Question about having muscle while doing just cardio?

Bshaw2442

Ok so I have been reading different things about overall toning and losing weight. I know that they say with just cardio, it helps your heart and to burn fat. Although, most say that just cardio alone will not typically help you to tone the body. You would need to do sometime of weight training in addition to the cardio if you really would like to tone your body. My question is, if this is true, how am I starting to have a very lean/toned stomach? I have only been dieting and losing weight in addition to just cardio (zumba/dance aerobics) for my weight loss. I am confused to how this can be when everything or at least most everything I have read said that this is nearly impossible to do. For a little information about myself, I am currently 5'2, started at a weight of 180 lbs and am now 25 lbs down to 155. I am not the most educated in this area, so please help me out Any thoughts/knowledge would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!

IllustratedxGirl

Ok.. So first of all, you can't "tone," muscle. You can either build or lose muscle. You can also lose fat to show the muscles.

Cardio will not build muscle on it's own as it's not strength training. However you will need to lose fat with cardio or dieting to show the muscles that are underneath

If you want to build muscle, you will need to add strength training. I am currently doing strong lifts 5x5 with cardio to maintain muscle while losing weight

The reason I say maintain muscle is because you can't gain muscle while eating at a calorie deficit and losing muscle. When you are eating a calorie deficit, your body uses both fat and muscle for energy, so you lose both simultaneously. The reason you do strength training while eating at a deficit is to lose less muscle while losing fat.

Now, if you want to gain muscle, you will need to eat at a calorie surplus. You can't gain significant amounts of muscle unless you have the food to fuel it.

A lot of people do what's called cutting and bulking cycles. Once I get down to my goal weight, I am going to start bulking where I eat at a calorie surplus and increase my weights to add more muscle. You will gain some fat in this stage as well, but that's why you go to another cutting cycle of eating at a deficit after. This is how you achieve the results I think you are looking for.

Hope this helps! I'd google some of this stuff I mentioned and get reading

hazleyes81

Part of this is because it depends on how fat is distributed on your body, and how much muscle you had already. Secondly, you are also looking at your midsection relative to have it looked when you were 180 pounds, so compared to that it may look lean and "toned" (aka less jiggly) but it doubtfully has the same look as it would if you were doing strength training. Your zumba and aerobics are engaging your core, so your muscle tone is increasing as well.

The previous poster is correct that "toning" is not a real thing. However, muscle tone, which is tension in the muscle during its relaxed state, is real and can increase from activity that is not necessarily targeted strength training.

3dogsrunning

What she said.


Short version - you had the muscle there and when you lost the fat, you revealed the muscle below.

elliej

Everything Al said

Post closed?

perseverance14

The other reason (besides that muscle gives you the toned look) for not just doing cardio is so that you don't lose the muscle you already have. You have uncovered some of the fat to show the muscle you already have, so now you are like, hey what is the problem, why should I have to do strength training?

I will tell you why, the FACT is you lose muscle when you lose weight, 25% to 30% of your loss IS muscle. That means you will be looking less and less toned as you lose more and more muscle (because muscle makes you look toned) but you will also lose body strength.

If you do strength training, your body will burn more fat and less (hopefully little to none) muscle because it NEEDS that muscle since you keep using it to lift weights, especially if they are big heavy ones. If you don't use those muscles, your body considers it up for grabs to burn instead of fat...your choice.

sijomial

I will tell you why, the FACT is you lose muscle when you lose weight, 25% to 30% of your loss IS muscle.

That isn't a fact at all. No idea where you are pulling those numbers from!

If you do strength training, your body will burn more fat and less (hopefully little to none) muscle because it NEEDS that muscle since you keep using it to lift weights, especially if they are big heavy ones. If you don't use those muscles, your body considers it up for grabs to burn instead of fat...your choice.

First part is correct anyway - if you don't use it you will lose it.


BTW - people need to be careful about lumping all cardio together as though it's the same, there's a huge difference between cardio that incorporates resistance (rowing, cycling, skating as examples) and walking or running.

meshashesha2012

how does skating incorporate more resistance than walking or running?

chrisdavey

how does skating incorporate more resistance than walking or running?

Not sure about skating exactly but he is correct. Walking involves minimal muscles. Cycling for example even at a lowish speed uses quads (and hamstrings depending on seat height). If you are doing HIIT type cycling, you will definitely use your quads a lot. (It's unlikely to cause hypertrophy but there have been studies showing that cycling compliment resistance training better than running) It's just that it is still low resistance compared to a typical strength training session. It uses different types of muscle fibres because of this.

That's why I choose the bike for cardio. And the fact that it is nice and easy on the knees