Why Cardio Shouldn't Be The Hero of Your Weight Loss Story - Jacked Nerds Issue #012

I’m excited to welcome 201 new Jacked Nerds who joined last week! Absolutely thrilled to have y’all as part of this community 💪.

My family and I are taking a short vacation in the beautiful cities of Victoria and Vancouver this week. Hi from the west coast 🏔.

When I first moved to Canada at 13, I didn’t have many friends. Everything felt unfamiliar—the language, the social norms, the food. I spent most of my time indoors, focused on school, learning English, the occasional video games or TV time my parents allowed, and generally just trying to adapt. Staying active wasn’t really on my radar. In fact, it was the last thing on my mind.

At the same time, I discovered all the incredibly delicious (and calorie-dense) North American foods, from fast food to sugary snacks—things I’d never had back home. I remember developing an obsession for Jamaican patties. OMG the golden flaky crust, soft meaty centre, packed with flavour. I would crush through multiple in a sitting. It quickly became a comfort and a habit.

By the time I reached university, those habits stuck. And this little habit quietly morphed itself into a badge of honour. In some ways I was proud of my big appetite. At 5’10”, I wasn’t always the biggest guy in the room, but I could always eat. I used to boast about being able to eat an entire large pizza by myself to my housemates, and frequented buffets and AYCE with my friends that would last hours.

So like many students, I added the infamous “freshman 15”. But in my case, it wasn’t just a little weight gain. It was years of sedentary living and emotional eating catching up to me. I had more than 50 pounds to lose, and growing up in an Asian household where appearance mattered a lot, I was under constant pressure to "fix" it.

With the pressure to change mounting, I did what seemed logical, and easy. I followed what I saw in movies, in fitness magazines, and in the routines of people who looked the way I wanted to: I did cardio.

Lots of it.

Jump rope. Elliptical. Bike. And of course, running—on the treadmill, around the campus, and around the blocks in my neighbourhood whenever I was home on weekends or during holidays. You name it, I cycled through them all. I even signed up for a gym membership at a local community centre for a spell—a signal of commitment that I wanted to send to others and a form of self-accountability this was the first step toward a new body. But I stuck mostly to the cardio machines, thinking that sweating buckets was the key to transformation. And sweating buckets was what a lot of people preached! If you sweated enough, you'll lose weight! It was the signal to losing weight.

A few weeks in, my motivation started to fade. The scale barely moved. And I started wondering what I was doing wrong.

And I would go through cycles of this. Some weeks I'll feel very motivated to try again, other weeks I felt defeated by the lack of progress.

Cardio has long been crowned the king of fat loss—thanks to decades of fitness magazine covers, influencer workouts, and that lingering idea that sweating equals progress. But here’s the thing: if your goal is to sustainably lose fat, look better, and feel stronger, cardio alone won’t get you there.

In fact, it might even backfire.

To lose fat, you need to be in a caloric deficit—burning more energy than you consume. That part is simple math. But the how behind creating that deficit is what separates the sustainable strategies from the ones that burn you out fast.

Cardio can help burn calories, but it’s often an inefficient and misleading way to rely on creating a deficit.

Let me explain.

We drastically overestimate calorie burn from cardio. A 30-minute jog might burn around 250 to 300 calories, roughly equivalent to a handful of trail mix. 30 minutes on the Rogue Echo Bike makes me completely drenched in sweat, only to see that I’d burned just 220 calories.

Part of this is just bad math, but it’s also a mental trap. Our brains aren’t great at judging effort-to-outcome ratios. There’s a cognitive bias called effort justification: when something feels hard, we assume it must be producing big results. But just because a workout feels intense doesn’t mean it burned more calories.

To make things trickier, even the best wearable fitness trackers tend to overestimate calorie expenditure during workouts. They’re based on algorithms and averages, not precision. So while they can provide rough guidance, they shouldn’t be trusted as exact calorie counters. In most cases, they give you a directional signal—not a definitive measurement.

Cardio burns calories—but only while you're doing it. The moment you step off the treadmill, the burn stops. Unlike strength training, which builds muscle and boosts your resting metabolism, cardio doesn’t keep working for you afterward.

What’s more, intense cardio often spikes your hunger. Your body craves recovery, and your brain seeks a reward. If you’re not deliberate about your nutrition, it’s easy to overeat and completely cancel out the calories you just burned. This is one reason so many people plateau—or even gain weight—despite consistent cardio routines.

