Having muscle doing just cardio when losing weight?

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Bshaw2442
Bshaw2442 Posts: 23 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I did not get any responses in the other category, so maybe I will get some here :)

Ok so I have been reading different things about overall toning and losing weight. I know that they say with just cardio, it helps your heart and to burn fat. Although, most say that just cardio alone will not typically help you to tone the body. You would need to do sometime of weight training in addition to the cardio if you really would like to tone your body. My question is, if this is true, how am I starting to have a very toned stomach? I have only been dieting and losing weight in addition to just cardio (zumba/dance aerobics) for my weight loss. I am confused to how this can be when everything or at least most everything I have read said that this is nearly impossible to do. For a little information about myself, I am currently 5'2, started at a weight of 180 lbs and am now 25 lbs down to 155. I am not the most educated in this area, so please help me out :) Any thoughts/knowledge would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

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  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
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    Cardio burns fat, so losing the fat over existing muscles will make them more visible and obvious. However, cardio will not build new muscle.
  • Rainydaygirl1
    Rainydaygirl1 Posts: 117 Member
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    Cardio burns fat, so losing the fat over existing muscles will make them more visible and obvious. However, cardio will not build new muscle.
    This.
    I've been noticing the same with zumba. It's just exposing the muscle you already have underneath
  • AbnormalSpring
    AbnormalSpring Posts: 34 Member
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    Thank you for the good answer as I was windering this my self.
  • mathjulz
    mathjulz Posts: 5,514 Member
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    Without at least some form of resistance training, you are at a much greater risk of losing muscle with the fat.

    Having well-defined abs (or any "toned" muscles) depends a lot on having a low body fat %. This requires "burning" the fat (via a calorie deficit, which cardio can aid in), so if you have been doing just cardio and eating at a deficit, the muscle that exists in your abs is starting to show. Also, Zumba may work those muscles in your core more than you realize (I remember doing Latin dance, and some Zumba, and it requires a lot of twisting and balance).

    Still, you may want to consider incorporating real resistance training, to keep your muscle and help the body use a higher percentage of fat vs muscle in the weight loss.
  • hemlock2010
    hemlock2010 Posts: 422 Member
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    Cardio is basically low weight high reps for quads, hamstrings, glutes, and abs. Possibly someone who is already very muscular and not very heavy would gain no additional muscle just doing cardio, but I started out with practically no muscle and gained a lot doing cardio only. I eventually did P90X because I wanted upper body muscles to match my lower body. :-)
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    Without at least some form of resistance training, you are at a much greater risk of losing muscle with the fat.

    Having well-defined abs (or any "toned" muscles) depends a lot on having a low body fat %. This requires "burning" the fat (via a calorie deficit, which cardio can aid in), so if you have been doing just cardio and eating at a deficit, the muscle that exists in your abs is starting to show. Also, Zumba may work those muscles in your core more than you realize (I remember doing Latin dance, and some Zumba, and it requires a lot of twisting and balance).

    Still, you may want to consider incorporating real resistance training, to keep your muscle and help the body use a higher percentage of fat vs muscle in the weight loss.

    QFT
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Confused on some things.
    To lose weight you must merely eat less than you burn daily.

    Diet is for weight loss - done right just fat loss, done wrong includes muscle mass loss. (like cardio only, or big deficits, or not enough protein)

    Exercise is for heart health and body improvements (which rarely includes weight loss) - done right it supports just fat loss, done wrong it helps muscle loss. (like intense cardio only)

    Exercise for the diet merely increases how much you burn daily.
    So that when you eat less, perhaps you are still eating near what you were and is sustainable and you'll adhere to it.

    Cardio or lifting, either can help fat loss because it increases what you burn daily. But cardio is bigger increase for equal time, so you'll get to eat more - which may be easier to adhere to.

    But lifting retains muscle mass, cardio is only going to do that for the muscle actually being used.
    Zumba is all over muscle use. Not to a high degree like lifting, but if you didn't have much muscle to begin with, it's going to use what you've got.

    Also, tone muscle is pretty loose definition in advertising world, understand what you are talking about.
    http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/articles/muscle-tone.aspx

    You can increase strength from lifting and endurance from cardio using existing muscle without adding any more at all.
    Not until you reach the limits of existing muscle for lifting would the body need to add more, if you continued to apply an overload with short amount of reps. Cardio on the other hand just needs the muscles to endure longer, so add more carbs to them, don't need more muscle for that.

    As commented, losing some body fat, which has big volume per weight, and especially if your body happened to remove most of it from one area first (don't always count on that), will reveal muscle underneath. If you have been using that muscle now, it's filled with more water and carb stores, so it appears bigger possibly, but at the least is stronger probably.
  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
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    Davpul makes an excellent analogy in this thread.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1354853-not-exercising-but-muscles-are-shaping

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