Cardio doesn't help you lose weight...

tracysway

Still can't believe a worker at the gym told me this. I have lost 34 lbs. recently and went looking for a second gym near work (I lose some motivation on the drive home). The person showing me around said the weight loss was due to diet changes and not all of the excercise since I don't do weights. I do cardio 5-6 days a week, crunches nearly every day I work out and pilates for about 20 min. nearly every day, go to the class twice weekly. How discouraging this would be to someone who was planning to walk/run only.

AZackery

Still can't believe a worker at the gym told me this. I have lost 34 lbs. recently and went looking for a second gym near work (I lose some motivation on the drive home). The person showing me around said the weight loss was due to diet changes and not all of the excercise since I don't do weights. I do cardio 5-6 days a week, crunches nearly every day I work out and pilates for about 20 min. nearly every day, go to the class twice weekly. How discouraging this would be to someone who was planning to walk/run only.

Cardio burns fat. A lot of people want people to believe that lifting weights or should I say, lifting heavy is the answer and it's not. A person can lift weights until they are blue in the face, but that will not make the fat go away. It will develop the muscles under fat.

LeanMeanFitnessMachine

Dr. Oz had this guy on who had all kinds of PhD's and degrees in this feild of study, and he said the same thing! Dr. Oz (and me) were completely baffled as to why he would say this. His argument was that cardio helps maintain weight and helps strengthen heart health, but does not factor into actually LOSING weight and burning fat. I can understand his perspective.. but I don't exactly agree with it. I think its a very radical way of looking at human physiology. I tried to do some research on the issue, but couldn't find any concrete research articles supporting this theory without having to buy a $50 book.

LeanMeanFitnessMachine

Still can't believe a worker at the gym told me this. I have lost 34 lbs. recently and went looking for a second gym near work (I lose some motivation on the drive home). The person showing me around said the weight loss was due to diet changes and not all of the excercise since I don't do weights. I do cardio 5-6 days a week, crunches nearly every day I work out and pilates for about 20 min. nearly every day, go to the class twice weekly. How discouraging this would be to someone who was planning to walk/run only.

Cardio burns fat. A lot of people want people to believe that lifting weights or should I say, lifting heavy is the answer and it's not. A person can lift weights until they are blue in the face, but that will not make the fat go away. It will develop the muscles under fat.

I don't think this is true.. do you have solid research to back this up? From my understanding, I've read otherwise.

jesscaponigro

Well my husband has his undergrad and graduate degree in Health & Physical Education, and he always tells me when I get frustrated to do more cardio if I want to see the scale go down rather than stay the same. Well before I started using MFP, I had lost about 35 pounds, so, I'm pretty sure he wasn't wrong.

What they need are more informative people working at gyms! The trainers at the gym I used to go to (before investing in one for my house) always had me do 30 minutes of cardio and then strength training.

jonbobfrog

I don't know about anybody else, but I haven't started lifting weights yet . . . All I've been doing is cardio, and I've lost 46 pounds. Clearly this dude has NO IDEA what he's talking about!

MJ7910

well i think the idea is that you have to burn off the fat through cardio or through eating fewer calories or a combination of these. the muscles will strengthen with weight training but to get to see your muscles that fat has to be burned off by your body. whether through exercise or diet.

MacMadame

Actually, lifting can burn fat. There are some studies on this.

BUT never believe anyone who says things like "X exercise won't help you lose weight". Obviously, anything that helps you burn more calories than you take in is going to help you lose weight. So saying that is just stupid!

I found that the best thing for me was a mixture of cardio and strength training. Strength training helped me minimize muscle loss during my losing phase and build muscles during maintenance. This helped raise my metabolism (dieting lowers it) and makes it easier to maintain my weight because it increase my calorie burn over all. It also makes it easier to do everyday things like carry heavy suitcases and lift my bike onto my bike rack.

Cardio OTOH helps me burn massive amounts of calories and I always "lean out" when I get to a phase in my training where I am doing very long runs and bike rides.

sbenjam23

What bunk! if you are moving, you are burning calories! As long as your calories burned are less than what you ate, you will eventually loose weight.

You don't need to lift weights to get strength training in! Pilates & yoga use your body weight as the "weight" you are lifting & holding.

Don't be discouraged, be educated --> and forget what the not-so-helpful person (who was likely trying to sell you a personal training package) told you! it starts with one foot in front of the other! :flowerforyou:

butt... making good food choices definitely helps along the way. Keep up the amazing work!

Gee45

Dr. Oz had this guy on who had all kinds of PhD's and degrees in this feild of study, and he said the same thing! Dr. Oz (and me) were completely baffled as to why he would say this. His argument was that cardio helps maintain weight and helps strengthen heart health, but does not factor into actually LOSING weight and burning fat. I can understand his perspective.. but I don't exactly agree with it. I think its a very radical way of looking at human physiology. I tried to do some research on the issue, but couldn't find any concrete research articles supporting this theory without having to buy a $50 book.

Maybe that is the case with some people. For me, it seems like if I just lower my calories and don't work out, I have better success. Working out hard doesn't seem to be effective. But I like the fit part so I keep trying...

