Is it possible to lose body fat by only doing cardio?
Replies
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Quote:
Buy a Jillian Michaels DVD. I'm doing extreme shed and shred right now. All you need is a couple of hand weights. Believe me, you won't be bored.
YEP! i agree. i'm doing the ripped in 30. this one is done in intervals of 3 min. strength training, 2 min cardio and 1 min of ab work. its pretty intense, and you definitely wont be bored! and the DVD only costs 10 bucks, you can find them at Walmart and Target. if you don't have some light hand weights or don't want to buy them, use canned goods, problem solved!0 -
Good question. What's the best way to strength train at home without expensive equipment?
Body weight exercises. There are a ton of them out there, and if you need any equipment, is usually just a table or a chair. Combine that with a few weights, maybe a kettlebell or medicine ball, and you have your own gym!
Definitely.
Here's an excellent example of a home based STRENGTH training workout for you:Some of you have been curious about my workout that I used to lose the initial 35+lbs at home. Well, it was 100% bodyweight based, no weights. I'll lay it out here:
This is your basic 5 x 5 template. (To clarify, 5x5 is 5 reps x 5 sets. The idea is to work at a difficulty level where you could only do maybe 7-8 reps on the first set, and are struggling to finish 5 reps on the last set). You would do strength training 3 times a week, say Monday-Wednesday-Friday with the weekends off. These are done "lazy circuits" style, with about 1 minute rest between each set (I use a FT7 HRM and keep my heart rate over 140). The explanations of the exercises you'll use for each group are farther below.
Workout A
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Horizontal push - 5 x 5
1C. Horizontal pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - flexion - 3 x 5
2B. Ab - static 3 x 30 seconds
Workout B
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Vertical push - 5 x 5
1C. Hip dominant - 5 x 5
1D. Vertical pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - rotation - 3 x 5
2B. Grip and neck training - 3 x varies
Exercise Progressions - with regular weight training you can just add weight to the bar. With bodyweight progression is mostly about changing your leverage. These are just a few examples, I'm sure we could come up with dozens more if needed. You can always add resistance in the form of a weighted vest or backpack or resistance bands.
Explanations of exercise in order of difficulty (easy-hard)
1. Knee Dominant -- squats, lunges, step-ups, bulgarian split squats, unilateral bent leg deadlift, partial one leg squat, one leg squat, box or stair pistols, full pistols.
2. Horizontal Push -- pushups, decline pushups, resistance pushups, side to side pushups, stair one arm pushups, negative one arm pushups, full one arm pushups.
3. Horizontal Pull -- body row, resistance body row, negative one hand row, incline one hand row, full one hand row.
4. Ab - flexion -- crunches, situps, resistance or incline situps, reverse situp, resistance or incline reverse situps, hanging knee or leg raise, hanging pikes, rollout from knees, rollout from feet, dragon flag. Also included are oblique moves like side lying crunches with or without resistance and side lying two leg raise.
5. Abs- static -- 4 point prone bridge, 3 point prone bridge, 2 point prone bridge, 4 point supine bridge, 3 point supine bridge.
6. Vertical Push -- pike pushup, hindu pushup, divebomber pushup, decline pike pushup, decline hindu pushup, decline divebomber pushup, one arm pike pushup, negative handstand pushup, handstand pushup with head touching floor, full handstand pushup.
7. Hip Dominant -- supine hip extension, good morning, one leg stiff leg deadlift, split one leg good morning, one leg supine hip extension, hyperextension, one leg hyperextension, natural glute-ham raise.
8. Vertical Pull -- jumping or assisted pullups, pullups, resistance pullups, side to side pullups, negative one hand pullups, one hand pullups. All these can refer to chinups or neutral grip pullups as well.
9. Ab - rotation -- twist crunches or situps, resistance or incline twist crunches or situps, russian twists, lying windshield wipers, standing rope rotations, hanging windshield wipers.
