Confusion about cardio

Options
2»

Replies

  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
    Options
    it depends on what you define as fit... do you want to do endurance races? guess what, you're going to have to do a lot of cardio. do you want to be a body builder or power lifter? then go lift.

    until you figure things out, probably an equal balance will work for you.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    Options
    adriat wrote: »
    So...for pretty much ever I thought that when you want to lose weight - you do cardio. Of course incorporate some strength training 2 times a week or something - but the emphasis being on cardio. The more I am reading - this doesn't seem to be true. That it should actually be the opposite. Lift and throw in some cardio for your "hearts" sake. Sighhhhhh - so what is it? What does a well balanced exercise plan include? What are some of your routines?

    I move every day, which includes weight lifting 3x a week and cardio almost every day of the week, whether it's running, walking, elliptical. I do this because my body feels so much better when I exercise. Even when I was fat I exercised - at least this has been true for the last 20 years. I gained weight because I ate too much, and lost because I ate at a calorie deficit.

    I love to exercise, and that's why I do it.

  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Options
    Cardio is great for your health and mental well being. Cardio is also what has been consistently practiced by people who maintain significant weight losses (about an hour a day).

    Find physical activities you like and do them on the regular. Some of them should get your heart rate up, some of them force you to challenge your muscles.

    I think the problem with cardio is that sometimes people either try to eat back all the calories (which are usually overestimated) and then don't lose, or they build too big of a deficit which is then detrimental to maintaining muscle mass.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
    Options
    do what you like.....

    most people, in some fashion, do a combination of both, with a FOCUS on one or the other. I focus on cardio and do the weight/strength machines after my workout.

    you lose weight in the kitchen, you build muscle and strengthen your heart in the gym.
  • richln
    richln Posts: 809 Member
    Options
    aggelikik wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    aggelikik wrote: »
    No. There are many fans of lifting on this site, but you will never see someone who really understands fitness post about skipping cardio in favour of lifting. You need cardio, several times per week, to be healthy. It does not have to be something exhausting, walkign is cardio too.And it will help you with eating below maintenance. You do nto need hours of cardio per day but you should not just replace it completely with strength trainign either, the ideal is the combination of both. Ideally for your heart alone, you need some cardio almost daily.

    OP, the above statement is incorrect. You do not NEED cardio. It's a little ironic that the poster went on to say what people that understand fitness would say then she says that.

    You do not need cardio or strenght training to lose weight. You need cardio, and strength training to be fit. And you need at least cardio regulalry to stay healthy on the long run. Find a single dr or anyone trained in fitness or a single medical publcation who states you do not need cardio for your health. Only on MFP...

    Here is a study showing weight training is enough cardio by itself to keep you fit. If you don't do any extra cardio besides lifting weights, you probably won't be winning any triathlons, but your heart will be fine. Everyone who regularly does squats or deadlifts probably knew this already though.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    Options
    richln wrote: »
    aggelikik wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    aggelikik wrote: »
    No. There are many fans of lifting on this site, but you will never see someone who really understands fitness post about skipping cardio in favour of lifting. You need cardio, several times per week, to be healthy. It does not have to be something exhausting, walkign is cardio too.And it will help you with eating below maintenance. You do nto need hours of cardio per day but you should not just replace it completely with strength trainign either, the ideal is the combination of both. Ideally for your heart alone, you need some cardio almost daily.

    OP, the above statement is incorrect. You do not NEED cardio. It's a little ironic that the poster went on to say what people that understand fitness would say then she says that.

    You do not need cardio or strenght training to lose weight. You need cardio, and strength training to be fit. And you need at least cardio regulalry to stay healthy on the long run. Find a single dr or anyone trained in fitness or a single medical publcation who states you do not need cardio for your health. Only on MFP...

    Here is a study showing weight training is enough cardio by itself to keep you fit. If you don't do any extra cardio besides lifting weights, you probably won't be winning any triathlons, but your heart will be fine. Everyone who regularly does squats or deadlifts probably knew this already though.

    While the person only running for fitness will probably not be able to lift nearly as heavy as those of us who prioritize/only do weight lifting. Since I don't want to run triathalons, why should I bother doing cardio EVERY single day???

    Only reason I'm planning on including more cardio when I finish school this month is to increase my TDEE so I can potentially eat a bit more for the remainder of my cut, since I'm getting to the low end of enjoyable for me haha. Although I've only been on this number again for less than 2 weeks so I'm probably just needing to get used to it.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Options
    If you want to lose weight, you eat at a deficit. If you want to maintain muscle mass while losing, lift weights. Cardio helps the deficit and is for your health.
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
    Options
    MrM27 wrote: »
    I wasn't going to bother but since it's studies time I will add this here. This was sent to a while back by a very wise man when we were discussing this topic at a more detailed level on a different website where it was more than someone saying "Go find me 1 doctor" while not showing any evidence of application on themselves.
    This is taken from an article in Alan Aragon's research review where he summarized a few things.

    The big four risk areas for cardiovascular health are:

    - Fat loss: As we all know it's about calories. Resistance training is at least as effective in the short term, and given it's ability to change body composition as well, resistance training wins. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12439085

    - Blood lipids: Low or moderaate cardio does pretty much nothing. Resistance training reduces bad cholesterol, high intensity cardio improves good cholesterol. No clear winner, both are beneficial. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18974201

    - Blood pressure: Cardio generally has a bit of an edge here, but resistance training shows benefits as well. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15662209

    - Glucose metabolism: Resistance training is a clear winner over cardio for glucose control: http://care.diabetesjournals.org/con...9/11/2518.full


    I think it's important to look beyond this simplistic idea that cardio makes your heart work hard, so that makes it stronger and that's all there is to it.

    I think the endurance capability of the heart muscle itself and the circulatory system in general is nearly a non-issue for most individuals not already ill. Heart health is about those risk factors above, not about the physical condition of the heart muscle itself

    Don't forget this one on resistance training and VO2max
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16307157
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
    Options
    adriat wrote: »
    My experience with exercise is limited - so I just want to make sure I am doing the max to help me burn more and keep losing! For whatever reason I was under the impression that cardio did that - but I can see from the general response that's not really the case. Word!

    I'm confused - I don't see how that's not really the case. More cardio will indeed help you burn more calories. It's just, if you're eating less than your body burns already without the extra cardio, or maybe you don't have time because you're using what precious little you have to lift heavy stuff, then you don't need to do cardio. If you're looking for a way to burn extra calories on top of everything you're doing, cardio can definitely help with that. A lot of people just tend to be very successful with meal planning, gaining satiety through hitting appropriate macro targets that they do not have to count on this extra maybe 500 calorie burn from cardio every other day of the week

Categories