LorinaLynn

It really does have more to do with your calorie intake, but if you eat the same amount of food and exercise a lot more, it's the same end result: You're burning more calories than you take in.

If you exercised a ton, but increased your food consumption to compensate, you wouldn't lose weight.

That's not to discourage anyone from exercise. The benefits of losing weight with exercise far outweighs the benefits of losing weight without it. Improved cardiovascular health being top among the benefits, but strength training in particular, combined with the proper diet (ie higher protein, smaller caloric deficit), helps to maintain as much of you lean muscle as possible as you lose fat.

suthrnladey

I hate exercise. I have always hated exercise. I will probably always hate it!!

Back in 2002, I joined Weight Watchers. I followed the plan Monday through Friday, and ate whatever I wanted on Saturday and Sunday. I did not exercise at all. I lost anywhere from 2 to 5 lbs each week. I noticed when I ate more protien, I lost more weight. The information that I received from Weight Watchers basically said that I could eat more if I exercised. I chose to eat less and exercise none. The program worked for me. When I stopped following the program, I began eating more and more. The weight did come back because my diet changed.

goelle100

Hi! I'm french, so please be kind with my english....

It's not because if you do only cardio exercice you won't loose weight...

What I've heard and red from a lot of different sources is that when you loose weight only doing cardio exercices, you will loose some muscular strengh.

So it's important, while loosing weight, to do strengh training. Why?

Because muscles, at rest, burn more calories than fat. Example, 2 persons of a same weight, the one with more muscles will have a BMR higher than the other.

So, strengh exercices, combined with cardio, wil help you upgrade you BMR and will help you keep your muscles even if you loose a lot of weight.

Hope my post will help!

lwoods34

Cardio and strength training go hand in hand. If you want to lose weight you MUST be doing BOTH cardio and strength. Not saying that you need to lift heavy weights but the more muscle you have the more calories you body will be burning long after your workout is done. Too many times, I have seen people just focus on doing cardio and as weight loss occurs they havent done any strength training so they have lots of excess skin and flab because they arent building muscle from doing the strength training.

lauraOOOO

This is silly.

Weight loss is about calories in and calories out. A deficit will create weight loss. Plain and simple.

If you are moving and pumping up your heart rate- you are burning calories.

Sidesteal

If you want to lose weight you MUST be doing BOTH cardio and strength.

^ Neither of these are necessary to lose weight. Both are helpful but to say it's a MUST is absurd.

AZackery

Cardio burns fat. A lot of people want people to believe that lifting weights or should I say, lifting heavy is the answer and it's not. A person can lift weights until they are blue in the face, but that will not make the fat go away. It will develop the muscles under fat.

I don't think this is true.. do you have solid research to back this up? From my understanding, I've read otherwise.

[/quote]
What did you read?

H_Factor

This is silly.

Weight loss is about calories in and calories out. A deficit will create weight loss. Plain and simple.

If you are moving and pumping up your heart rate- you are burning calories.

^^ This one is correct. Its interesting to see the wide variety of responses to this question. Goes to show that MFPers, as a community, are not experts. Anyway, as the earlier poster said, if you burn more calories than you take in, then you will lose fat. You can create that caloric deficit through nutrition alone....or you can choose to do some form of exercise to burn extra calories and eat a little more, but still keep a caloric deficit.

LeanMeanFitnessMachine

Dr. Oz had this guy on who had all kinds of PhD's and degrees in this feild of study, and he said the same thing! Dr. Oz (and me) were completely baffled as to why he would say this. His argument was that cardio helps maintain weight and helps strengthen heart health, but does not factor into actually LOSING weight and burning fat. I can understand his perspective.. but I don't exactly agree with it. I think its a very radical way of looking at human physiology. I tried to do some research on the issue, but couldn't find any concrete research articles supporting this theory without having to buy a $50 book.

Maybe that is the case with some people. For me, it seems like if I just lower my calories and don't work out, I have better success. Working out hard doesn't seem to be effective. But I like the fit part so I keep trying...

Yes, his argument is that a change in DIET was the reason for weight loss.

vingogly

I went through metabolic assessments at my health club (O2 uptake evaluation using New Leaf equipment) and the program they recommended has worked for me. The basic notion is: there is a zone of cardio activity (based on heart rate) that optimizes weight loss aka the fat burning zone ... if you walk too slow or run too fast, you're not at the optimal zone so you won't burn as much fat as you would in the "zone". Here's a couple of pages from about.com that discuss exercise intensity and weight loss:

http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/a/The-Truth-About-The-Fat-Burning-Zone.htm
http://exercise.about.com/od/cardioworkouts/a/Cardio-Workout-Program-For-Weight-Loss.htm

msjamartin

I lost over 100 lbs doing cardio twice a day and keeping my food intake in check. It is the science of burning more calories than you consume. If you don't want to work out, you have to eat fewer calories and you will lose weight. You wouldn't be toned, you won't be strong and you won't be firm but you can lose weight.

IMO the best option is eating good food along with a great cardio workout mixed with 3 days a week of added strenght training. Keep your protien higher than your good carbs and you will burn even more fat.

I'm down 186 and if I stopped working out, I'd stop losing unless I was very restrictive on my food. Just the way the body works.