10. Grip and Neck Training -- for grip you can use handgrippers, deadhangs from a pullup bar (especially a fatbar or gripping a towel). For neck nothing beats wrestlers bridges. If you are involved in a striking martial art or sport, finger and fist pushups are very important also.
None of these lists have to end here. If you get strong enough you can always add resistance to your full range of motion one limb exercise. Or if you can do more than 5 one hand pushups do decline one hand pushups, or start working on one hand hindu and then eventually one hand dive bombers, and so on.
The nice thing about this routine is it scales dramatically depending on your fitness level. If you can't do even ONE regular pull up, you can scale it down and do assisted pull ups (legs on a chair), or ballistic pullups (where you jump to provide the initial momentum). It's actually easier to do properly when you're very unfit...because once you're healthy and strong...you're going to be searching for challenging enough exercises to only allow you 5 reps max by the finish of the 5 sets.
That program took me from this:
To this:
In just three months. That's basically 40lbs of fat.
I performed no cardio whatsoever, other than occasional tabata format intervals on my 100lb heavy bag.0 -
Thanks for the replies. They've been very helpfull and the reason why i want to do cardio only is because i've always found weightlifting to be very boring. Is there anyway to do strength training without lifting weights? I heard that swimming is a good strength training exercise so maybe i'll try that
If you belong to a gym or can afford the home version, take a look at Les Mills Body Pump. I took a class the other day and it was not boring at all. It's resistance training plus you're moving so much I think it probably counts as cardio too.0 -
yes, you can...but its not going to change the composition of your body.0
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Yes because I've done it before.. but I was also eating a low fat diet
Dietary fat has NOTHING to do with body fat.0 -
Good question. What's the best way to strength train at home without expensive equipment?
Body weight exercises. There are a ton of them out there, and if you need any equipment, is usually just a table or a chair. Combine that with a few weights, maybe a kettlebell or medicine ball, and you have your own gym!
Thanks for reminding me that I can strength train at home without a bunch of expensive stuff!
Push ups, lunges, squats...0 -
Yes, I've lost 52 pounds just doing cardio. However, I am now doing more strength because I'm softer than I want to be. The only way to get that issue corrected is to strength train.
FYI: I lost about 10% of my body fat just on cardio alone!0 -
[/quote]
you can lose fat hand washing my underwear .....ummm if your interested
[/quote]
that's greatness right there.0 -
Yes, but you also loose lean muscle mass, which is where the problem arises, and strength training solves
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I would say "yes". But, the risk is losing muscle mass at the same time.0
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Thanks for the replies. They've been very helpfull and the reason why i want to do cardio only is because i've always found weightlifting to be very boring. Is there anyway to do strength training without lifting weights? I heard that swimming is a good strength training exercise so maybe i'll try that
I HATE lifting weights. I have joined many gyms and have ended up not going because I hate it so much. I am a cardio fan. I however, have discovered yoga, which uses your body against itself. I have defintely toned up since I started. I just bought Jillian Micheal's yoga meltdown. It's more like a cardio yoga, and will tone you up. I have been doing yoga for a year, and after doing her meltdown today, my arms are sore, You can check out some free yoga videos on you tube, and all you need is the mat0 -
People say that to lose body fat you need to mix cardio with weight training but is it possible to lose body fat by doing cardio only? Mixing weight training with cardio will probably get rid of body fat quicker but in the long run will cardio alone get rid of body fat?
Burn off more calories than you consume and you will burn off fat.
