lots of cardio and no fat loss

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michellepierce123
michellepierce123 Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am confused as to how from last April till now I have done regular exercise. I even started training for triathlons and have done 9 races over the months. I checked my body fat today and even though I have lost 23 pounds and gone down pant sizes, my body fat has not moved. What the heck. Should I switch over to doing strength training more.

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  • PeriwinklePineapple
    PeriwinklePineapple Posts: 31 Member
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    I'm by NO means an expert or even a pro, but i would say it sounds like you're exactly on the right track, with the need to incorporate strength training. You're just looking at a percentage. The actual amount of fat lost, im sure is significant, but the percentage (your body composition) has stayed the same. Sounds like you just need to add some muscle and that should start balancing itself out.
  • fatmanslimmingdown
    fatmanslimmingdown Posts: 1 Member
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    How are you measuring your body fat? Are you using a clamp, measurements, a pod or scale? Also, with all that cardio and events the body is going to burn more and ask for more so watch your intakes. Incorporating strength training is not a bad idea............but I would see a nutrionist and maybe get a physical to ensure your health is good to go since that is more important than losing some body fat :) Hope this help.....good luck
  • skillingsrobertj
    skillingsrobertj Posts: 45
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    fatmanslimmin is on the right track...How are you measuring your BF% ?

    I have a scale that displays this number for me, but a common complaint is they aren't very accurate due to the variable amount of water in your body at the time, warmth / coldness of your feet, etc. To compensate, I try to adjust by weighing at the same time, after drinking about the same amount of water, etc, but I don't go crazy with the info it gives me.

    As for doing lots of cardio, you're likely to get a lot of people saying you're doing too much. A recent study by John Hopkins says that isn't true, but I'm not going there.

    For me, I've been using an indoor rower (cardio), have dropped weight like yourself as well as pant sizes, etc but when I calculate my BF% it is relatively unchanged. That's because the calculations take into account waist size and until that stops reducing, the relative BF% will stay about the same.

    Calculations I referred to can be found at; http://www.livestrong.com/article/178538-how-to-measure-body-fat-lean-body-mass/
  • arcticfox04
    arcticfox04 Posts: 1,011 Member
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    Add more strength training to your routine. You'd be amazed how much fat you can burn off if you do cardio 30 minutes after a HIIT session.

    Also it could be your diet. Whats your macro at ?
  • MaggieSporleder
    MaggieSporleder Posts: 428 Member
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    I'd think your measuring device is inaccurate. I've gotten a body fat analysis at the hospital before, they like clip electrodes to you, I think this is the most accurate. :)
  • michellepierce123
    michellepierce123 Posts: 6 Member
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    the scale i used today was a scale that does your weight, BF, muscle mass and water. I have brought my body fat from 29% to 16% back in 2005 and then fell off track and am right back up. I brought it down before with mostly weight training. This time I have done all swimming, biking on a rode bike and running. I feel great and am so proud of all the races I have done. I was looking at increasing my distance this summer from tri sprints to tri olympics but now I realize I really need to put some focus on strength training to tone up and lose the body fat. What to do what to do. The dilemma is that training for a tri is very time consuming and fitting in the strength training will be hard. I have added 2 days of full body strength training with no rest in between sets because of the change in muscle groups. my diet has been that of my fitness pal. 1200 to 1700 calories a day depending on how many calories I burned working out. most times I burn 200 to 700 calories. sorry so long. what do you think.

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