Is cardio necessary to lose weight?
Replies
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skinnysharia wrote: »I realize that what I am about to say will be controversial and goes against everything everyone here is saying but...you may need to increase your calories. 1200 calories is very low for the amount of exercise you are doing. Your body is probably not being adequately fueled and so it is holding on to every pound so it can to survive. Google a BMR/TDEE calculator. Look at the calories your body needs just to live if you are in a coma. I bet the 1200 calories you are eating is less than your Basal Metabolic Rate. Then look at your Total Daily Energy Expenditure - the calories your body needs to maintain your current weight. It is amazing how much we should be eating to fuel our bodies. Google Eat More 2 Weigh Less if you want more information. It's a weird way of thinking about weight loss but it works.
She's not actually eating 1200 or less calories. Once she tightens up her logging, I'd bet she is eating quite a bit more.
Eat More 2 weigh Less is still about eating at a calorie deficit, it has to do with if you eat too little eventually it slows down your rate of loss. Regardless, first you have to make sure you know how many calories you are eating before you just randomly increase your calories. NO full grown woman who isn't super short and sedentary would be maintaining at less than 1200 calories, no matter how long she was dieting.
And actually EM2WL is a group right here on MFP, you can find it in the groups section.3 -
(Sigh, now I feel nice and embarrassed lol) - the entries that make the least sense (like mcdonalds + chilis) are things that I tried to piece together when eating out at a restaurant - I was just picking things from the list since the restaurant had no info, so they are definitely guesses. I'm not sure how to approach measuring food at restaurants and I eat out fairly often.
The chicken parm was a recipe I made myself (so the cals on that came from putting the recipe entry in the app). I use the barcode scanner on the prepackaged foods that I make myself at home, I figured that would be accurate, but now I'll be keeping an eye on the serving sizes.
I guess it's a combo of too much restaurant food (despite trying to pick not-terrible things) and not logging right. I thought I had a pretty good sense of ounces from eyeballing it (especially since I was losing weight for three months) but maybe not.
I appreciate all the feedback from you all. I'll buckle down and try again. If my logging has been wrong the whole time, that does explain why I was losing for the first three months with cardio and not since then. Still pretty new to this whole thing.4 -
sheepingly wrote: »CharlieBeansmomTracey wrote: »sheepingly wrote: »I've been working out for about 6 months. In the first three months I had been doing cardio (treadmill or C25K running program) in addition to various classes at the gym - most days I did 2 workouts, one cardio and one something else.
For the most recent three months the cardio has dropped off (slacker) but I still do at least one class at the gym (45-60min) per day.
The whole time I have tracked calorie intake (1200 cal target) and macros. In the first three months I lost about 12 pounds but I have not lost any more since then. Is the lack of cardio to blame? I'm just confused and could use some opinions. Thanks
You are probably plateauing. If you are working out more you need to eat more. Or have a refeed day or something to shock the system. Change up your workouts etc.
you cant shock your system.
Yes you can. You can change up your habits over time to get your body adjusted to something else
your body may get more efficient at burning calories with certain exercises sure, but you arent shocking your body by switching to something else,you just have to find something that burns more calories. the easier something gets the less your body has to work at it so the less calories you burn. but again you still arent shocking it.
for most people when they hit a plateau or arent losing its caused by a few things usually not logging accurately,not weighing everything,overestimating exercise calories and eating too much back,not recalculating your calorie goals with each 10-20lbs lost,or a combo of all of those things.for some it may even be an underlying health issue,or even a cheat meal can knock them out of a deficit.0 -
skinnysharia wrote: »I realize that what I am about to say will be controversial and goes against everything everyone here is saying but...you may need to increase your calories. 1200 calories is very low for the amount of exercise you are doing. Your body is probably not being adequately fueled and so it is holding on to every pound so it can to survive. Google a BMR/TDEE calculator. Look at the calories your body needs just to live if you are in a coma. I bet the 1200 calories you are eating is less than your Basal Metabolic Rate. Then look at your Total Daily Energy Expenditure - the calories your body needs to maintain your current weight. It is amazing how much we should be eating to fuel our bodies. Google Eat More 2 Weigh Less if you want more information. It's a weird way of thinking about weight loss but it works.
