50-More Cardio Isn’t the Answer—The Right Cardio Is

Feeling exhausted instead of energized after cardio? Not seeing the fat loss results you used to? It’s time to rethink how cardio fits into your fitness plan. In this episode, we’re diving deep into how cardio affects hormones, metabolism, and fat loss—especially for women over 35. Because here’s the truth: more cardio isn’t the answer, but the right cardio is.

Join me as we break down the different types of cardio, how they impact your body, and how to structure your week for maximum fat loss and longevity.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✔ The three types of cardio (LISS, moderate intensity, HIIT) and their benefits
✔ How cardio affects your hormones and metabolism post-35
✔ Why too much cardio can work against you
✔ How to structure your workouts for optimal fat loss, muscle retention, and overall health
✔ The ideal balance of strength training and cardio for women over 35
✔ Why your body craves a different approach to fitness as you age

Key Takeaways:
💡 Low-intensity steady-state (LISS) cardio helps with recovery and stress relief
💡 Moderate-intensity cardio builds aerobic capacity and supports heart health
💡 High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is best in small doses for power and metabolism
💡 Excessive cardio can increase cortisol, leading to muscle loss and fat retention
💡 Strength training is crucial for insulin sensitivity, metabolism, and longevity
💡 A balanced approach that includes different types of cardio and strength training leads to better results

KatFit Strength Program:
If you’re tired of feeling stuck and not seeing the results you want, my KatFit Strength program is designed for women juggling it all—kids, career, life. It combines strategic strength training, smart cardio, and nutrition support tailored to your hormones. DM me “STRONG” on Instagram (@KatFitStrength) or check the show notes for the link to learn more.

How to Connect:
📲 Follow me on Instagram: @KatFitStrength
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🔗 Check out the KatFit Strength program here
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Transcript

Kat: 0:00

All right, let's set the scene. It's Monday, your alarm clock goes off and you have your workout to do. The kids are either sleeping or getting ready for school. You grab your coffee and you have your time to get your workout done. Today's workout is cardio, and you think to yourself, Ugh, do I go for a run, a hit class or just walk and call it a day? You used to feel amazing. After cardio, you'd sweat feel accomplished and see results. But now. You feel exhausted instead of energized. You're not losing the fat like you used to. Your joints ache more, you're hungrier craving carbs, and your body just feels stuck. Sound familiar? Today we're going deep in on how cardio affects hormones, metabolism, and fat loss, because here's the truth, more cardio is not the answer. The right cardio is. Let's get into it. Welcome to MilesFromHerView, the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in. Hey everyone. I'm Kat. I am your host here on MilesFromHerView podcast, and I am excited to talk about all things cardio. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know I'm a runner. I enjoy nothing more than getting out on the trails and running through some miles. Now, of course, that being said, there are so many different ways to get cardio in, and we're gonna go over and talk about that today. We're specifically going to talk about how to do cardio after the age of 35, because cardio is honestly marketed to us as the holy grail for fat loss. Running more, doing endless spin classes or grinding through hit circuits, but somehow. It just does not, I'm gonna say drive the needle where we want it to go. So today we're gonna be breaking down the different types of cardio and what actually to do, how cardio affects your hormones and metabolism. Post 35, how to structure your weak for maximum fat loss and longevity. How much cardio is too much. At the end of this episode, you'll walk away with a bit more of a clear plan on how to use cardio as a tool, not as an entire fitness strategy. I. As I mentioned, I am a runner, and I'll say these different types of cardio, which we will go into is something that's also incorporated into my plan. So if you are listening and you're training for a race no matter what the distance is, these are things that can also be incorporated and should be incorporated into your plan. We're gonna go into defining cardio. Cardio or aerobic Exercise is any movement that elevates your heart rate. It improves oxygen efficiency, it strengthens the heart, improves circulation, and helps with overall endurance. So that's what cardio is. Defined as, so we really wanna think about it is it's really helping our heart gain that strength and work more efficiently. There are three types of cardio that are breaking down, and again, if you are someone