why is cardio so bad?

DamePiglet

Short answer:

A mixture of calorie deficit (not starvation) + cardio + resistance = great recipe for sensible weight loss.


There are other methods, too, but the one listed above is full of moderation and works well for most.

dserious111

Short answer:

A mixture of calorie deficit (not starvation) + cardio + resistance = great recipe for sensible weight loss.


There are other methods, too, but the one listed above is full of moderation and works well for most.

^^^This!! I've done a combination of cardio and strength since August. Works wonders! But regardless, everything mostly is in your dieting

jardimgirl

Great tips. Thanks everyone. But say I want to get a flatbelly, not a six pack, will a calorie deficit and cardio work or do I need strength training?

F00LofaT00K

I am under the impression that cardio is excellent. It improves cardiovascular health and helps with a calorie deficit.... but unless you're training for a marathon or something, doing more than a half hour or so is more-or-less pointless. It won't improve your cardiovascular health much more if you do 3 hours of cardio or 30 minutes of cardio. It also doesn't do very much for muscle retention. If my foot wasn't broken, I would be doing cardio because that's what is best for me to reach my current goal. If I wanted to build or retain a good amount of muscle, I would be lifting.

Cardio is excellent. Lifting is excellent. They are beneficial for different goals though.

If your goal is to build muscle, retain muscle, or build strength... cardio won't help you reach that goal, you will have to lift.

If your goal is to run a marathon someday, improve cardiovascular health or create a caloric deficit... lifting weights won't help you reach that goal. You should be focused more on cardio for that.

To lose a belly, you may benefit from lifting or cardio. Cardio will help you burn calories and get rid of the fat. Lifting will help you to develop abs. You need to figure out if you just want a smaller stomach, or if you want some muscle definition as well. Adjust your goals accordingly. To heck with everybody who tells you cardio is bad for you.

SunofaBeach14

Great tips. Thanks everyone. But say I want to get a flatbelly, not a six pack, will a calorie deficit and cardio work or do I need strength training?

The difference between a flat belly and a six pack is a combination of a lower body fat percentage and more strength training for the latter. Please start strength training if you haven't. I'm serious when I say the benefits can't be overstated. Think about when you're 70 and the difference between a gallon of milk being impossibly heavy and it being just another thing. There's also bone mass to think about. It's not all about looking "ripped."

3dogsrunning

I don't think cardio is bad. I do think that there is often an issue on this site where people think more cardio = better for weight loss, I don't agree with that. There's a difference between doing cardio and killing yourself with cardio. Excessive cardio is not necessary unless you are training for something specific (which I have no problem with). Excessive cardio paired with a low calorie intake can even be problematic for weight loss.

meshashesha2012

if you're not necessarily looking into making strength gains then doing circuit style workouts will have a good combination of the two. just remember to pick a weight that's challenging enough that you have to work hard but not so much that you have bad form, and keep moving between the exercises to keep your heart rate up

here's a link to some good ideas (i love the tumminello and cosgrove complexes)

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/screw_cardio_four_complexes_for_a_shredded_physique

but you can also make up your own circuits of 3-4 exercises.

DamePiglet

Great tips. Thanks everyone. But say I want to get a flatbelly, not a six pack, will a calorie deficit and cardio work or do I need strength training?

You can get a flat belly through just diet (calorie deficit) actually, especially if you don't have excess skin issues.

To be fit, a mixture of move more + eat less works.

Resistance will add some more firmness to your tummy (toned appearance, rather than just flat).

I'm like you; I am not craving defined abs (6 pack).
But for me, I also don't want to feel smooshy & wobbly.
At 45 years old, I discovered that just diet & cardio made a smaller me, but I am not as firm as I'd like to be.

It's your call, OP. You can lose the fat with just diet & cardio, or you can add resistance, too.
It's your body. Make it how you want.

jardimgirl

does using body weight count as strength training??

DamePiglet

does using body weight count as strength training??

Body weight is resistance (so yeah, as far as I'm concerned).
I definitely think planking has made my core stronger.

Leadfoot_Lewis

It gets a bad rap around here because people think that they can just do lots of cardio to burn calories and lose weight, and when the fat comes off they'll have the body of their dreams. The reality is that while cardio is good for burning calories and your cardiovascular health, if you are not doing some kind of resistance training to work the muscles and maintain lean body mass, all you'll end up with is a skinnier, soft version (sometimes referred to as skinny fat). Six-pack abs and awesome delts aren't just waiting there under all the fat for you to reveal them, you need to lift weights in addition to the cardio. Hope this helps.

Excellent post. A lot of people IMO are uneducated & try to "out-cardio" a bad diet which is a recipe for failure. I've said it a zillion times in this forum-there's no reason to do excessive daily cardio unless you're training for some kind of endurance event.

Everyone's workout routine should have both cardio + lifting. It's good for the cardio system to be in an anaerobic state every once in a while-something that's hard to maintain with just weight lifting.

SunofaBeach14

does using body weight count as strength training??

It does, absolutely. The one advantage that barbell weight training as is the ability to easily use progressive overload to increase your strength. That said, start with a body weight training program. Get to the point where you want and need more, then consider weight training. That's not necessarily a bad way to go and it will work.

ninerbuff

NO EXERCISE is required to lose weight. That will always boil down to calorie deficit.

Choose exercise for fitness and health. Some like cardio, some like lifting or like me many like a combination of both together. Excessive from either also isn't needed unless training or competing for an event.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

3dogsrunning

NO EXERCISE is required to lose weight. That will always boil down to calorie deficit.

Choose exercise for fitness and health. Some like cardio, some like lifting or like me many like a combination of both together. Excessive from either also isn't needed unless training or competing for an event.

Good point. I didn't mean to imply that, I just see more people doing excessive cardio, not the other way around.

stonel94

it's not bad, it's very good, it's just a lot of people, especially women, are "elliptical bunnies" where they go on for a long time, and never really up it, or do intervals or anything, so you're not really challenging your body, and you think that you will lose all this weight and then have a great body.
But if you just do cardio you will lose weight, but you won't have a great body, you will be "skinny fat" where you might have great legs from resistance on the elliptical, but you won't have muscle other places like arms and stomach so you won't have definition.

So basically, I think cardio, some kind of weight or resistance training (I think heavy lifting will give you the best results but it's not for everyone especially if you're older or have been injured) and also a healthy diet (with a small (10-20%) deficit if you are trying to lose weight) is what makes you healthy and have a great body.

I like to do 6 days a week working out, 3 days heavy lifting, and 3 days 20-45 mins cardio (usually running), and eat healthy at a deficit but not too strictly, i weigh my food and measure it and stuff, but i allow myself to have "bad" foods when I want them I fet them in so it's not a punishment.

Mr_Knight

I've been reading posts and so many ppl are against it or say its unnecessary, and recommend just lifting.

Lots of folks need to paint a black and white world to justify their personal preferences.

Cardio is very good for you. So is strength training. A fully realized physique will excel at both, meaning it will need to train hard for both. With a proper diet, and appropriate work load, doing only one of them will still result in a very nice body, by normal standards.

It's all good....

wanna_b_there

who said it was bad?

WhoHa42

Cardio isn't bad. Excessive cardio while already in a caloric deficit is very bad. Everyone should do some type of cardio even if it's just walking for the health benefits.

Just_Scott

Short answer:

A mixture of calorie deficit (not starvation) + cardio + resistance = great recipe for sensible weight loss.


There are other methods, too, but the one listed above is full of moderation and works well for most.

^^this^^

For you OP, trial and some error. Find what works for you. Best of luck.

Huffdogg

It's not bad. It just doesn't do what most people think it does.