Whether you do cardio on its own, cardio and weights or weights on their own, it all depends on what calories you burn.0 -
Absolutely. However, as one poster said, weight training is important to maintain/increase muscle mass... That being said proper nutrition is also important for muscle increase/toning/etc.... Protein and the right carbohydrates are important as well. Also, without the weight training, you will fight some battles like sagging arms and such. A balanced exercise program is best for maximum results.0
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Some of you have been curious about my workout that I used to lose the initial 35+lbs at home. Well, it was 100% bodyweight based, no weights. I'll lay it out here:
This is your basic 5 x 5 template. (To clarify, 5x5 is 5 reps x 5 sets. The idea is to work at a difficulty level where you could only do maybe 7-8 reps on the first set, and are struggling to finish 5 reps on the last set). You would do strength training 3 times a week, say Monday-Wednesday-Friday with the weekends off. These are done "lazy circuits" style, with about 1 minute rest between each set (I use a FT7 HRM and keep my heart rate over 140). The explanations of the exercises you'll use for each group are farther below.
Workout A
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Horizontal push - 5 x 5
1C. Horizontal pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - flexion - 3 x 5
2B. Ab - static 3 x 30 seconds
Workout B
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Vertical push - 5 x 5
1C. Hip dominant - 5 x 5
1D. Vertical pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - rotation - 3 x 5
2B. Grip and neck training - 3 x varies
Exercise Progressions - with regular weight training you can just add weight to the bar. With bodyweight progression is mostly about changing your leverage. These are just a few examples, I'm sure we could come up with dozens more if needed. You can always add resistance in the form of a weighted vest or backpack or resistance bands.
Explanations of exercise in order of difficulty (easy-hard)
1. Knee Dominant -- squats, lunges, step-ups, bulgarian split squats, unilateral bent leg deadlift, partial one leg squat, one leg squat, box or stair pistols, full pistols.
2. Horizontal Push -- pushups, decline pushups, resistance pushups, side to side pushups, stair one arm pushups, negative one arm pushups, full one arm pushups.
3. Horizontal Pull -- body row, resistance body row, negative one hand row, incline one hand row, full one hand row.
4. Ab - flexion -- crunches, situps, resistance or incline situps, reverse situp, resistance or incline reverse situps, hanging knee or leg raise, hanging pikes, rollout from knees, rollout from feet, dragon flag. Also included are oblique moves like side lying crunches with or without resistance and side lying two leg raise.
5. Abs- static -- 4 point prone bridge, 3 point prone bridge, 2 point prone bridge, 4 point supine bridge, 3 point supine bridge.
6. Vertical Push -- pike pushup, hindu pushup, divebomber pushup, decline pike pushup, decline hindu pushup, decline divebomber pushup, one arm pike pushup, negative handstand pushup, handstand pushup with head touching floor, full handstand pushup.
7. Hip Dominant -- supine hip extension, good morning, one leg stiff leg deadlift, split one leg good morning, one leg supine hip extension, hyperextension, one leg hyperextension, natural glute-ham raise.
8. Vertical Pull -- jumping or assisted pullups, pullups, resistance pullups, side to side pullups, negative one hand pullups, one hand pullups. All these can refer to chinups or neutral grip pullups as well.
9. Ab - rotation -- twist crunches or situps, resistance or incline twist crunches or situps, russian twists, lying windshield wipers, standing rope rotations, hanging windshield wipers.
10. Grip and Neck Training -- for grip you can use handgrippers, deadhangs from a pullup bar (especially a fatbar or gripping a towel). For neck nothing beats wrestlers bridges. If you are involved in a striking martial art or sport, finger and fist pushups are very important also.
None of these lists have to end here. If you get strong enough you can always add resistance to your full range of motion one limb exercise. Or if you can do more than 5 one hand pushups do decline one hand pushups, or start working on one hand hindu and then eventually one hand dive bombers, and so on.
The nice thing about this routine is it scales dramatically depending on your fitness level. If you can't do even ONE regular pull up, you can scale it down and do assisted pull ups (legs on a chair), or ballistic pullups (where you jump to provide the initial momentum). It's actually easier to do properly when you're very unfit...because once you're healthy and strong...you're going to be searching for challenging enough exercises to only allow you 5 reps max by the finish of the 5 sets.
