If you’re overweight and looking to change your lifestyle, you may be wondering which type of exercise is most effective for you. Some people favor fast, intense workouts, while others prefer low-intensity, longer-duration sessions. But why is it beneficial to use your body’s fat to fuel cardio exercise, especially if you’re overweight? In this article, I will provide answers to that question! During cardio exercise, your body primarily uses two energy sources: carbohydrates and fats.

My highest weight ever was 127 kg, sometime in the mid-2000s. The picture on the left was taken in 2009; I’m the guy in the blue t-shirt. The photo on the right is of me in the summer of 2023. Of course, I tried a lot of things, but my weight yo-yoed up and down until in 2018, I got to the point where it became relevant to take a blood pressure medication regularly.

Unfortunately, I can’t do it without counting calories every day. I can maintain my weight by avoiding high carbohydrate intake and the calorie count I’ve experimented with. If I “go off track” because of a holiday, I don’t worry anymore because I know that as soon as I get back into the swing of things, I’ll pick up the pace again and adjust my weight again. Is this sustainable? I wonder if everyone wants to take the time.

Buy a heart rate monitor, a gym membership or a treadmill or an indoor bike and start moving slowly in your fat-burning range. Focus on getting your body to handle the load first, and get yourself to a point where you can move slowly for an hour: walking or cycling. If you have muscle soreness, you’ve overdone it. Take it easy. Be patient with yourself; just as the pounds didn’t come on overnight, they won’t come off overnight.