Cardio doesn't burn fat!!!

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  • AlanTuring
    AlanTuring Posts: 159
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    Nice try, but what do a bunch of dumb doctors know compared to a dude from MFP?
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
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    If anyone can show me a single reliable scientific study showing that aerobics help burn significantly more fat than dieting alone, I'll never make another forum post ever again. Srs.

    From the National Library of Medicine http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_132293.html
    Study by the Journal of Applied Physiology http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/17/cardio-burns-more-fat-than-weight-lifting/

    You guys should read this article. Some excerpts:

    Researchers enrolled 234 overweight or obese adults in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three exercise training groups: resistance training (three days per week of weight lifting, three sets per day, 8-12 repetitions per set), aerobic training (approximately 12 miles per week), or aerobic plus resistance training (three days a week, three set per day, 8-12 repetitions per set for resistance training, plus approximately 12 miles per week of aerobic exercise).

    "No one type of exercise will be best for every health benefit," Willis added. "However, it might be time to reconsider the conventional wisdom that resistance training alone can induce changes in body mass or fat mass due to an increase in metabolism, as our study found no change."

    The groups assigned to aerobic training and aerobic plus resistance training lost more weight than those who did just resistance training. The resistance training group actually gained weight due to an increase in lean body mass.

    Duke researchers added that exercise recommendations are age-specific. For older adults experiencing muscle atrophy, studies have found resistance training to be beneficial. However, younger, healthy adults or those looking to lose weight would see better results doing aerobic training.

    "Balancing time commitments against health benefits, our study suggests that aerobic exercise is the best option for reducing fat mass and body mass," said Cris A. Slentz, PhD, a Duke exercise physiologist and study co-author. "It's not that resistance training isn't good for you; it's just not very good at burning fat."

    Did they control for calorie burn by feeding those that did both more food?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    A way that cardio DOES NOT burn fat is through long slow cardio. This has many benefits, but fat-burning is not one of them.

    Sorry but this is incorrect. Once you have depleted your glycogen stores your body has to replenish them from somewhere. Yes HIIT will burn calories quicker but that only make it more time efficient.
    It doesn't alter the fact that if you have burned calories and don't replace them from your food your body will use its energy stores.
    Low impact cardio burns a higher proportion of fat than high impact - but it takes longer to burn the same calories.
  • skinnyinnotime
    skinnyinnotime Posts: 4,141 Member
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    Whether you do cardio or strength or both, it's always going to be better for you than doing nada.
  • carrieous
    carrieous Posts: 1,024 Member
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    after a good hard cardio workout, my appetite basically shuts down. Both cardio and strength training are important.
  • grantdumas7
    grantdumas7 Posts: 802 Member
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    A way that cardio DOES NOT burn fat is through long slow cardio. This has many benefits, but fat-burning is not one of them.

    Sorry but this is incorrect. Once you have depleted your glycogen stores your body has to replenish them from somewhere. Yes HIIT will burn calories quicker but that only make it more time efficient.
    It doesn't alter the fact that if you have burned calories and don't replace them from your food your body will use its energy stores.
    Low impact cardio burns a higher proportion of fat than high impact - but it takes longer to burn the same calories.
    This is true. When doing slow cardio you will begin to burn fat after about 20-25 min into the the cardio session provided you are not doing right after a weight training.
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
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    A way that cardio DOES NOT burn fat is through long slow cardio. This has many benefits, but fat-burning is not one of them.