I like how you have this all explained out because I would have no idea what you were talking about, lol WTG BTW!0 -
If you find weight training boring, you are probably doing it wrong (not lifting enough weight). I am pretty sure it is physiologically impossible to be bored when lifting extremely heavy things. Some people just don't like it, but most people I have met who claim it is 'boring' are not actually weight training, they are just moving light objects around pointlessly.Thanks for the replies. They've been very helpfull and the reason why i want to do cardio only is because i've always found weightlifting to be very boring. Is there anyway to do strength training without lifting weights? I heard that swimming is a good strength training exercise so maybe i'll try that
I'm sorry to say that I've been extremely bored even while lifting heavy (for me) weights with a trainer. The problem is that you have to focus on form and can't let your mind wander like when you're dancing or running to music. Thinking about the weight lifting makes it even more tedious to me. The only way I've found to make strength training is to take a Body Pump class where you only have to make it through the next song, there are lots of people doing it together and you have the instructor to watch for the form so it all makes it more interesting.0 -
Good question. What's the best way to strength train at home without expensive equipment?
Body weight exercises. There are a ton of them out there, and if you need any equipment, is usually just a table or a chair. Combine that with a few weights, maybe a kettlebell or medicine ball, and you have your own gym!
I agree. There are several resources on body weight training. Search the forums for various workouts and websites.0 -
No it's not possible to lose fat with cardio, you need to weight train.......:devil: j/k0
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Some of you have been curious about my workout that I used to lose the initial 35+lbs at home. Well, it was 100% bodyweight based, no weights. I'll lay it out here:
This is your basic 5 x 5 template. (To clarify, 5x5 is 5 reps x 5 sets. The idea is to work at a difficulty level where you could only do maybe 7-8 reps on the first set, and are struggling to finish 5 reps on the last set). You would do strength training 3 times a week, say Monday-Wednesday-Friday with the weekends off. These are done "lazy circuits" style, with about 1 minute rest between each set (I use a FT7 HRM and keep my heart rate over 140). The explanations of the exercises you'll use for each group are farther below.
Workout A
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Horizontal push - 5 x 5
1C. Horizontal pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - flexion - 3 x 5
2B. Ab - static 3 x 30 seconds
Workout B
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Vertical push - 5 x 5
1C. Hip dominant - 5 x 5
1D. Vertical pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - rotation - 3 x 5
2B. Grip and neck training - 3 x varies
Exercise Progressions - with regular weight training you can just add weight to the bar. With bodyweight progression is mostly about changing your leverage. These are just a few examples, I'm sure we could come up with dozens more if needed. You can always add resistance in the form of a weighted vest or backpack or resistance bands.
Explanations of exercise in order of difficulty (easy-hard)
1. Knee Dominant -- squats, lunges, step-ups, bulgarian split squats, unilateral bent leg deadlift, partial one leg squat, one leg squat, box or stair pistols, full pistols.
2. Horizontal Push -- pushups, decline pushups, resistance pushups, side to side pushups, stair one arm pushups, negative one arm pushups, full one arm pushups.
3. Horizontal Pull -- body row, resistance body row, negative one hand row, incline one hand row, full one hand row.
4. Ab - flexion -- crunches, situps, resistance or incline situps, reverse situp, resistance or incline reverse situps, hanging knee or leg raise, hanging pikes, rollout from knees, rollout from feet, dragon flag. Also included are oblique moves like side lying crunches with or without resistance and side lying two leg raise.
5. Abs- static -- 4 point prone bridge, 3 point prone bridge, 2 point prone bridge, 4 point supine bridge, 3 point supine bridge.
6. Vertical Push -- pike pushup, hindu pushup, divebomber pushup, decline pike pushup, decline hindu pushup, decline divebomber pushup, one arm pike pushup, negative handstand pushup, handstand pushup with head touching floor, full handstand pushup.
7. Hip Dominant -- supine hip extension, good morning, one leg stiff leg deadlift, split one leg good morning, one leg supine hip extension, hyperextension, one leg hyperextension, natural glute-ham raise.
