Name: The BEST CARDIO ROUTINE TO LOSE FAT in 2026
Uploaded: 2026-02-18T21:32:05.000Z
Duration: 14 min 53 s
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This is the most underrated Cardio routine in 2026 to lose your belly fat for good.

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And over the last 11 years, I've undergone multiple transformations, bulking to 30 body fat to build muscle.

And as an endomorph, I did gain a lot of fat and then cutting back down and repeating this cycle until I became a pro natural bodybuilder.

As a medical doctor now, using these exact same strategies, I've been able to maintain a lean physique year round.

And I know these work because these exact same strategies helped my client tory go from 27% body fat with a dad bod to 7%.

Eating cheesecake throughout his entire transformation and winning a show, my client Michael got to 9% body fat for the first time.

In his 50s doing this underrated cardio technique.

Nicholas lost his belly fat in four weeks.

Gary, as a busy entrepreneur and father, torched all of his belly fat using this exact same strategy.

We're going to cover four critical elements.

Number one will be your frequency, how often.

Number two will be your duration, how long.

I will give you a step by step plan that you can follow immediately.

I will even show myself on the treadmill, what buttons I press and for how long, so you can just copy exactly what I'm doing.

Because this determines your ability to lose fat, we want to hit something called your mfo.

That stands for maximum fat oxidation rate.

Now, research consistently shows that depending on your exercise intensity, your body relies heavily on either carbohydrates or fat as fuel.

This is a chart from the Institute of Human Anatomy, having countless research studies supporting it.

And at 72 beats per minute, that's at rest.

And 127, 138, 144 and 153 beats per minute.

Now pay attention to 72 beats per minute.

78.2% of calories burned comes from fat and only 21.8% from carbohydrates.

But you're barely burning anything at just 1.4 calories per minute.

Now here you see 40.8% of the energy comes from fat.

But now you're burning 11.5 calories per minute.

That is exactly eight times more calories you're burning per minute, and

Now, at 138 beats per minute, you're starting to hit the sweet spot.

5 calories from fat per minute and 8.4 calories from carbs, totaling 13.4 calories per minute.

Your body burns the most fat calories at 127 to 138 beats per minute.

So from now on, think about cardio in two categories, informal and formal cardio.

Now, informal cardio equals daily steps roughly at 72 beats per minute.

And formal cardio are more intentional sessions between 120 to 140, 40 beats per minute, where we both optimize the fat and carb burning per minute.

So you may be asking, Dr. Mike, why not higher than 140?

At 153 beats per minute, you're burning 11.1 calories per minute from carbohydrates versus 8.4 at 138 beats per minute.

That's barely more, but you're working significantly harder.

In my honest opinion, the return on investment isn't worth it.

So stay between 120 and 140 for all forms of cardio.

Now, there's a two part system, and this is how we combine informal and formal cardio.

And another reason why we don't want to be above 140 beats per minute is because of cortisol.

The way I like describing cortisol, it's the stress hormone, is that if your cortisol levels are high, your body will actually break down muscle as a source of energy and store fat, not to mention all its other functions when it's too high.

Now, staying at a more zone 2 cardio keeps your cortisol levels lower.

Mike, I know I need to do 120 to 140 beats per minute, but what's the best format?

And here I'm going to introduce you to what I call my cardio accelerator.

And I want you just to have a heart rate of 72 beats per minute where you're easily burning calories all day.

And you may be asking, okay, but why is that critical?

When you're in a caloric deficit, your body fights back by making you move less.

And you might be eating fewer calories, but you're unconsciously burning fewer too.

And tracking steps prevents this metabolic adaptation.

So remember this, to burn one pound of fat, you need to be in a 3,500 calorie deficit, which means that's 500 calories per per day for a week.

And if you can burn 250 calories daily just from the walking part, that's 1750 calories per week.

That's half a pound of fat gone just from steps.

These are your structured sessions, so let me show you live how to do your Cardio.

Here's your 16 week progression broken into four phases.

So in phase one, from week one to four, this is your building phase.

I just want you to do 8,000 daily steps with no formal cardio.

In week two, I want you to go to 8,500 daily steps.

But now I want you to do three sessions per week at 15 minutes.

And in those 15 minutes, you want to be between 120 and 140 beats per minute.

Week three, 9,000 daily steps and doing three sessions at 20 minutes.

Week four, and keep watching because I'll tell you what are the best machines to use.

10,000 daily steps, three sessions at 25 minutes.

Now, starting with no formal cardio in week one is intentional.

Most people get too aggressive too quickly.

And when you get to week 10, you're burnt out.

What we're building here is a strategy for longevity so that you can stay lean year round, not just running out of gas at the end of the four months.

But before I continue, you're probably saying, okay, Dr. Mike, I get it, I know the routine.

Should I be doing jump rope, elliptical, what?

These are my 2 favorite, and I've tried every cardio routine you can imagine.

Box jumps, boxing, the assault bike, you name it, I've done it.

I highly recommend, A, the incline walking on a treadmill or B, the StairMaster.

Walking on an incline or a StairMaster minimizes the impact on your body compared to running or jump rope.

And in the past, my knees could not handle the overload my lower back, and

And research shows that exercises with less impact help you retain more muscle tissue.

And if you don't want the treadmill, then I highly recommend using the stairmaster.

And this is nice because it's also great for building the largest muscle in your body, which is your glutes.

Now, if you're someone who's more elderly and you need to watch for your knees and your ankles, then you Want more of a gliding movement.

Introducing to you the elliptical, Minimal friction on your knees.