Can Cardio Alone Become Ineffective?

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LukeEalden
LukeEalden Posts: 38
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anyone know if purely doing cardio for exercise can become ineffective and not contribute towards weight loss after a certain point?

I am currently doing 45-90 mins of cardio a day, ranging from running, biking, elliptical, rower, exercise bike and treadmill. I am concerned that I am really starting to hit a wall now, having lost 86lbs since I began this journey back in January.

I do plan to bring strength trainning into my regime but I wanted to lose more body fat before worrying about toning up, I have another stone I want to lose. My body fat has gone from 48% down to about 27%.

Should I carry on just thrashing at the cardio or should I bring the strength training in now?

Replies

  • ajbeans
    ajbeans Posts: 2,857 Member
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    Yes, it can.

    Strength training is what helps you burn body fat. When you build muscle, it raises your metabolism and the fat will melt away. Don't put off strength training. Add it in now! And it doesn't have to be free weights or whatever. You can do bodyweight exercises at home if you prefer, and they can be quite effective. Cardio is good, and you should continue doing it, but add in strength training 3 days a week and you should see some results. Make sure you're eating enough as you do the strength training, with an emphasis on protein, so that you can build the muscle.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    strength! now!!!

    also, you need to mix up your carido, cos your body gets used to a routine pretty quickly.
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    Add in the strength!

    I started strength training right away when I started losing weight, and I'm much smaller and less flabby then I would have been if I had done card alone.
  • candb
    candb Posts: 238
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    This is exactly what I've been trying to tell my parents who have lost by biking only. Plus adding muscle will make your body more efficient because a pound of muscle burns more calories at rest than a pound of fat.
  • melsinct
    melsinct Posts: 3,512 Member
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    Yes, it can.

    Strength training is what helps you burn body fat. When you build muscle, it raises your metabolism and the fat will melt away. Don't put off strength training. Add it in now! And it doesn't have to be free weights or whatever. You can do bodyweight exercises at home if you prefer, and they can be quite effective. Cardio is good, and you should continue doing it, but add in strength training 3 days a week and you should see some results. Make sure you're eating enough as you do the strength training, with an emphasis on protein, so that you can build the muscle.

    I agree.

    However, unlike what some others posted, I don't think doing the same cardio over and over again hurts. I have been doing the same cardio for years, even before MFP, and lost weight relatively easily and at a good clip. I know many others who have always done the same cardio (being walking, running, or whatever). From what I gather, the point of cardio is to get your heart rate up...period. Of course, some cardio burns more than others.

    Strength training is where you'll see the big difference, and for me, stopping strength training is probably where my weight started creeping on. I only recently began adding strength training again (in the form of Pilates), knowing it will help me burn more calories when the fat is converted to muscle.

    Ideally, everyone should do a some cardio and some strength training. The exercises you do to meet that are up to you. Personally I hate weights and lifting, so I would rather use my own body for resistance (mat Pilates) as I know I get bored doing weight machines. Pick the activity you like...that will be the one you stick with.
  • kalcide
    kalcide Posts: 120 Member
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    Interesting, im going to start 30 day shred soon to mix in with my running, hopefully i will see some differences.
  • RippedNShredded
    RippedNShredded Posts: 30
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    One way to change is do "intervals".

    jog/run 3:1

    or HIIT 8 sessions

    Sprint 30 secs
    Rest 45 secs
  • sharishar
    sharishar Posts: 44 Member
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    strength training is the way to go, mix up with cardio and up the tension level, when the muscles feel burn that is when you burn more calories but you need the strength of the muscle to burn in the first place. Well that is what I am told
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,404 MFP Moderator
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    The problem with doing nothing but cardio is that you aren't gaining muscle mass and in fact a lot of the time (unless you are doing HIIT) you are losing muscle mass. Cardio tends to slim out your muscles and once you get to a point of using your energy from your fat stores, you will use the proteins from your muscles for energy.So generally when people lose a lot of weight from all cardio, the loss the weight from muscle. Less muscle means less calories burnt which means a slower metabolism. This means you will have to decrease the foods you intake because your lean body mass has decreased.
  • zeroblackstar
    zeroblackstar Posts: 7 Member
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    If youve always done an hour run 3 times a week as your cardio, then lost 80lbs, doing that hour 3 times a week is going to burn less calories. Plus as youre losing weight your BMR is going to get lower, meaning you need to eat less on a daily basis.

    If you stick rigidly to the same diet you started with and the same exercise regime, youre going to plateau aka hit "the wall".

    Once you hit the wall, just make a new weightloss plan, increase the intensity and/or duration of your cardio and make sure you recalculate your BMR and change your calorie intake to match.

    Adding weight training into the mix is an excellent way to boost BMR as more muscle = more cals burned at rest throughout the day.

    Good luck and keep pushing it!
  • aj_rock
    aj_rock Posts: 390 Member
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    If you began lifting, I do not doubt you will become stronger. Adding muscle mass is more doubtful. Even as an untrained individual, your LBM is already pretty good (about 158 according to my calculator). Add it in, but take things slowly.

    And your weight loss isn't due just to cardio. Just maintain your calorie deficit!

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