training specifically for a, running event. Your, your plan should honestly include all three of these. It's going to be more sports specific in that matter, even if you are a cyclist and you're training for, um, a cycling event or you're a triathlete. So your training plan should be pretty encompassing with these three different types of cardio. So the first one is low intensity, steady state. Which is abbreviated LISS that is what we're talking about really in that zone one or two of that heart rate. So when I say zone, that means where your heart rate is, and that is specific to you. Your heart rate zoned will change a little bit as you get in shape over time, but it is specific to you. For Lis it's walking slow cycling, easy swimming. This is what we really wanna think about for like recovery, stress relief, relief, i. Moderate intensity is zone two to three, and that's jogging, rowing, steady state biking. So this is really good for building that aerobic capacity or that heart health and by jogging, I hate that word, but what I want you to think about is like very easy conversational pace. Effort, it's a lower. mile pace than what your all out or your race pace is now. High intensity hit is zone four to five. These are sprint intervals, Metcon hill sprints, and this is best for power explosive and metabolic conditioning. So why all this matters is, and how it pertains to our and our health, especially as we get over the age of 35. It, it, I'm gonna argue it, it matters. Whatever age you're at. But when we get over the age of 35, our VO two max, our oxygen capacity naturally declines and we need cardio to maintain it. There's a number of research studies out there that state, and have found the correlation to a lower VO O2 max number with, decreased longevity. So we really wanna make sure that our. Heart is healthy and running efficiently. The other thing is heart disease. So our heart disease risk increases post menopause. However, Aerobic exercise protects us against heart disease. So that is a huge finally the hormone shift, post 35, changes how we process fuel and recovery. So we need a balanced approach. The previous episode that I went into last week, I really broke down the three types of estrogen, how it impacts. Hormones, and it was mainly around around strength training. I'm going to kind of give a little bit of a recap here. It's not gonna be as intense as I did in that last episode. Estrogen and cortisol. So this is a bit of a double-edged sword. So working out is a stress, and we often see on social media we need to get our cortal levels down. We need to not stress ourselves out. Well, we need cortisol. Your cortisol levels are never gonna be at a zero. You need cortisol to survive, but the problem is, is when cortisol gets too high, so estrogen. Also plays a factor in there. So estrogen supports fat metabolism and insulin sensitivity. So it helps us use carbs and fat efficiently. As estrogen declines in midlife, it makes it easier to store fat, especially around the belly. And cortisol is a stress hormone, and that increases when we have too much cardio, which leads to muscle loss and fat retention. So these two work together I want you to know that. There's no doom and gloom. We're gonna get to how all this can work together and why we need to have a solid plan for our cardio because it all works together as well. As, I'm gonna say this strength training needs to be in there is too. So the role of the insulin and metabolism. So muscle is insulin sensitive, so the more muscle you have, the better your body handles carbs. It allows for better blood sugar, stabilization. It allows for you, your body to be more metabolically active so that you can burn more energy, also known as calories. So it is something that helps you be more efficient, too much cardio. Without strength training, you're gonna lose muscle and you're gonna have a slower metabolism. Fast intense workouts, spike glucose and can lead to energy crashes if it's done excessively. you're going to be overly stressing your body if all you're doing is hit workouts versus having a more diverse cardio plan. So the key takeaway here is strength is huge and cardio also needs to be in there. We want a balance of study state and hi for hormonal health. I'm gonna take a quick break here and I'm gonna tell you about KatFit Strength. It's the program that I designed for women who. Are juggling it all. Kids life, career, you name it. And if you're really tired of just feeling stuck and doing random workouts or not seeing results that you want, KatFit strength gives you real strategy, tailored strength training, plus smart cardio, nutrition support. That works for you, your hormones, and not against yourself, your schedule or your hormones. So DM me strong on Instagram at KatFit Strength, or check out the link in the show notes to learn more. All right, let's dive back in. Now that we know the different types of cardio, how do we incorporate it into