    Yeah this is just wrong, when i first started out @ 560 lbs. I could barely support my own weight for 30 seconds at a stretch let alone try to walk and I was wrote a script for aquatic therapy so that my therapist could use the effects of water displacement to allow me to be able to stand long enough to exercise... So I got in the therapy pool (about 75-80% or chest deep submerged) and would walk from one side of the therapy pool to the other... This was my only form of cardio that I was able to do until I got enough weight off to be pushed to the shallow end of the pool (allowing gravity to give me back more of my own weight) and then was fitted with OA braces to be able to start exercising outside of the pool... Up until that point I had spent 17 months in the Pool and lost around 170 lbs. so in my case long slow cardio worked just fine and continues to work today. If I have a bad knee's day (like today) then long slow cardio is all I can do....
  • tmauck4472
    tmauck4472 Posts: 1,783 Member
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    All studies done on aerobics show that they don't significantly accelerate fat loss than dieting alone. Why then whenever someone wants to lose fat or "get abs" they jump on the elliptical and start swinging and sweating thinking it's a great idea?? The only benefit is basically allowing you to eat more food. That's it. I doubt they're doing it for the cardiovascular benefits either. So if by the end of the day you're at a caloric deficit, you will lose the same amount of fat with or without cardio.

    Weight lifting on the other hand has been shown to accelerate fat loss by up to 50% than dieting alone or dieting and cardio. I really genuinely feel sad when I see someone doing an hour or two of cardio on my news feed, and it's for all the wrong reasons..

    So rehab doctors are wrong when they tell you the best way to burn belly fat is to walk and walk fast?
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
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    A way that cardio DOES NOT burn fat is through long slow cardio. This has many benefits, but fat-burning is not one of them.

    Yeah this is just wrong, when i first started out @ 560 lbs. I could barely support my own weight for 30 seconds at a stretch let alone try to walk and I was wrote a script for aquatic therapy so that my therapist could use the effects of water displacement to allow me to be able to stand long enough to exercise... So I got in the therapy pool (about 75-80% or chest deep submerged) and would walk from one side of the therapy pool to the other... This was my only form of cardio that I was able to do until I got enough weight off to be pushed to the shallow end of the pool (allowing gravity to give me back more of my own weight) and then was fitted with OA braces to be able to start exercising outside of the pool... Up until that point I had spent 17 months in the Pool and lost around 170 lbs. so in my case long slow cardio worked just fine and continues to work today. If I have a bad knee's day (like today) then long slow cardio is all I can do....
    [/quote]
  • HonoriaLucasta
    HonoriaLucasta Posts: 24 Member
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    after a good hard cardio workout, my appetite basically shuts down. Both cardio and strength training are important.

    I feel like this is something that nobody ever talks about and wondered if it was just me! Medium-to-hard-effort cardio is a great appetite suppressant in my world. I'm way hungrier when I'm sitting around than when I am getting a run in every other day or so.
  • lanniethomas
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    I do cardio so when zombies or a kidnapper chases after me, I can out run them. Seems beneficial to me.

    Lol! Good point. Thanks for bringing the humor.
  • lanniethomas
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    All studies done on aerobics show that they don't significantly accelerate fat loss than dieting alone. Why then whenever someone wants to lose fat or "get abs" they jump on the elliptical and start swinging and sweating thinking it's a great idea?? The only benefit is basically allowing you to eat more food. That's it. I doubt they're doing it for the cardiovascular benefits either. So if by the end of the day you're at a caloric deficit, you will lose the same amount of fat with or without cardio.

    Weight lifting on the other hand has been shown to accelerate fat loss by up to 50% than dieting alone or dieting and cardio. I really genuinely feel sad when I see someone doing an hour or two of cardio on my news feed, and it's for all the wrong reasons..

    Actually, a combination of both will do the trick. In 2001, I lost a ton of weight doing both Cardio and weight lifting and the results were great. I now do weight lifting first and then Cardio. The fat is melting away and I am losing inches big time.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    So rehab doctors are wrong when they tell you the best way to burn belly fat is to walk and walk fast?
    Rehab is a different situation than a person with no physical issues/limitations. If you're rehabbing an injury and walking is the only exercise you can do, of course it would be the best thing you could do when the alternative is doing nothing.

    OTOH, there's no such thing as "burning belly fat". Spot reducing is a myth. When you lose fat, you lose it in a genetically predetermined pattern and no food, exercise or "magic pill" will influence where it comes off first.
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
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    This thread isn't about the knocking the cardiovascular benefits of it... it's saying that it isn't nearly as effective from a fat loss perspective, which is true. People get really jumpy around here real fast....

