinning bikes and fan bikes, of which you can see some examples below:

Some people will choose a standard elliptical trainer for many well-defined reasons.

For example, this fitness machine's static and stationary handles benefit individuals with joint problems in the upper body. Think of a sore elbow or wrist or a weak shoulder that dislocates too easily.

It is also a particularly interesting option for people with balance problems. The elliptical's static handles allow you to balance easily throughout your cardio workout.

The incline on some elliptical trainers can be adjusted to increase difficulty, and some models offer custom training programs that specifically target specific muscles, such as the glutes or hamstrings.

An elliptical (as well as a cross-trainer) requires hip and knee extension to use the machine, engaging the buttocks and thigh muscles.

The main muscles engaged are as follows:

  • Lower tibia
  • Calves
  • Quads
  • Hamstrings
  • Glutes

For more information on the benefits of ellipticals in the context of fitness training, cardio workout for obese beginners, and fat burning, please refer to our informative articles on ellipticals:

Treadmill

Treadmills And Elliptical Machines In Gym Excellent Cardio Machines

Losing weight with jogging and walking is an all-time favorite. In fact, jogging is one of the better forms of exercise to boost fat burning.

You can jog at a low pace and dive into the ideal heart rate zone for fat burning. This is then a cardio workout on a treadmill.

But you can also make occasional sprints and alternate this with jogging. We call this HIIT training on the treadmill.

So losing weight with a treadmill can be done in multiple ways, making it a diverse and varied workout.

Check out our blog articles to learn more about walking to burn fat and improve overall health. Naturally, we also give ample attention to the treadmill as an ideal tool for a cardio workout for obese beginners:

Cardio workout for obese beginners to fight obesity

For people who are overweight or even obese or have other health problems, cardio training can also help.

Cardio training lowers risk

Cardio Machines For Weight Loss And Heart Pumping Workouts At Home

In fact, you can improve most cardiometabolic risk markers associated with obesity with exercise.

If you improve your cardio fitness, you may see those health indicators improve, even if you don't see a big difference on the scale.

Consistency in training is also essential. For example, researchers note that weight fluctuations, such as losing weight and then gaining it back, can cause many health problems (including increased mortality risk).

Tip: Try to find a way to focus on the benefits of cardio training that will help you stay motivated, even if the results on the scale are not necessarily motivating.

Think of the mental benefits, better sleep, more self-confidence, less stress, etc.

Experiment a little because there are dozens of cardio workouts you can try. You will prefer one form of training to another!

Diet is also important

Rowing Machine For Good Cardio Workout At Home

Are you planning to start cardio workouts to burn fat and train for better fitness?

Then this is also the perfect opportunity to adjust and improve your diet.

Because no matter how many cardio workouts you put in, it's virtually impossible to beat the success of a balanced diet.

In other words, you can support your physical efforts with healthy eating habits for maximum effect!

Tip: Maybe it's also time to honestly analyze how much alcohol you drink or how many sugary sweets and cookies you consume... See if you're eating enough healthy dietary fiber, getting enough protein, and drinking enough water.

Combine cardio workouts for obese beginners with strength training

A workout in which you alternate between different forms of cardio and strength training is the best way to achieve success.

When you combine cardio with strength training, you simply grab the benefits of both forms of exercise...

If you do them on the same day, start with the weights first. Lifting and hoisting require more precise movements; if you get tired, you are more likely to suffer an injury. Then get started on cardio training (at least 30 minutes is a good guideline).

Basic Calorie Burning Rowing Workout For Fat Loss

Tip: With all that training, don't forget to take time for stretching and recovery, either, and make sure you're getting enough water and healthy nutrients.