Are cardio exercises helpful?
weightloss_newbie
Posts: 13 Member
Hello Friends,
I was having a conversation with my colleague last week regarding weight loss.
He mentioned that cardio exercises (especially brisk walking) are not good enough to lose weight.
Instead, carrying weights and calorie deficit help to lose weight.
I was concerned after listening to him because I have been doing brisk walking to lose weight.
Friends, I would like to hear your opinions about this.
Is cardio exercise (especially brisk walking) an effective exercise to lose weight?
Or is carrying weights a better option?
Thank you.
I was having a conversation with my colleague last week regarding weight loss.
He mentioned that cardio exercises (especially brisk walking) are not good enough to lose weight.
Instead, carrying weights and calorie deficit help to lose weight.
I was concerned after listening to him because I have been doing brisk walking to lose weight.
Friends, I would like to hear your opinions about this.
Is cardio exercise (especially brisk walking) an effective exercise to lose weight?
Or is carrying weights a better option?
Thank you.
0
Replies
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Calorie deficit to lose weight. Any type of exercise will give you extra calories to eat. But you don‘t need to exercise at all to lose weight if you asre in a calorie deficit. That said, walking is excellent for your overall health, and it doesn’t matter if you use weights or not. Weights and strength training will help you retain muscle mass as you lose weight, so I am a strong proponent of this, but you can lose weight without it.12
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Any exercise is capable of helping you lose weight, if and only if it helps you create a calorie deficit. Certain exercises may be better to help retain body muscle, but that is a separate issue to weight loss.
You can also do a lot of any exercise and not lose weight if your diet and food control are not in check.3 -
Calorie deficit is everything. Have you ever heard the phrase weight loss is made in the kitchen. If you aren't watching your calorie intake, exercise is likely not enough. It's far too easy to eat that extra cookie, because you worked out.
Carrying weights while walking isn't going to burn significantly more calories than walking without them. Walking while using a weighted vest would be a safer option than dumbbells. Walking hills will boost the calorie burn. But again it's not enough to "just walk." You very likely have to monitor calorie intake.
Strength training (which is not the same thing as walking with dumbbells) will help you keep more of the lean muscle you already have. Set aside some time for that, not because is burns a lot of calories (it doesn't) but because it contributes to your overall health in a different way than cardio does.6 -
Excercises does ramp up your calories burn. You burn more when your heart rate increase.
Brisk walk still burn some calories. Below are example..
Run/walk
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You have to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. Cardio is great for health and fitness goals, and for burning calories that you then get to eat back. Strength training is great for preserving muscle mass while losing weight.
Just carrying weights around will probably help a little with building strength and burning a few more calories, but I’d expect the benefit to be negligible. There are better ways to achieve those goals.3 -
Do something you enjoy to help you lose weight. Any amount of calories you burn is good, don't try to do something you don't enjoy just because it burns a little more, you'll spend more time doing things you like, and time is the great multiplier with calories. And doing something means you're not sitting around being tempted by what's in the kitchen.
If you like walking, maybe you can find some trails through natural areas, and go hiking.3 -
Both cardio exercises and weight lifting (what I am interpreting carrying weights to mean) can burn calories. They can be incorporated as part of a weight loss routine because they allow you to eat more and still lose weight than you would if you didn't exercise. Additionally weight lifting can help with muscle mass preservation.
So they are good things to do, but they are not required, and they cannot do the work for you alone. Most of weight loss is ultimately done in the kitchen. You have to control the number of calories you eat so you are eating at a deficit. If you do not watch what you are eating, it is very hard to lose weight on exercise alone.
There are many people here who have lost large amounts of weight without exercise at all. Others use exercise to help as part of the weight loss. I know personally, exercise helps me a lot with weight loss because it allows me to eat more. I can meet my calorie goals easier than if I didn't exercise at all. So I think it is a good thing. Don't stop what you are doing if you are already doing it. But what you eat is more important.2 -
I use walking to keep my heart fit, earn a couple more calories to eat, and it actually helps keep my appetite in check. Plus, that's an hour in my day that I'm not snacking!6
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Thank you for your replies.
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First off don't rely on data posted by tech fitness trackers. There is mounting evidence that they are typically inaccurate most of the time.
Second, anyone who says weights don't help you lose weight is full of crap. Toning or building muscle is the best way to lose weight because muscle is 3 times more metabolically active - you burn more calories with more muscle.
Cardio is excellent exercise but as the name states, it is for improved lung and heart capacity, not specifically weight loss.
Any sustained exercise combined with a reduction in calories is good for weight loss. Adding weight or resistance training makes it go from good to great!20 -
First off don't rely on data posted by tech fitness trackers. There is mounting evidence that they are typically inaccurate most of the time.
Second, anyone who says weights don't help you lose weight is full of crap. Toning or building muscle is the best way to lose weight because muscle is 3 times more metabolically active - you burn more calories with more muscle.
Cardio is excellent exercise but as the name states, it is for improved lung and heart capacity, not specifically weight loss.
Any sustained exercise combined with a reduction in calories is good for weight loss. Adding weight or resistance training makes it go from good to great!