no if she was indeed eating 1200 and working out she would be losing weight your body does not hold onto everything when in a deficit of calories. if so anorexics,people in starving countries and concentration camps would not lose weight so quickly. sure you should eat to fuel your body but even eating below your BMR(which is not advisable although obese people may be able to do this safely for a short time) would result in weight loss.2 -
Some entries don't make sense - how can you have McDonald's salad with chili's dressing?
Are you building recipes for all the homemade stuff?
Everything that's guessed is high calorie. It's not eyeballing sugar free creamer... it's eyeballing creamy enchiladas. Most of the time, a restaurant serves MORE than 1 serving per plate. I guarantee you're eating over 1,200 calories.
And not all of your days even hit 1,000 calories, so you're not logging EVERYTHING.
if anything was weighed her diary doesnt reflect it at all. those things if not weighed can be anywhere from 30-100s of calories more than they really are. the mcdonalds salad doesnt even say which size it is.0 -
Don't be embarrassed, if you ask for help you will definitely get opinions from every side about everything you were doing! Counting calories accurately and eating out frequently is tough to do.(Sigh, now I feel nice and embarrassed lol) - the entries that make the least sense (like mcdonalds + chilis) are things that I tried to piece together when eating out at a restaurant - I was just picking things from the list since the restaurant had no info, so they are definitely guesses. I'm not sure how to approach measuring food at restaurants and I eat out fairly often.
The chicken parm was a recipe I made myself (so the cals on that came from putting the recipe entry in the app). I use the barcode scanner on the prepackaged foods that I make myself at home, I figured that would be accurate, but now I'll be keeping an eye on the serving sizes.
I guess it's a combo of too much restaurant food (despite trying to pick not-terrible things) and not logging right. I thought I had a pretty good sense of ounces from eyeballing it (especially since I was losing weight for three months) but maybe not.
I appreciate all the feedback from you all. I'll buckle down and try again. If my logging has been wrong the whole time, that does explain why I was losing for the first three months with cardio and not since then. Still pretty new to this whole thing.
As for why you were losing at first and not now, the extra cardio was earning you some extra exercise calories so you were able to eat more than you thought you were and still stay in a deficit. That's why MFP gives you a calorie estimate for your cardio and instructs you to eat more when you exercise more.
Without the cardio, your calories out are lower, so your logging errors are catching up to you.1 -
It isn't necessary but it is essential.2
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NorthCascades wrote: »Running two miles burns twice as much energy as walking two miles because running involves jumping from foot to foot, eg fighting gravity in a way that walking does not.
i believe it burns slightly more, but no way it's even close to twice as much.
Agree. When I walk for an hour I burn near 400 calories, when I add jogging it's about 525-600. Not double, but still better!!
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I've skimmed through the responses here to make sure I'm not repeating what everyone has already said and there are some going in the right direction towards the end, the majority are missing it though.
1200 calories is just too low, you cannot sustain that level of activity on 1200 calories. Your body has down regulated it's metabolism in order to survive essentially, so what you need to be doing is to slowly start consuming more calories with a focus on a positive protein balance.
This is a slow reverse diet, you can't just go from where you are now to higher calories overnight, it takes time and during that time, your metabolism with adjust accordingly.
In conjunction with this, you need to pull back on the amount of cardio you're doing each week, focus more on being more active in general day to day and get down to the weights section. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, it burns calories by simply existing (and no u won't turn into hulk).
[post edited by MFP moderator]4 -
thespringbuck wrote: »I've skimmed through the responses here to make sure I'm not repeating what everyone has already said and there are some going in the right direction towards the end, the majority are missing it though.
1200 calories is just too low, you cannot sustain that level of activity on 1200 calories. Your body has down regulated it's metabolism in order to survive essentially, so what you need to be doing is to slowly start consuming more calories with a focus on a positive protein balance.
