Doing cardio with out gaining muscle...

Cardio and lifting with light weight / lots of reps will tone and reduce BF% (most people call it "toning up")
Heavy weight / small reps - gains mass (most call it "bulking up")

Agree to disagree..

You have it mistaken, higher volume of weights and smaller reps will not gain mass if you are not feeding yourself the caloric needs of muscle mass. Do this and you'll be stronger but not necessarily bigger. High reps and low weights just helps increase muscle stamina, does nothing for toning.

I was a spin addict for several years with an occassional token weight lifting day. It was not until I added strenghth training that my measurements went down. I was also worried about getting chunky looking from gaining muscle. I did gain muscle but not the bulk we women tend to dread.

Interesting.... I am aming to loose 1lb a week (I am on week 6 of 16) and I am not over weight but could afford to lose a few inches off my waist etc, I weigh myself every week and if i dont see the 1lb a week drop I know I will get disheartened (and probably give up) so should I just stick to what I am doing?

If you're not overweight then there's a good chance that trying to lose 1lb/week isn't a great idea.

It depends what you call over weight... My BMI is ok but could be better, I know my fat % is too high

Change your focus - stop thinking of the scale as the tool to measure your progress, because it will NOT tell you when you are losing fat and replacing it with muscle, which actually weighs more but is smaller and sleeker. Get out the tape measure, measure bust, waist, hips, thigh and upper arm and then start tracking those measurements. They WILL tell you that you are making progress, and those measurements are, after all, what determines your dress size.

Don't get stuck on stupid (the scale) and let it demotivate you. Is that clear enough? Do you understand what several of us are trying to tell you? You are not really as concerned about changing your MASS as you are about refining your SHAPE, so use the correct tool to measure that - the tape measure.

I wasn't aware cardio could even make you gain muscle.

I wasn't aware cardio could even make you gain muscle.

It will "develop" the muscles that you are using but not going to make you gain mass.

Cardio and lifting with light weight / lots of reps will tone and reduce BF% (most people call it "toning up")
Heavy weight / small reps - gains mass (most call it "bulking up")

Agree to disagree..

You have it mistaken, higher volume of weights and smaller reps will not gain mass if you are not feeding yourself the caloric needs of muscle mass. Do this and you'll be stronger but not necessarily bigger. High reps and low weights just helps increase muscle stamina, does nothing for toning.

Just a question to clarify here-During the last 4 months I did a lot of reading here and I have played a lot with calories, exercises I want and can do, and currently I am in the following: I am 5'6", 179lb and want to lose 30- 40 lb from here. I have set up my MFP on TDEE-30%, 1708 (BMR1349), do not eat my calories back, and everyday I do 1 hour cardio in treadmill, increasing the incline and burn 500 calories according to the machine set on 10lb lower than my actual weight. I have started doing JM shred in 30, and have experimenting with different classes in the gym, from zumba to muscle confusion. Three times weekly, I just do all the weight machines in the gym, in the women's area, 3x10, with the weight set so it is difficult but I can do 10 repetitions. Will this be fine to lose weight and tone? I also want to lose body fat all over, see the scale go down and inches decrease. I have lost 4 inches from belly waist and 2 inches from waist the last month that I have implemented this exercise schedule. Even though I know you can not spot lose, I find that I started to be more firm in different areas of my body, and I do fit in smaller size clothes. Can I continue with this cardio routine and machine weights? Do I need to do free weights? I am confused when people say weight training, whether they mean free weights , or the gym machines. Can just cardio everyday be fine to loose weight on the scale?

Cardio and lifting with light weight / lots of reps will tone and reduce BF% (most people call it "toning up")
Heavy weight / small reps - gains mass (most call it "bulking up")

Agree to disagree..

You have it mistaken, higher volume of weights and smaller reps will not gain mass if you are not feeding yourself the caloric needs of muscle mass. Do this and you'll be stronger but not necessarily bigger. High reps and low weights just helps increase muscle stamina, does nothing for toning.

Just a question to clarify here-During the last 4 months I did a lot of reading here and I have played a lot with calories, exercises I want and can do, and currently I am in the following: I am 5'6", 179lb and want to lose 30- 40 lb from here. I have set up my MFP on TDEE-30%, 1708 (BMR1349), do not eat my calories back, and everyday I do 1 hour cardio in treadmill, increasing the incline and burn 500 calories according to the machine set on 10lb lower than my actual weight. I have started doing JM shred in 30, and have experimenting with different classes in the gym, from zumba to muscle confusion. Three times weekly, I just do all the weight machines in the gym, in the women's area, 3x10, with the weight set so it is difficult but I can do 10 repetitions. Will this be fine to lose weight and tone? I also want to lose body fat all over, see the scale go down and inches decrease. I have lost 4 inches from belly waist and 2 inches from waist the last month that I have implemented this exercise schedule. Even though I know you can not spot lose, I find that I started to be more firm in different areas of my body, and I do fit in smaller size clothes. Can I continue with this cardio routine and machine weights? Do I need to do free weights? I am confused when people say weight training, whether they mean free weights , or the gym machines. Can just cardio everyday be fine to loose weight on the scale?