To be clear, adding 1 lb of muscle burns 6 to calories. Fat is metabolically active at 4 calories. Where are you getting the 3x more metabolically active? Source please? I am also a practitioner of weight training for all it's many benefits. This one seems to be vastly overstated.9 -
Walking doesn't burn lots of calories to start with, generally 0.3 * weight in lbs * distance in miles on flat terrain.
Thus if you're 180lbs and you walk 5 miles you burn about 270kcal.
If you carry a backpack weighing 10lbs you burn a bit more, maybe 285kcal, maybe a bit less.
But walking, especially briskly is good for your heart!
Not carrying weight but lifting weights burns less calories than walking as you're not active the whole time. But lifting weights builds muscles, which are great against backpain, great for bone strength, they keep you fit as you get older. Thus both is good. But weight loss mainly happens in the kitchen.2 -
Eat fewer calories than you burn to lose weight.
Cardio is for heart, lung and mental health (along with increasing the amount of calories you burn).
Strength training for bone health (especially as a female), to make you look better when you lose the weight,, and generally make you a badass2 -
weightloss_newbie wrote: »Hello Friends,
I was having a conversation with my colleague last week regarding weight loss.
He mentioned that cardio exercises (especially brisk walking) are not good enough to lose weight.
Instead, carrying weights and calorie deficit help to lose weight.
I was concerned after listening to him because I have been doing brisk walking to lose weight.
Friends, I would like to hear your opinions about this.
Is cardio exercise (especially brisk walking) an effective exercise to lose weight?
Or is carrying weights a better option?
Thank you.
Cardio burns calories, so it SHOULD cause a calorie deficit which causes weight loss. But exercise doesn't happen in a vacuum! For many, exercise makes them hungry, and they end up eating more calories than they burned. For others, exercise makes them feel like they deserve a reward and they lower their guard with food and end up eating more calories than they burned.
Also, most exercise doesn't burn nearly as many calories as people think. To lose 1 lb per week, you need to be in a 500 cal deficit every day. It is really hard for most people to exercise off 500 cals every day!
Having said that, walking burns more calories than not walking so it can help you get into a deficit, assuming you are adequately controlling your calories in.
In general, diet is the biggest bang for your weight loss buck.
Then cardio is good for fitness, cardiovascular health, and to help you get into a deficit.
And strength training is good for fitness, balance, and body composition.8 -
Cardio is helpful because it burns calories which help create a calorie deficit.3
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First off don't rely on data posted by tech fitness trackers. There is mounting evidence that they are typically inaccurate most of the time.
Second, anyone who says weights don't help you lose weight is full of crap. Toning or building muscle is the best way to lose weight because muscle is 3 times more metabolically active - you burn more calories with more muscle.
Cardio is excellent exercise but as the name states, it is for improved lung and heart capacity, not specifically weight loss.
Any sustained exercise combined with a reduction in calories is good for weight loss. Adding weight or resistance training makes it go from good to great!
Let's use your 3x number and say that means fat uses 2 calories per pound per day and muscle is 6. Let's say you're also a top end genetic specimen breaking records to gain 25 pounds of muscle in a year that we'll generously say replaces 25 pounds of fat. Well that's 100 extra calories a day. That's a bit more than the misnamed fun size Snickers. That's about the burn of jogging 1 mile which can be about 10 minutes.
There's a lot of good reasons to do resistance training but do you think several hours a week to avoid 70 minutes of cardio or avoiding a fun size candy bar of food a day works out for most people in terms of effort?8 -
Brisk walking is definitely not enough for me. I walked my usual 3.5 mile walk around our lake 113 times last year (I counted!) and was generally active (average of about 18,000 steps per day but I still gained about 10 lbs.
For me weight loss is all about eating fewer calories. Exercise is great for health & feeling good. Plus it does burn *some* calories. I like to think of it as a nice buffer.2 -
You have to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight. Cardio is great for health and fitness goals, and for burning calories that you then get to eat back. Strength training is great for preserving muscle mass while losing weight.
Just carrying weights around will probably help a little with building strength and burning a few more calories, but I’d expect the benefit to be negligible. There are better ways to achieve those goals.
Also, there seems to be an increased risk of injury from carrying weights. Everything I've seen recommends using a weighted vest or weighted belt if you really want to use additional weight, as opposed to increased speed or distance, to boost your energy expenditure.
https://www.verywellfit.com/before-you-buy-walking-weights-34354352 -
I'd be cautious about walking with weights (unless it is a weighted vest). Carrying weights in your hands or on your ankles can put too much strain on your joints and muscles. They may also change your walking form and posture, which can lead to injury over time. It is more effective to up your pace and find a hill or two.2
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Most ppl have already given you all the answers - that yes walking will burn a few extra calories but really not very many in the grand scheme of things and in comparison to margins of error in food logging.
I would reiterate, do not expect to lose weight just by adding walking to your day. I have a friend who took part in a steps challenge at work, she religiously walked for hours, 20,000 steps a day for 3 months (compared to her normal sedentary lifestyle). She didn’t make any conscious changes to diet.
At the end of the 3 months she had gained weight, and increased body fat %. So yes, walking is indeed good for you but will you lose weight by adding a 1hr walk every day, don’t count on it.0
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