Lastly, and most importantly, cardio without strength training can cost you muscle. Muscle is essential for a high-functioning metabolism. Muscle tissue burns significantly more calories at rest than fat tissue—estimates suggest around 6–7 calories per pound of muscle per day compared to just 2–3 calories per pound of fat.

Over time, this adds up.

Maintaining or increasing lean mass can meaningfully raise your basal metabolic rate (BMR), making it easier to maintain a healthy weight even when you're not actively working out. The more lean mass you have, the more energy your body requires just to stay alive.

When you lose weight through cardio alone, especially while eating in a steep deficit, your body doesn’t just burn fat—it starts breaking down muscle for fuel.

Multiple studies have shown that aerobic-only weight loss interventions lead to greater muscle loss compared to programs that include resistance training. This loss of lean mass decreases your basal metabolic rate (BMR), making it harder to maintain the weight you've lost and easier to regain fat. It's like downgrading your engine and expecting to go faster.

So, preserving muscle through resistance training is absolutely critical for long-term sustainable fat loss and metabolic health.

A smarter, more sustainable approach to fat loss looks like this:

Strength training: Prioritize compound lifts, progressive overload, and functional strength-building. More muscle means a higher resting metabolism, which makes fat loss more efficient and sustainable. One of the underrated benefits of this approach is that you can actually build in true rest and recovery days. With strength training, instead of chasing daily exhaustion like many cardio programs do, you’re building a body that works smarter and functionally stronger.

If you're not sure what "functional strength" means or how to program it into your week, check out Issue #010, where I break it all down—complete with a beginner-friendly functional training program you can follow and do at home.

Sustainable nutrition: Focus on eating in a small, manageable calorie deficit. Prioritize high-protein meals and whole, minimally processed foods that keep you full and energized. The goal isn’t to restrict yourself to the point of misery—it’s to fuel the machine you’re building while gently guiding your body toward fat loss. In Jacked Nerds Issue #009, I shared a practical approach to simple, satisfying nutrition that you can actually stick to. Give it a read if you need a sustainable starting point.

Strategic cardio: I put cardio last because while cardio absolutely has a place in your routine, it shouldn’t be the hero of your story. Think of it as a supporting character that enhances the bigger narrative.

When added intentionally, cardio can complement your strength training by supporting your caloric deficit, improving cardiovascular health, aiding recovery, and building endurance. Whether it’s walking, biking, or brief conditioning sessions, the key is to program it around your strength work—not instead of it. When cast in the right role, cardio can elevate the whole performance even it’s not the star.

👇 This is what my April and May programming looked like. Each week on average I strength train 3 to 4 times, with a couple of cardio sessions peppered in.

Instead of trying to burn fat off with sheer effort, think about rebuilding your body into one that naturally supports fat loss. Strength training changes your shape, your metabolism, and your relationship with food. It’s not just exercise—it’s body architecture.

If you don't already lift, try out my free functional training program. It’s designed to be approachable, efficient, and effective. Just commit to doing one session this week. Focus on getting that one win. Momentum builds from there.

If you already lift? Add a short walk after dinner 2–3 times this week. Small shifts create lasting change.

This brought back some serious memories.

Guess how much a brand new one on eBay costs?

On theme with my last issue on volume eating, u/Itadepeeza1 on Reddit has been on a mission to make a low-cal, high-protein brownie where the goal was to be able to eat the entire 8×8 tray of brownie!

Check out their latest attempt here. This entire series has been fascinating to follow. Maybe one of these recipes holds the answer to my black bean brownie recipe problem…

If you’ve been enjoying Jacked Nerds, it would mean a lot if you shared it with someone you think could benefit from the frameworks and tips I share here.

Thanks so much for being part of this — I appreciate you! 🙏

My mission: 10,000 like-minded legends in the Jacked Nerds crew by end of year.
Help me get there 💪

It’s tempting to fall back on cardio because it feels productive—sweat, exhaustion, the illusion of instant results.

But long-term success comes from playing the long game. Build muscle. Eat smart. Use cardio with intention.

Trust that the process will reshape not just your body, but your habits and confidence too.

Catch y’all in the next one! ✌️ 
#LFG