Fitness coach Jeff Cavaliere believes a few simple tweaks to your cardio routine could produce game-changing results. In a YouTube video from May 11, 2026, he broke down six cardio mistakes to avoid that sabotage fat loss.
With over 14.2 million YouTube subscribers, Cavaliere is among the most trusted fitness influencers in the industry. Using experience and science-based principles, he helps gymgoers from various backgrounds achieve their ideal physiques. Cardio training seems straightforward when you hop on a treadmill, but Cavaliere explains how easy it is to lose track of progress.
Jeff Cavaliere’s Worst Cardio Mistakes to Avoid
Find a breakdown of each point below:
- Using Cardio to Create a Calorie Deficit
- Trusting Calorie Readings on Machines That Don’t Ask For Your Actual Body Weight
- Believing Inflated Calorie Numbers That Include Resting Energy Expenditure
- Leaning on Machines, Holding Rails
- Using Short/Choppy Steps or Reduced Range of Motion
- Relying on Inaccurate Machines (eg, Elliptical)
Using Cardio to Create a Calorie Deficit
In the video, Cavaliere warned against using cardio as a means to create a calorie deficit. The fix? Focus on clean eating.
“You’re making a big mistake. Because you’re never going to be able to outrun a bad diet,” he said. “Even just one slip-up in a meal is enough to erase an hour’s worth of effort at the gym.”
“If you’re trying to lose weight, your efforts are focused first and foremost on cleaning up the foods that you’re eating right now.”
Trusting Calorie Readings on Machines That Don’t Ask For Your Actual Body Weight
He shared that cardio machines often list calorie burn, but aren’t accurate if they don’t consider individual body weight.
“If they are not asking you for your weight directly, then they are not giving you an accurate result. We know cardio machines need to know how much you weigh.”
“A heavier person has to work harder to move their body through space and therefore, can burn more calories. Whereas somebody that’s lighter is going to burn less calories with the same activity.”
Believing Inflated Calorie Numbers That Include Resting Energy Expenditure
Additionally, he emphasized that many cardio machines don’t factor in the calories you burn at rest.
“A lot of times, the number that you read in terms of the caloric burn is based on including something called the REE. The resting energy expenditure – the calories you would burn normally at rest.
Let’s say you’re on the treadmill and it tells you you burned 420 calories. Well, what if it’s also including the fact that you’d burn 100 calories if you did nothing at all? That’s just inflating the number. You only burned 320 extra calories.”
Leaning on Machines, Holding Rails
Next, Cavaliere revealed that leaning on rails or machines could cost you:
“If you’ve ever ridden a bike leaning this way, your posture is creating less caloric burn. How? Because you’re doing less work. Leaning on the machine, unweighting some of your body weight is costing you some of your calories.”
Using Short/Choppy Steps or Reduced Range of Motion
He shared that a common mistake he sees is a reduced range of motion on cardio machines, which could impact fat loss.
“It should come as no surprise that the full range of motion is better [than short reps].”
“A lot of us take the option of taking short choppy steps [on a Stairmaster, step mill], we don’t drive the step all the way down through full hip extension. What that means is less work being done. And for you, less work, equals less calories, and less calories, equals less weight loss.”
Relying on Inaccurate Machines (eg, Elliptical)
Below, Cavaliere ranked each of these four cardio machines to determine their accuracy for fat loss:
- Stationary Bike — overestimates by ~7%
- Stairmaster — overestimates by ~12%
- Treadmill — overestimates by 13% to 20%
- Elliptical — overestimates by up to 42%
As Cavaliere has stressed, you can’t outrun a bad diet. He is adamant that nutrition and sustainable eating are more important for fat loss than training. He recently outlined how to stay lean for a lifetime, a plan he’s followed closely for over three decades.
Cavaliere continues to offer gymgoers unique strategies for dropping weight and building muscle. He believes cardio shouldn’t be the main component for fat loss, and encourages using it as a supplementary tool.
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