our week? I'm gonna use that seven day timeframe because it just makes it easier. There's many different ways you can break up your workout schedule this is not an absolutism. I have clients that are on many different strategies that are seeing results. The most important thing that I can press upon is it has to work with your life, your capacity, and just feel good to you. Because I've talked about all the different types of cardio. Please keep in mind that this is a guideline, a template in a perfect situation, and then we can apply it to you. So we want about three to four days of strength training. We wanna focus on muscle preservation, metabolic boost, bone density, all those different things. So in the last podcast I went over how to framework this. Now I wanna think we're layering on that cardio with that Strength training. In the last episode, I talked about doing full body strength training days because that is going to help you build muscle, have that coordination, stability, balance, everything that you need. Now, for cardio, we want two to three days of zone two cardio, which is about 30 to 45 minute sessions. Again, it's in ranges and if your life, don't have that time, no big deal. Do one or two. Work on your level. And the reason behind this is again, it helps with heart health, fat oxidation, and that endurance. So the examples of this is like easy running at a conversational pace, rowing, swimming, cycling, all these things that are going to be, I know you're not having a conversation in the pool, but you're going to have that nice, easy conversation pace that you are. Putting in that effort, but you're not overwhelmed. And then we want one to two days of hits, so that's about 15 to 20 minutes max and duration there. And that focuses on, that power and athleticism, metabolic conditioning that we want. So sprint intervals, sled pushes, battle ropes, et cetera. So that is the framework. What are the dos and don'ts. Do I do cardio every day? Do I do it on separate days? Do I do it fasted in the morning? Do I do it on recovery days? So first off, with strength training and cardio, there are a couple different ways you can do it. If you wanna get in cardio and do lifting. You can prioritize cardio before a lift or vice versa. The differences are very small. And I don't want you to get stuck in the minute details to the point where you feel crippled and you are not doing anything at all if you are training for a running event. So for me, I like to do cardio. In the morning and I have about five to six hours before I strength train. That's enough time for me to recover so that I'm getting the stimulus of the cardio session, that I can then get the benefits of the strength workout later. Now, some days I don't have that ability. Therefore my lifting comes after my cardio. Am I going to sweat that I didn't get the minute benefits it I'm not gonna sweat about the differences there. Okay. Can you do cardio on separate days? Sure. Yes. I don't recommend fast workouts in the morning. Okay. Because there's a lot of different methodologies around this. And. What I find with the clients that I've worked with, also what I have found with myself is having something small to eat before your workout will help you have more energy and power before or during the workout as well as. After the workout. The other thing, you're not gonna have this crashing effect post-workout where you feel absolutely lethargic and exhausted. So I always encourage to have a small snack before a workout. So if I'm working out first thing in the morning, and I don't have time to eat a full breakfast, and I have trained myself again, I'm doing ultra running, so I'm going out for longer. I also have to eat on runs, so. That's a little bit different for myself. I've trained my gut to be able to handle more food, but if I'm going out and it's just a quick run I'll grab two gram crackers. So getting something like that, or it could be if you're like, I really can't eat anything before a workout, drinking a little juice and before you go off, juice has sugar, your body needs that for a workout that is just, I don't, again, that little bit of juice is going to be fine. I want you to have something to start that metabolic process so that your body can feel good throughout that workout. To break down the sample week a little bit more so I can give you the idea of how string training and cardio work together we're gonna use a seven day cycle, starting with Monday. It will be a strength day, and then a 20 minute list walk. So low intensity Tuesday. Zone two cardio 30 to 45 minutes of easy conversational, it's not as a leisure walk like that. Monday is, it's more of like we're putting an effort, but you're not gasping for error as you're carrying on a conversation. if you remember back to last week's episode or if you didn't listen to last week's episode, that is paired on a day where that's mobility. On that day, Monday. In the scenario that I gave in