Whats wrong with doing only cardio?

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  • Admiral_Derp
    Admiral_Derp Posts: 866 Member
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    Have you seen the girls that lift heavy? Enough said.

    Look at strong lifts 5x5 or the new rules of lifting for women. I think there is a group for it.

    QFT
  • ASH0502
    ASH0502 Posts: 19
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    I feel your pain, but I agree with what a lot of people here are saying about speeding up your metabolism, strengthening your muscles and joints, toning you up, and giving you more energy.

    If you are someone who has a hard time doing anything other than cardio then it isn't realistic that you'll just walk into a weight room and start lifting or that you'll just make up a body weight circuit.

    My suggestion (as someone who has been in your position and would always rather run than anything else) is to get a dvd like Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. She teaches you the circuit and you just follow along. That one in particular showed me awesome results and also only takes 22 minutes to run through. It gives you a great idea of what your body can handle and gave me a good list of moves to do on a consistent basis.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    any exercise is better than none
  • stubbysticks
    stubbysticks Posts: 1,275 Member
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    There's nothing wrong with doing only cardio, but it depends on what your goals are. If you just want to be cardiovascularly fit & burn calories, stick with what you're doing. If you want to "look" like you work out, cardio alone isn't going to do it because it won't build muscle like strength training will. Not only does more muscle make you look fit, it boosts your metabolism by making you burn more calories at rest. This means little splurges here & there on yummy but high-calorie food/beverages will have less of an effect on your weight when you're in maintenance. Who doesn't love that?

    It sounds like you've already decided not to like lifting so I won't try to convince you otherwise. I will say that I never thought I'd ever like lifting but decided to do it anyway because I was told it would help me lose weight. It did. But no one ever told me it would make me feel AWESOME, because it did that too. Lifting weights makes me feel strong, healthy & powerful like nothing else I've ever done.

    billsica mentioned New Rules of Lifting For Women...this is the program I'm following right now & it's amazing. I wouldn't recommend it for you though, because you hate lifting. So best of luck with whatever you decide to do!
  • stacylperry
    stacylperry Posts: 66 Member
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    Girl friend I know how you feel. If I could get away with just doing cardio I would!
    But Ive learned that in order to get some definition to our bodies, we need to do some strength training.
    Our legs look better in shorts, and our arms look better in short sleeve t-shirts :heart: trust me!
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
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    Aside from sculpting and reshaping your body by preserving and increasing lean body mass, it's main benefit is appreciated later in life as we age. If one does not engage in strength training to [at minimum] preserve lean body mass, they will experience significant age-related sarcopenia to the point their health and quality of living is compromised. Simple chores such as walking, getting off a toilet, feeding and changing oneself are all made possible by the strength of your muscle tissues and joints. Sarcopenia robs people of their efficacy to continue doing these things and more on their own. You want to lead a high quality of life and independence? Then start strength training.
  • IWantToo
    IWantToo Posts: 162
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    I just do cardio everytime I add weight I gain, I added 2 pound weights yesterday and today im as big as a blimp.. im sure it'll pass but i always stall or gain with weights smh...
  • dawnp1833
    dawnp1833 Posts: 264 Member
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    My suggestion (as someone who has been in your position and would always rather run than anything else) is to get a dvd like Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. She teaches you the circuit and you just follow along. That one in particular showed me awesome results and also only takes 22 minutes to run through. It gives you a great idea of what your body can handle and gave me a good list of moves to do on a consistent basis.

    I agree with this. I don't particularly like Jillian and I"m not a fan of exercise in general. But by day 10 of the 30 day shred, I could see a major difference in my body as well as my strength and could walk up 2 flights of stairs without getting winded. Seeing how quickly it made a difference made me stick to it. When I was just doing cardio, I lost pounds and inches initially, but didn't see that big difference in the mirror.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
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    Everybodies body has a "setpoint" of sorts, where cardio and deficit can get you to a particular BF% and no more. Continued weight loss will see no further reduction in BF%, in fact it may rise instead.

    As you lose weight you are losing both fat and muscle. The leaner you get the more that proportion shifts toward muslce. Eventually the ratio will be great enough that your body fat % will not go any lower.

    The ONLY way to go beyond this, and get to an even lower BF%, is to strength train. Aside for a few outliers, pretty much everyone you see that has abs, man or woman (even just hints in women), strength trains. It is almost physically impossible to get that lean without doing so.

    You can diet you way down to slim, but you can't diet your way to "toned". Toned really means a being at a relatively low BF%, and has nothing to do with muscle size or mass.
  • waldo56
    waldo56 Posts: 1,861 Member
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    I just do cardio everytime I add weight I gain, I added 2 pound weights yesterday and today im as big as a blimp.. im sure it'll pass but i always stall or gain with weights smh...

    Wow, if you lifted every day for a couple years, you'd weigh thousands of pounds.
  • susannahsutton1
    susannahsutton1 Posts: 372
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    To start with, cardio is good way to lose weight. Issue is that as you get fitter, your body can't push itself to burn more calories to keep the cardio up unless you make it stronger. I'm doing more cycling, so am doing strength training alongside to make my body stronger to cycle faster and harder, and recover faster. Leg presses etc. My training buddy does no strength training and joined me on a cycle ride on Sunday morning and was way behind. I could also walk on Monday morning and she was in screaming agony! Depends what you want out of your exercise regime. If you want to walk a long way without getting out of breath and keep your weight under control, doing only cardio will probably be fine. If you want to take on more sporting challenges, then you need to do both.
  • jhawk84
    jhawk84 Posts: 9
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    If you have a crap ton of weight to lose then you're screwed with only cardio. it'll leave a lot of sagging skin around that lower abdominal. Rather than just run, try working out. Get you all toned, then go for a nice, lean cut. It will work out best for the long run.

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