    Look to all the top fitness, physique, bodybuilding competitors... it wasn't built by cardio, it was built through resistance training.

    CARDIO DOES BURN FAT. And cardio DOESN'T burn fat. It depends on how it is done.

    Three ways it burns fat. . .

    1. Interval cardio with HIIT: (ie walk, jog, run, repeat) for 20 - 30 minutes

    2. Fasted cardio such as first thing in the morning after an overnight fast and before breakfast: When done on an empty stomach your body uses fat stores as energy (some say this is controversial).

    4. After a weight lifting session which mostly burns carbs and calories, you then do cardio to burn fat.


    A way that cardio DOES NOT burn fat is through long slow cardio. This has many benefits, but fat-burning is not one of them.

    All cardio releases endorphins and seratonin (feel good hormones). Makes you sleep better the natural way and is better than an anti-depressant pill (for most people who are not suffering from chronic or severe depression as I can't comment on that. It is case by case no doubt).

    I don't understand what you're trying to get it? I never said it doesn't burn fat, i just said it's not as effective. My point again is that you can achieve top level body composition without the use of cardio.
  • AlanTuring
    AlanTuring Posts: 159
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    I don't understand what you're trying to get it? I never said it doesn't burn fat, i just said it's not as effective. My point again is that you can achieve top level body composition without the use of cardio.
    Rarely in my life have I seen such remarkable synergy between a username and a post.
  • LolBroScience
    LolBroScience Posts: 4,537 Member
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    I don't understand what you're trying to get it? I never said it doesn't burn fat, i just said it's not as effective. My point again is that you can achieve top level body composition without the use of cardio.
    Rarely in my life have I seen such remarkable synergy between a username and a post.

    Do you know any physique competitors?
  • dangerxbadger
    dangerxbadger Posts: 396 Member
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    actually there should be a mixture of cardio and weight training, i'm over 200lbs if weight training were my only form of exercise i'd look like a beefed up man. no thanks :indifferent:

    No. You wouldn't. Stop drinking the koolaid.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/903628-one-year-of-barbells-and-ice-cream-my-story-so-far-pics

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/844040-raspberry-ketones-for-the-rest-of-us
  • AlanTuring
    AlanTuring Posts: 159
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    I don't understand what you're trying to get it? I never said it doesn't burn fat, i just said it's not as effective. My point again is that you can achieve top level body composition without the use of cardio.
    Rarely in my life have I seen such remarkable synergy between a username and a post.

    Do you know any physique competitors?
    Obviously the largest demographic on MFP are physique competitors and that's where most people are trying to get, so this thread makes a lot of sense for the target audience by saying that cardio is completely 100% worthless to all people at all times.

    What you're saying is true, but is also functionally worthless to probably about 80% of this site's members, if not more. Most people here aren't trying to be full blown meatheads and marinate themselves in all of the broscience ever.

    However, having you come back with a slightly modified version of "DO U EVAN LIFT" is definitely pretty hilarious.
  • chadgard
    chadgard Posts: 102 Member
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    I am just NOT over the little detail where OP said he is POSITIVE he is in better cardiovascular health than a person who runs many marathons.

    I. Call. Shenanigans.

    Actually, he said he was in better cardio health than ANYONE who runs marathons. While he may be in better cardio shape than many people who run many marathons, my guess is there is probably at least one person who runs many marathons that is in better cardio health. Haile Gebrselassie or Khalid Khannouchi come to mind as people that, very likely, are in better cardio health than the original OP who does very little to directly improve his....
  • meredith1123
    meredith1123 Posts: 843 Member
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    can't we all just get along

    ^^ right!!! I guess haters gonna hate!!!!

    Cardio makes people feel good, its a scientific FACT. Not only that it burns calories so if i eat 1400 calories a day and burn 700 taking an hour jog, uh, i'm going to lose more weight. I've been doing this all my life. If it weren't for my 'worthless cardio' i wouldnt have lost as effectively.
    With all of the running i've done, i have certainly built a wonderful tone in my quads and calves and it even helps me with my abs.
    I think you need to recognize.
    just sayin