This is a slow reverse diet, you can't just go from where you are now to higher calories overnight, it takes time and during that time, your metabolism with adjust accordingly.
In conjunction with this, you need to pull back on the amount of cardio you're doing each week, focus more on being more active in general day to day and get down to the weights section. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, it burns calories by simply existing (and no u won't turn into hulk).
except if you look at her logging and read her posts above - she isn't weighing her food and isn't actually eating 1200 calories per day.1 -
rheddmobile wrote: »
Don't be embarrassed, if you ask for help you will definitely get opinions from every side about everything you were doing! Counting calories accurately and eating out frequently is tough to do.(Sigh, now I feel nice and embarrassed lol) - the entries that make the least sense (like mcdonalds + chilis) are things that I tried to piece together when eating out at a restaurant - I was just picking things from the list since the restaurant had no info, so they are definitely guesses. I'm not sure how to approach measuring food at restaurants and I eat out fairly often.
The chicken parm was a recipe I made myself (so the cals on that came from putting the recipe entry in the app). I use the barcode scanner on the prepackaged foods that I make myself at home, I figured that would be accurate, but now I'll be keeping an eye on the serving sizes.
I guess it's a combo of too much restaurant food (despite trying to pick not-terrible things) and not logging right. I thought I had a pretty good sense of ounces from eyeballing it (especially since I was losing weight for three months) but maybe not.
I appreciate all the feedback from you all. I'll buckle down and try again. If my logging has been wrong the whole time, that does explain why I was losing for the first three months with cardio and not since then. Still pretty new to this whole thing.
As for why you were losing at first and not now, the extra cardio was earning you some extra exercise calories so you were able to eat more than you thought you were and still stay in a deficit. That's why MFP gives you a calorie estimate for your cardio and instructs you to eat more when you exercise more.
Without the cardio, your calories out are lower, so your logging errors are catching up to you.
I was going to say pretty much this, but you've already said it so much better than I would have.
OP, to solve this you could either start cardio again and/or tighten up your logging as has been suggested. If you do cardio please chose something you enjoy so that it's not a chore to do every day. I suspect that's why you dropped it to begin with.0 -
thespringbuck wrote: »I've skimmed through the responses here to make sure I'm not repeating what everyone has already said and there are some going in the right direction towards the end, the majority are missing it though.
1200 calories is just too low, you cannot sustain that level of activity on 1200 calories. Your body has down regulated it's metabolism in order to survive essentially, so what you need to be doing is to slowly start consuming more calories with a focus on a positive protein balance.
This is a slow reverse diet, you can't just go from where you are now to higher calories overnight, it takes time and during that time, your metabolism with adjust accordingly.
In conjunction with this, you need to pull back on the amount of cardio you're doing each week, focus more on being more active in general day to day and get down to the weights section. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, it burns calories by simply existing (and no u won't turn into hulk).
This is a link to an article on my Facebook page that starts to address the priorities of losing body fat and other posts pick up on other elements of confusion I've seen. PLEASE do yourself a favour and take this an offer to help get things going in the right direction.
No, this is not correct. And please stop trying to pull people to your FB page. That's why MFP won't let you add the link. It's self promotion and violates MFP's terms of use. Plus it's just plain woo.2 -
Actually, what @thespringbuck said is ABSOLUTELY correct. People get so focused on eating fewer and fewer calories and doing more and more cardio in order to chase numbers on the scale (and, to be clear, I am making a VERY general comment that is NOT directed at the lady who asked the initial question) that they put themsleves in a very bad position.
Is the OP likely not tracking her food properly? Potentially. And, probably. And, it is always a good idea to check yourself on that. Each and every one of us. Sometimes we get lazy and - for example - don't add any of the half-and-half creamer that we put in our coffee! I mean,the coffee that we put into our creamer! I mean, that stuff does not have ANY calories and absolutely NO fat, right?