Drop the cardio to 2-3 days a week. Steady state cardio will increase the chances of catabolization muscle. People doing high amounts of cardio will burn more muscle. And there is no reason to work the same muscle every day. You will just be more prone to injury. If you like zumba, do that for your cardio (2-3x a week) and spend the other days just doing weight training. The advantage of free weight vs machine is you will work more muscles with free weights as you engage your core more. You can always start with a program like Strong Lift 5x5. It's a beginner weight training program and can be found free by google. This way you will optimize strength gains (which high amounts of cardio can effect) and you will improve muscle retention.

I wasn't aware cardio could even make you gain muscle.

think of the sprinters. obviously resistance training built most of the at muscle, but even if they never touched a weight in thier lives, there leg muscles would gain mass as long as they were eating enough.

obviously they wouldn't grow as quickly as they would without weight training

the same would be true for even distance runners

Makes sense.

Just a question to clarify here-During the last 4 months I did a lot of reading here and I have played a lot with calories, exercises I want and can do, and currently I am in the following: I am 5'6", 179lb and want to lose 30- 40 lb from here. I have set up my MFP on TDEE-30%, 1708 (BMR1349), do not eat my calories back, and everyday I do 1 hour cardio in treadmill, increasing the incline and burn 500 calories according to the machine set on 10lb lower than my actual weight. I have started doing JM shred in 30, and have experimenting with different classes in the gym, from zumba to muscle confusion. Three times weekly, I just do all the weight machines in the gym, in the women's area, 3x10, with the weight set so it is difficult but I can do 10 repetitions. Will this be fine to lose weight and tone? I also want to lose body fat all over, see the scale go down and inches decrease. I have lost 4 inches from belly waist and 2 inches from waist the last month that I have implemented this exercise schedule. Even though I know you can not spot lose, I find that I started to be more firm in different areas of my body, and I do fit in smaller size clothes. Can I continue with this cardio routine and machine weights? Do I need to do free weights? I am confused when people say weight training, whether they mean free weights , or the gym machines. Can just cardio everyday be fine to loose weight on the scale?

Drop the cardio to 2-3 days a week. Steady state cardio will increase the chances of catabolization muscle. People doing high amounts of cardio will burn more muscle. And there is no reason to work the same muscle every day. You will just be more prone to injury. If you like zumba, do that for your cardio (2-3x a week) and spend the other days just doing weight training. The advantage of free weight vs machine is you will work more muscles with free weights as you engage your core more. You can always start with a program like Strong Lift 5x5. It's a beginner weight training program and can be found free by google. This way you will optimize strength gains (which high amounts of cardio can effect) and you will improve muscle retention.

Aah, I never heard about this catabolization muscle. What about all these people in MFP who just do cardio everyday and have lost all this weight, either by just walking or treadmill? I did the different classes at the gym, more so my muscles and body does not get used to the same exercises. What I like with the treadmill, is that I go in the evening after 8pm and just watch the same show so I wont get bored with the exercise. Do you recommend then that I just do 5 days treadmill cardio incline to 500 calories as I do, and do 2 days of muscle training? I also want to continue the JM Shred daily because I saw the greatest waist and belly waist reduction in inches. Do machine weights work OK? I want to reach my weight goal/lose body fat/dress size, and then start thinking on how to tone with free weights. The machine weights seem to have firm the areas and it is not flabby anymore.

That's the recommendations from the cdc:(http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html#Aerobic)
5 hours (300 minutes) each week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity and
weight training muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).

Bump because

1. I love this argument
2. I don't think I have ever bumped

:laugh:

Just a question to clarify here-During the last 4 months I did a lot of reading here and I have played a lot with calories, exercises I want and can do, and currently I am in the following: I am 5'6", 179lb and want to lose 30- 40 lb from here. I have set up my MFP on TDEE-30%, 1708 (BMR1349), do not eat my calories back, and everyday I do 1 hour cardio in treadmill, increasing the incline and burn 500 calories according to the machine set on 10lb lower than my actual weight. I have started doing JM shred in 30, and have experimenting with different classes in the gym, from zumba to muscle confusion. Three times weekly, I just do all the weight machines in the gym, in the women's area, 3x10, with the weight set so it is difficult but I can do 10 repetitions. Will this be fine to lose weight and tone? I also want to lose body fat all over, see the scale go down and inches decrease. I have lost 4 inches from belly waist and 2 inches from waist the last month that I have implemented this exercise schedule. Even though I know you can not spot lose, I find that I started to be more firm in different areas of my body, and I do fit in smaller size clothes. Can I continue with this cardio routine and machine weights? Do I need to do free weights? I am confused when people say weight training, whether they mean free weights , or the gym machines. Can just cardio everyday be fine to loose weight on the scale?