8. Vertical Pull -- jumping or assisted pullups, pullups, resistance pullups, side to side pullups, negative one hand pullups, one hand pullups. All these can refer to chinups or neutral grip pullups as well.
9. Ab - rotation -- twist crunches or situps, resistance or incline twist crunches or situps, russian twists, lying windshield wipers, standing rope rotations, hanging windshield wipers.
10. Grip and Neck Training -- for grip you can use handgrippers, deadhangs from a pullup bar (especially a fatbar or gripping a towel). For neck nothing beats wrestlers bridges. If you are involved in a striking martial art or sport, finger and fist pushups are very important also.
None of these lists have to end here. If you get strong enough you can always add resistance to your full range of motion one limb exercise. Or if you can do more than 5 one hand pushups do decline one hand pushups, or start working on one hand hindu and then eventually one hand dive bombers, and so on.
The nice thing about this routine is it scales dramatically depending on your fitness level. If you can't do even ONE regular pull up, you can scale it down and do assisted pull ups (legs on a chair), or ballistic pullups (where you jump to provide the initial momentum). It's actually easier to do properly when you're very unfit...because once you're healthy and strong...you're going to be searching for challenging enough exercises to only allow you 5 reps max by the finish of the 5 sets.
I like how you have this all explained out because I would have no idea what you were talking about, lol WTG BTW!
Glad you liked it! It's actually a very simple routine...but looks complicated when written out. It took me 30-45 minutes to complete it. I only worked out 3x a week during that period as well. And as I said...zero cardio.
Not only did I lose the fat...but obviously I maintained my existing mass.
Win/win.0 -
If you find weight training boring, you are probably doing it wrong (not lifting enough weight). I am pretty sure it is physiologically impossible to be bored when lifting extremely heavy things. Some people just don't like it, but most people I have met who claim it is 'boring' are not actually weight training, they are just moving light objects around pointlessly.Thanks for the replies. They've been very helpfull and the reason why i want to do cardio only is because i've always found weightlifting to be very boring. Is there anyway to do strength training without lifting weights? I heard that swimming is a good strength training exercise so maybe i'll try that
^^this...I get bored so fast doing cardio, but weight training is actually fun. It's kind of like a competition with yourself, and you're constantly doing something different rather than the monotonous hour on the treadmill or elliptical.0 -
Good question. What's the best way to strength train at home without expensive equipment?
There are tons of body weight exercises
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/tipsandtricks/a/basictraining.htm
FitDeck cards are fun
http://fitdeck.com/fitness-bodyweight-only/office/
http://fitdeck.com/fitness-bodyweight-only/travel/0 -
I DETEST weight training. It *hurts*...and I don't like pain.
Unfortunately for me, I can't argue with the results. I'd much rather do cardio. You know, work up a nice lather of sweat while I'm reading a book on my iPad. Good times....but in order to get my shape in...well...shape, I have to lift. Bah.
0 -
Good question. What's the best way to strength train at home without expensive equipment?
Body weight exercises. There are a ton of them out there, and if you need any equipment, is usually just a table or a chair. Combine that with a few weights, maybe a kettlebell or medicine ball, and you have your own gym!
Definitely.
Here's an excellent example of a home based STRENGTH training workout for you:Some of you have been curious about my workout that I used to lose the initial 35+lbs at home. Well, it was 100% bodyweight based, no weights. I'll lay it out here:
This is your basic 5 x 5 template. (To clarify, 5x5 is 5 reps x 5 sets. The idea is to work at a difficulty level where you could only do maybe 7-8 reps on the first set, and are struggling to finish 5 reps on the last set). You would do strength training 3 times a week, say Monday-Wednesday-Friday with the weekends off. These are done "lazy circuits" style, with about 1 minute rest between each set (I use a FT7 HRM and keep my heart rate over 140). The explanations of the exercises you'll use for each group are farther below.