last week's episode was, a heavy lifting session where it was lower reps, and so that's where a good walk will help. After that, if you're feeling a little stiff, it'll keep that body moving. So Tuesday is just zone two, cardio and mobility. Wednesday is more of that moderate or that hypertrophy lifting, and so this is where we wanna. Pair it with a little bit more of explosive. Short hit workout Thursday, that was another mobility day, and that was doing a list walk here Friday another strength day. And we want that like hybrid of cardio and strength in there. And then Saturday zone two cardio. So get out, do some hiking, biking, riding, swimming, you know, get out and enjoy Sunday. A full day of rest, or you can do an active recovery playing in the yard with kids at the playground, or going out for a nice list walk. Just easy. Just a very easy, easy walk so here's a big myth that I hear a lot, and maybe you've heard it too. More cardio equals more fat loss. We've been fed this idea that the key to weight loss is more cardio burning through more calories, through running, spin classes, HIIT workouts, and any other heart pumping activities. Just. Not the truth. Fat loss is dictated more by muscle mass metabolism and overall energy balance than just calories burnt. A good metric for a great workout is not how many calories you burnt during that workout. The goal of a workout should not be burning the most calories. Strength really dictates your metabolism. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue and it burns more calories, also known as energy at rest than fat. That means the more muscle you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate, BMR, the number of calories your body's gonna burn just to keep you alive. With that, again, you don't have to be a bodybuilder in order to have a good BMR. How muscle affects fat loss is more muscle equal, higher daily caloric burn, sitting, sleeping. Muscle improves your insulin sensitivity. This is key for women who are in perimenopause to menopause because we become more insulin resistant. And so if your body is able to use more carbs more efficiently instead of storing them as fat, well you're going to have a healthier, more happy metabolism, and your body composition is going to be healthier. Preserving muscle prevents metabolic slowdowns. Okay, so this happens when we rely way too much on cardio without strength training because you are not stressing the muscles by changing up the adaptation. Do you maintain strength with cardio? Yes, but not at the rate you are going to. With string training. So let's say two women both weigh 150 pounds, one has 30% body fat and the other has 20%. Even if they eat the same, the woman who has more muscle will burn more calories daily. So makes it easier for her to have a a leaner body And I wanna say this is the whole point, is not to shrink yourself and be thin. The whole point is you can feel. Stronger, be more, do more, all the things you wanna do. The point of helping your metabolism is to help your overall longevity because if your body, continues to store more adipose tissue and your metabolism isn't, functioning as well, you are at risk for metabolic diseases and we want our health. Freedom for as long as possible. So doing these things, having strength training and a good cardio training plan is going to help it. So the role of cardio is a supplement. It's not the main event. We want both strength training and cardio together. So it's not to say it's completely useless and just never do it, but. We want to be strategic about it. So cardio helps with that. Fat oxidation, so burning the stored fat for energy, but it's also best when paired with strength training. Again, as I've said, too much cardio, especially long duration, high intensity of cardio. Can cause muscle loss, if you are not fueling and recovering properly. Fueling means eating. We need all the macro and micronutrients in our body, macronutrients, carbs, protein, fat, and micronutrients are all the minerals, the vitamins that. We derive from Whole Foods. I also argue, fiber as a mini macro. It is so good and we need fiber. So even though it's not the mainstream one, I make it a little mini macro there because it is something we also should be paying attention to. And recovering recovery is huge. I've talked about it before in how we want at least a day off, if not two days, and making sure we are recovering in between workouts before having a bigger demand on our body. So chronic cardio plus calorie deficits equal metabolic adaptation. So where the body slows down fat loss is to conserve energy. We want to make sure the body. Is functioning well on all cylinders here. So why Too much cardio backfires for fat loss because it increases cortisol distress hormone, which leads to fat storage, especially belly fat. It can cause muscle breakdown instead of muscle preservation, and it can lead to just a sluggish metabolism, so your body burns fewer calories