Drop the cardio to 2-3 days a week. Steady state cardio will increase the chances of catabolization muscle. People doing high amounts of cardio will burn more muscle. And there is no reason to work the same muscle every day. You will just be more prone to injury. If you like zumba, do that for your cardio (2-3x a week) and spend the other days just doing weight training. The advantage of free weight vs machine is you will work more muscles with free weights as you engage your core more. You can always start with a program like Strong Lift 5x5. It's a beginner weight training program and can be found free by google. This way you will optimize strength gains (which high amounts of cardio can effect) and you will improve muscle retention.

Aah, I never heard about this catabolization muscle. What about all these people in MFP who just do cardio everyday and have lost all this weight, either by just walking or treadmill? I did the different classes at the gym, more so my muscles and body does not get used to the same exercises. What I like with the treadmill, is that I go in the evening after 8pm and just watch the same show so I wont get bored with the exercise. Do you recommend then that I just do 5 days treadmill cardio incline to 500 calories as I do, and do 2 days of muscle training? I also want to continue the JM Shred daily because I saw the greatest waist and belly waist reduction in inches. Do machine weights work OK? I want to reach my weight goal/lose body fat/dress size, and then start thinking on how to tone with free weights. The machine weights seem to have firm the areas and it is not flabby anymore.

That's the recommendations from the cdc:(http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/adults.html#Aerobic)
5 hours (300 minutes) each week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity and
weight training muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms).

Catabolizing lean body mass means you are losing muscle due to not enough stored energy. This besides the point. In regards to your workout, I recommend literally only doing cardio 2-3 days a week. You can do the cardio from the treadmill, a HIIT workout from JM or zumba or another class. All aerobic exercise = cardio IMO. I will state that if you do HIIT instead of steady state cardio, then you increase the chances of maintaining your muscle. In the other 3 -4 for days, you should do resistance training. This could include full body, endurance or pure strength programs. Depending on your goals will depend on what your program will be. If you want overall fitness and strength, a program with heavy weight and reps in the 6-12 range will be optimize. If you are an endurance trainer, then lower weight higher rep will suffice. Fat loss should be equal for both though.

From a personal standpoint, I am doing endurance training. The only downside to this is I am losing strength in which I previously gained during my heavy lifting days. But due to an injury, I changed my program.


And for those who lost doing all cardio, that's is all about the calorie deficit. The deficit is what creates the weight loss. The issue with losing with just cardio is simple; a portion of their loss is from muscle. And since muscle is tight and lean, the more you have the tighter your body will be. Also, the more muscle you have, the more support you provide your body, the faster your metabolic rate and you will have a ability to eat more calories.

Is hiit better than steady state in terms of fat loss ? I have read that it is more effective to do 20 minutes of hiit than an hour of steady state ? I do 20 minutes on the treadmill, 1 minute sprinting as fast as I can, then back to a walk or slow jog for 2 minutes, and so forth, as well as doing some high resistance work on the elliptical and bikes, and strong lifts. Not gotten bulky yet, in spite of doing interval training or rolling hills at level 10 resistance.

That's not something you read. That's a fact. This has been published in journals. Check biolayne.com for more information on this. People often think that burning 500 calories running like a zombie on the treadmill is the same as burning 500 calories doing HIIT. Newflash, it's not.

Well, yes, burning 500 calories is burning 500 calories, the difference is the time it takes to burn them differs.

NO.

Is hiit better than steady state in terms of fat loss ? I have read that it is more effective to do 20 minutes of hiit than an hour of steady state ? I do 20 minutes on the treadmill, 1 minute sprinting as fast as I can, then back to a walk or slow jog for 2 minutes, and so forth, as well as doing some high resistance work on the elliptical and bikes, and strong lifts. Not gotten bulky yet, in spite of doing interval training or rolling hills at level 10 resistance.

That's not something you read. That's a fact. This has been published in journals. Check biolayne.com for more information on this. People often think that burning 500 calories running like a zombie on the treadmill is the same as burning 500 calories doing HIIT. Newflash, it's not.

Well in all technicality, HIIT is not more effective at burning fat, but what it is more effective in is burning more calories in a shorter amount of time and more effective at preserving lean body mass. As tigersword states, burning 500 calories doing HIIT is the same at burning 500 calories at running, but the time required to do so is much less.

Is hiit better than steady state in terms of fat loss ? I have read that it is more effective to do 20 minutes of hiit than an hour of steady state ? I do 20 minutes on the treadmill, 1 minute sprinting as fast as I can, then back to a walk or slow jog for 2 minutes, and so forth, as well as doing some high resistance work on the elliptical and bikes, and strong lifts. Not gotten bulky yet, in spite of doing interval training or rolling hills at level 10 resistance.

Again, no.
That's not something you read. That's a fact. This has been published in journals. Check biolayne.com for more information on this. People often think that burning 500 calories running like a zombie on the treadmill is the same as burning 500 calories doing HIIT. Newflash, it's not.

Well in all technicality, HIIT is not more effective at burning fat, but what it is more effective in is burning more calories in a shorter amount of time and more effective at preserving lean body mass. As tigersword states, burning 500 calories doing HIIT is the same at burning 500 calories at running, but the time required to do so is much less.

Again, no. People don't do HIIT because it saves time.

Again, no. People don't do HIIT because it saves time.

I do HIIT to save time.