Workout A
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Horizontal push - 5 x 5
1C. Horizontal pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - flexion - 3 x 5
2B. Ab - static 3 x 30 seconds
Workout B
1A. Knee dominant - 5 x 5
1B. Vertical push - 5 x 5
1C. Hip dominant - 5 x 5
1D. Vertical pull - 5 x 5
2A. Ab - rotation - 3 x 5
2B. Grip and neck training - 3 x varies
Exercise Progressions - with regular weight training you can just add weight to the bar. With bodyweight progression is mostly about changing your leverage. These are just a few examples, I'm sure we could come up with dozens more if needed. You can always add resistance in the form of a weighted vest or backpack or resistance bands.
Explanations of exercise in order of difficulty (easy-hard)
1. Knee Dominant -- squats, lunges, step-ups, bulgarian split squats, unilateral bent leg deadlift, partial one leg squat, one leg squat, box or stair pistols, full pistols.
2. Horizontal Push -- pushups, decline pushups, resistance pushups, side to side pushups, stair one arm pushups, negative one arm pushups, full one arm pushups.
3. Horizontal Pull -- body row, resistance body row, negative one hand row, incline one hand row, full one hand row.
4. Ab - flexion -- crunches, situps, resistance or incline situps, reverse situp, resistance or incline reverse situps, hanging knee or leg raise, hanging pikes, rollout from knees, rollout from feet, dragon flag. Also included are oblique moves like side lying crunches with or without resistance and side lying two leg raise.
5. Abs- static -- 4 point prone bridge, 3 point prone bridge, 2 point prone bridge, 4 point supine bridge, 3 point supine bridge.
6. Vertical Push -- pike pushup, hindu pushup, divebomber pushup, decline pike pushup, decline hindu pushup, decline divebomber pushup, one arm pike pushup, negative handstand pushup, handstand pushup with head touching floor, full handstand pushup.
7. Hip Dominant -- supine hip extension, good morning, one leg stiff leg deadlift, split one leg good morning, one leg supine hip extension, hyperextension, one leg hyperextension, natural glute-ham raise.
8. Vertical Pull -- jumping or assisted pullups, pullups, resistance pullups, side to side pullups, negative one hand pullups, one hand pullups. All these can refer to chinups or neutral grip pullups as well.
9. Ab - rotation -- twist crunches or situps, resistance or incline twist crunches or situps, russian twists, lying windshield wipers, standing rope rotations, hanging windshield wipers.
10. Grip and Neck Training -- for grip you can use handgrippers, deadhangs from a pullup bar (especially a fatbar or gripping a towel). For neck nothing beats wrestlers bridges. If you are involved in a striking martial art or sport, finger and fist pushups are very important also.
None of these lists have to end here. If you get strong enough you can always add resistance to your full range of motion one limb exercise. Or if you can do more than 5 one hand pushups do decline one hand pushups, or start working on one hand hindu and then eventually one hand dive bombers, and so on.
The nice thing about this routine is it scales dramatically depending on your fitness level. If you can't do even ONE regular pull up, you can scale it down and do assisted pull ups (legs on a chair), or ballistic pullups (where you jump to provide the initial momentum). It's actually easier to do properly when you're very unfit...because once you're healthy and strong...you're going to be searching for challenging enough exercises to only allow you 5 reps max by the finish of the 5 sets.
That program took me from this:
To this:
In just three months. That's basically 40lbs of fat.
I performed no cardio whatsoever, other than occasional tabata format intervals on my 100lb heavy bag.
Thanks for this!! Love it b/c I have to workout at home!! 0 -
for at home work out, not sure if this has been posted on this thread yet, i kind of skimmed, but this is right kicking my butt (haha just like the title of the blog, didnt notice that at first)
http://fitnessblackbook.com/workout-routines/body-weight-circuits-are-kickin-my-butt/0
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