over time as it adapts to the cardio to review kind of that hierarchy of how we want to, decrease fat and get that great body recomposition is more muscle, less fat. Here's the hierarchy. We really wanna prioritize that strength training. You know, ideally I would love three to four. Two to three is brilliant. Two is great. Even if you're like one to two is all you have the capacity. Amazing. We want to get that in there. So if you're looking to start in this body composition transition where you want to maintain and gain muscle mass, even though we're talking about cardio, start with strength training, it builds and preserves that muscle. It also is going to help. Metabolism. With that in mind, if you're like, all I have the capacity for is one to two workouts per week, prioritize that strength training daily movement, which is also referred to as non-exercise activity thermogenic. That is just a fun little way to say we are a need to move throughout the day. That is huge. If you can't do a traditional cardio session, like I've already been talking about. See if you can just get a simple pedometer. You don't need any fancy data wristwatch, et cetera. Just get a pedometer track how many steps you're getting throughout the day. Establish that as your baseline if you are getting 2000 steps per day. Okay, that is our baseline. Let's bump that up to trying to get two to 3000 steps or three to 4,000 steps. I know that 10,000 step. Rule, so to speak, is out there, but we don't wanna start at, my baseline is 2000 and now I have to get 10,000. That is a massive jump. It is going to feel impossible after a week of trying to force yourself to take these steps. So establish your baseline with that daily movement. See how many steps you're taking. Again, you don't need to buy any fancy device, just get a basic pedometer. Wear it for a week or wear it three to four days out of the week. Try not to do consecutive days just to get an idea how much movement you're getting throughout the day. Once you establish that, then set a benchmark again using that 2K, bump it up to maybe three K. If you feel confident, you're like, okay, I think aggressively, I wanna try and do three to 4K steps daily. Fantastic. So I've thrown a lot at you we really wanna focus on not doing endless cardio. Lift heavy, eat enough protein, move daily outside of workouts. Is huge. Use cardio as a finisher or for active recovery, not as your main workout. Use it as something that allows you to get that extra good cardiac health benefit focus on a total energy balance, okay? It's just not the calories burned any workout. That is not the sole thing that is gonna move that needle forward so that you're seeing that body composition change. It is everything you do. With that said, we don't wanna drive ourself crazy, maybe you are getting that strength training three to four times per week and you are getting a hit workout, a list workout. You know you are getting a good variety and there, but you're sitting all day. Well, that's an area where we can get more movement in. Or maybe you need to incorporate more mobility. Find where you're at. And see where you can add a little bit more. But the bottom line here is, I really want you to take this away, is that strength training drives that body composition change. Cardio supports the process. It shouldn't be the foundation for fat loss. All right, let's wrap this up. Cardio is a tool, not a whole strategy. Prioritize that strength and balance it with cardio for best body composition result. Recovery. Recovery. Recovery recovery. I cannot say it enough. It is key. So if we are not recovering, that stress hormone is going to stay high and it is not gonna come down, and it's going to sabotage our efforts in all the fantastic work we are doing in our daily movement and strengthening move daily. We want that neat movement every day and challenge yourself. Get some zone two. Get some hidden, but don't overdo it. Your action items here today are evaluate where you're at with your cardio routine. Are you doing too much or not enough? Make small. The emphasis on small adjustments, add in, walking. Check out your step count. Maybe we need to bump that up a little bit. Focus on are we getting some good zone two steady state in there? And strength should be consistent. But if you are like, this all sounds great, I'm exhausted. I, I'm so tired of just trying to guess. I just want to know what to do and I don't wanna figure out a plan. I got you. Just message me on the podcast or send me a DM on KatFit strength and. I'm so happy to help, and if this was great and you got a lot out of it, share it with a friend. Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView, powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes, and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into Next. You can connect with me on Instagram at KatFit Strength, or share this episode. With a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.