Cardio. You either love it or you hate it. Some enjoy running several miles, swimming multiple laps and going for a regular bike ride, but most people cringe by even the thought of cardio.

One common myth associated with cardio is that you HAVE to do it if you want to shed fat.

The truth is you don’t necessarily need cardio to lose fat and won’t need to set food on a treadmill again – unless you’re training for an endurance event like a marathon. There are plenty of individuals in fitness out there who rarely or almost never perform cardio, while staying in amazing shape.

Keep reading to find out our top calorie-torching secrets that burn fat without you having to spend hours on the treadmill:

1. Take more protein

If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re probably cutting calories. However, this can leave you hungry quite often.

When you’re cutting weight, you need to up your protein intake as this will help curb your appetite, suppress your hunger and keep you satisfied for hours, without negatively affecting your caloric intake. You also need protein to maintain your muscle mass and increase muscle tone. As you cut calories, your body may burn muscle for fuel so increasing your protein intake can reduce this.

2. Lift more weights

If you’re aiming to lose major pounds but without cardio, you can still hit the gym and burn a lot of fat. Compound lifts, such as a squats with barbells, can have a significant impact on your central nervous system and can boost your metabolic rate massively. The more muscle mass you build, the more calories you’ll burn, giving you a leaner and more toned physique.

3. Drop the rest and up your reps

To get the most out of your strength workout, try dropping your rest periods and upping your intensity, for a more functional, cardio-style workout from just lifting.

Switching between upper and lower body lifts and reducing rests in a circuit-style workout can help spread out your fatigue more, forcing your body to reach into its aerobic energy system. It takes only two minutes for your body to hijack your aerobic system so grab a pair of weights of reasonable mass and perform at least 3 sets of 12-15 reps per exercise.

Here’s an excellent example of a power workout that will burn major calories within a short period:

• Squats: 5 sets of 10 reps
• Overhead Press: 5 sets of 10 reps
• Deadlifts: 5 sets of 10 reps
• Pushups: 5 sets of 10 reps

Try performing these exercises with minimum rests in between and grab a reasonable weight so that you can power through multiple reps without stopping. Trust us, you will feel a major burn but it won’t feel as repetitive or exhausting as a cardio workout.

4. Perform 100 rep challenge sets

100 rep challenges are simple, brutal, but incredibly effective. It’s a challenge, so you’ll somehow push yourself in the end, prove yourself that you can perform a grueling workout and enjoy the sense of satisfaction for finishing without giving up. This is a major win-win for any fitness enthusiast, whether they’re a beginner in their journey or are somewhere in between.

The idea is to grab a light to moderate weight because if we haven’t made it clear before, you will be doing a hundred reps! Some workouts, such as squats, can be performed without weights so feel free to determine what level of intensity will work best for you.

Pick 4-5 exercises and perform them back to back till you complete a hundred reps in total. It’s pretty straightforward; just do as many reps per exercise as possible. As soon as you reach fatigue and feel like you cannot move, jump into exercise 2 without taking a break.

Ideally, you should not rest during the entire workout or place your weights on the floor if you’re using any.

Once you complete 100 reps, place your weights on the floor and rest for 2-3 minutes. Repeat 3-5 times for maximum results.

While losing weight, your goal is to sustain muscle weight and push your body to use its fat reserves. Taking adequate protein and performing minimum-rest muscle-building workouts can help you save your muscle, enhance muscle mass, increase your metabolism and lose fat at the same time.

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