Just Cardio?

ivylaurenolsen

Currently I work out six-seven times a week, and for each workout I do about 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of lifting (sometimes heavy lifting, sometimes more pilates-type stuff). I have been trying to loose weight, and yes I know weight loss depends more on what you eat than anything else, but I was just wondering what would happen if I switched my workouts and did JUST cardio for all my workouts (either running, eliptical, biking, stair master or swimming)? Would I notice any kind of difference?

cindyangotti

I do just cardio and my weight loss is very steady as well as my loss of inches. I know I should do strength training and I will eventually it's just cardio is so much more fun and fast results.

arditarose

You would lose more muscle mass than if you had kept lifting.

juggernaut1974

arditarose wrote: »

You would lose more muscle mass than if you had kept lifting.

This

Theoretically, under MFP method, it shouldn't affect your total weight loss in any significant way, as you should be eating some (if not all) your exercise calories back anyway.

Unknown

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juggernaut1974

double post

JenMc14

You may find you lose scale weight faster with just cardio. However, you will lose muscle along with fat. If you keep lifting, you'll retain more muscle. Most folks find they like the way they look better when they've retained muscle, rather than losing a combo of fat and muscle.

ivylaurenolsen

Okay, interesting. Thanks guys!

999tigger

What people are pointing out, namely you should keep lifting at least 3 times a week in order to preserve lbm. If you stop lifting then you lose out on all the healthy advantage, with a greater proportion of your loss coming from muscle.

In terms of cardio, then unless your workouts are pretty brutal, you are unlikely to be burning significant amounts. I'd be thinking 200-300 calories depending on intensity and making the big presumption that its a solid continuous burn. I also made the presumption that you are between 125-155lbs. Thats the equivalent to a small chocolate bar. Remember its a theoretical 3500 for 1lb loss and you can see just how difficult it is to burn significant calories. If you need to burn more (thats your choice) then id suggest adding 30 minutes more to your workout and not ditching the weights. The 30 minutes could consist of the walking or swimming or alternatively you could look into doing some hiit to increase intensity, but you would face the priblem of recovering fast enough. I find the stairmaster to be effective for intensity. Be patient, check your logging and keep up the consistency.

cwolfman13

simply as a matter of general fitness I would recommend roughly even parts cardio and resistance training. for your resistance work, I'd also look into some already established programs...results will be better.