But, it does sound at least feasible to have the thought process that the OP has possibly worked herself into a corner (so-to-speak) with a very low caloric intake and a lot of cardio. The body, which has the sole purpose of survival, is going to get very efficient - as others have stated - at doing things. It also is - due to the low caloric intake - grabbing all of the calories that it can get and holding on to them in the "I am not sure when I am going to get some energy again, so I am going to hold on to it".
However, it might be a good idea to check the simple stuff. Let's review and - if necessary - shore up your tracking. Are you really eating ONLY 1200 calories? Let's check portion control. Let's check frequency. Let's check everything. Once we do that....then we have the conversation about other things. Like, how long have you been doing this? How many times have you done something like this. How does a "normal day of eating" look when you are not "dieting down"? Do you do any weight training? Have you ever heard of doing a reverse diet?
Anyway, a reverse diet - when applied properly - is a VERY BENEFICIAL thing.5 -
To lose weight, your Calories In (eat) must be lower than your Calories Out (Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), biological processes, exercise, recovery, etc.).
It is a math "balancing act" based on values that are a few percentage points different for everyone, here and there.
How you make CI<CO is up to you, but if the equation is wrong then you will not get results.
Some of us say you should exercise because it makes it easier to lose weight (it increases the Calories Out) and will help one become more healthy in general.
Proper exercise helps protect your muscle tissue or even build new muscle if you do it right.
More muscle burns more calories.
Others argue that you don't "need" to exercise to lose weight, as if exercise has no impact on your Calories Out at all, but that misses the point.
Do you "need" to? Can you lose weight just but cutting calories? Yes.
Is it a good idea? No.
You may be thinner but still unhealthy and at risk for various ailments because you will lose fat but also burn muscle that way.
Muscle is "metabolically expensive" so your body will burn it off if it is not being used.
Less muscle burns less calories.
When you gain the weight back it will be mostly fat and your body fat percentage will be even HIGHER than before because of the muscle loss.
The lack of muscle also lowers your BMR which makes it harder to lose more weight.
We aren't even discussing how the lack of resistance training impacts bone density, sarcopenia, and such yet.
My fighters and I watch what we eat (MFP), get plenty of exercise (with a focus on strength training) and don't eat all (or any...) of the "exercise calories" back.
Works for us.
You need to find a way to make the equation balance out in a manner that is sustainable for you in the long term.
It takes discipline (not "motivation", there is a big difference!) and time, no matter how you try to do it.
You should be eating at a calorie deficit (no more than 20% of your TDEE should be necessary), performing resistance training in the 5RM to 8RM range 3 or 4 days per week and doing HIIT "cardio" in your off days or after you lift, if you want my professional advice.
Do not do "cardio" before lifting (it wastes muscle glycogen and ATP) but you can safety do some "cardio" after your weight training if you have anything left in the tank.
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(Sigh, now I feel nice and embarrassed lol) - the entries that make the least sense (like mcdonalds + chilis) are things that I tried to piece together when eating out at a restaurant - I was just picking things from the list since the restaurant had no info, so they are definitely guesses. I'm not sure how to approach measuring food at restaurants and I eat out fairly often.
The chicken parm was a recipe I made myself (so the cals on that came from putting the recipe entry in the app). I use the barcode scanner on the prepackaged foods that I make myself at home, I figured that would be accurate, but now I'll be keeping an eye on the serving sizes.
I guess it's a combo of too much restaurant food (despite trying to pick not-terrible things) and not logging right. I thought I had a pretty good sense of ounces from eyeballing it (especially since I was losing weight for three months) but maybe not.
I appreciate all the feedback from you all. I'll buckle down and try again. If my logging has been wrong the whole time, that does explain why I was losing for the first three months with cardio and not since then. Still pretty new to this whole thing.
Don't be embarrassed! Logging is a skill and most of us would look back at our first few months of logging and giggle. Don't get too caught up in the minutiae - focus on really good logging for a month and if you are still having problems at that point, THEN start looking at other possibilities. Good luck! 1
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