Is it good to do cardio everyday if you want to eat more?

Yes, you can.

Putting on muscle also makes you burn more calories. Get on a proper lifting program, eat at a small surplus and eat enough protein. In a couple of years your maintenance level will be quite a bit higher.

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

I have a desire to walk 10,000+ steps per day so I can eat more. Or swim, or use the elliptical. Someone I know has taken a different approach and does weight training a few times a week so they have more muscle and burn more calories during the day. I feel like doing both is better, but the cardio makes more sense for calorie burn because you would overall burn more calories from that, than simply having more muscle? who is right?

I used to have a personal trainer, now I have a gym membership and have no idea what to do with the machines or free weights. I'm tempted just to do cardio or use the machines. Is poor form with weight lifting better than not doing it at all? I hate looking at myself in the mirror, I've been bullied my whole life for having poor posture and I find my body embarrassing to look at. I know body building.com has tutorials on different exercises and how to use machines.

Thanks for the help

is your goal Fatloss or muscle gain? What is your height and weight.

Without cardio, I'd be eating way less than I'm doing now. But I really do cardio more for the aerobic and heart health benefit.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

I have a desire to walk 10,000+ steps per day so I can eat more. Or swim, or use the elliptical. Someone I know has taken a different approach and does weight training a few times a week so they have more muscle and burn more calories during the day. I feel like doing both is better, but the cardio makes more sense for calorie burn because you would overall burn more calories from that, than simply having more muscle? who is right?

I used to have a personal trainer, now I have a gym membership and have no idea what to do with the machines or free weights. I'm tempted just to do cardio or use the machines. Is poor form with weight lifting better than not doing it at all? I hate looking at myself in the mirror, I've been bullied my whole life for having poor posture and I find my body embarrassing to look at. I know body building.com has tutorials on different exercises and how to use machines.

Thanks for the help

is your goal Fatloss or muscle gain? What is your height and weight.

Mostly weightloss, then muscle gain. I'm female, nearly 34, 5'10 and 110.5kg

at your stats you want to prioritize Fatloss and muscle RETENTION. You’ll probably want to get your steps in and not take in more calories. Use the steps to add to your deficit.

A moderate calorie deficit, cardio and some strength training a couple times a week and you’ll see progress.

I've found that I can burn just as many calories doing just cardio as I can doing faster paced weights where you rest less but lift light enough that you can complete 12 to 15 reps per set.

One of my personal goals is to do more interval training where there's some light cardio and weights combined. You then get the best of both.

For improving my posture I try to remember balance..doing push ups for my front and weights for my back muscles and some superman's from time to time. Oh and some simple abdominal exercises.

Hope things improve for you

@sugarfreesquirrel

"Is poor form with weight lifting better than not doing it at all? " NO!!

Lifting weights with poor form can lead to injury. The machines are easier for a beginner, and the gym should be able to provide you with an induction course - hopefully free - and there should be trainers around who can help you.

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

I have a desire to walk 10,000+ steps per day so I can eat more. Or swim, or use the elliptical. Someone I know has taken a different approach and does weight training a few times a week so they have more muscle and burn more calories during the day. I feel like doing both is better, but the cardio makes more sense for calorie burn because you would overall burn more calories from that, than simply having more muscle? who is right?

The calorie burn benefits of adding muscle tend to be over-sold. A pound of muscle burns something like 2-4 calories more per day at rest than a pound of fat. For a woman making stellar progress - which won't happen in a calorie deficit - adding a pound of muscle a month would be a really good rate of muscle gain. So at roughly the maximum muscle mass gain rate, you get to eat like one cherry tomato more daily after a month's muscle mass gains. That's underwhelming.

Gaining strength and muscle - or even retaining muscle - are worthy goals. Strength training is worth doing. Short term calorie burn increases are not a reason to do it, though.

People will cite afterburn (EPOC) from strength training being higher than for cardio, but once you do the real math, the number of calories there tends to be trivial, too.

Cardio generally burns more calories per minute than strength training. That effect kicks in in the short run.

I used to have a personal trainer, now I have a gym membership and have no idea what to do with the machines or free weights. I'm tempted just to do cardio or use the machines. Is poor form with weight lifting better than not doing it at all? I hate looking at myself in the mirror, I've been bullied my whole life for having poor posture and I find my body embarrassing to look at. I know body building.com has tutorials on different exercises and how to use machines.

Thanks for the help

As someone else said, poor form in weight training is actively dangerous. If you're going to do it, it's important to do it with good form. A trainer is one way to learn good form.

Is it wrong to exercise lots to burn more calories so you can eat more? That's a subjective question. Assuming you're not doing something unsafe, how you want to run your life, what makes you happy - that's what matters here, not whether the methods you select would win a popular vote among your friends or among people on MFP.

I'd recommend that you think about what amount of exercise time would leave you with good overall life balance. By "good overall life balance", I mean enough time and energy for your job, family, school, social connections, non-exercise hobbies, or anything else that's important to you for a happy life. For many people, exercising for hours a day would mean poor life balance.

Exercise to eat more isn't a good plan. You should exercise for the health benefits, and because you enjoy it. That's how you'll stick to it, and change requires consistency.

You've probably heard the adage, "You can't out-exercise a bad diet." It's definitely true.

There's also this risk, if you plan to eat back all of your exercise calories:
a) Was the estimate for those additional calories burned accurate? Because often they can be inflated, for various reasons.
b) We have a tendency to do less NEAT the rest of the day, especially after vigorous exercise. So you may e.g. burn an additional 400 calories doing an hour of whatever, but then you spend hours taking it easy, and you may end up burning 200 less from NEAT during the rest of the day than if you hadn't exercised at all. If you eat back the full 400, you could be in a surplus. And it's very easy to eat 400 calories.

Timely video from Jeremy Ethier this weekend, where he and friends had McDonalds meals then used calorie tracking equipment to figure out how much each of them had to workout to burn it off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcuoMCCY1qw

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

Exercise to eat more isn't a good plan. You should exercise for the health benefits, and because you enjoy it. That's how you'll stick to it, and change requires consistency.

You've probably heard the adage, "You can't out-exercise a bad diet." It's definitely true.

There's also this risk, if you plan to eat back all of your exercise calories:
a) Was the estimate for those additional calories burned accurate? Because often they can be inflated, for various reasons.
b) We have a tendency to do less NEAT the rest of the day, especially after vigorous exercise. So you may e.g. burn an additional 400 calories doing an hour of whatever, but then you spend hours taking it easy, and you may end up burning 200 less from NEAT during the rest of the day than if you hadn't exercised at all. If you eat back the full 400, you could be in a surplus. And it's very easy to eat 400 calories.

Timely video from Jeremy Ethier this weekend, where he and friends had McDonalds meals then used calorie tracking equipment to figure out how much each of them had to workout to burn it off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcuoMCCY1qw

It’s depressing for most people when they learn they can’t walk on the treadmill for 30 min to burn off a cheeseburger and fries.

Yeah sounds more like 2 hours of exercise.

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

sugarfreesquirrel wrote: »

I have a desire to walk 10,000+ steps per day so I can eat more. Or swim, or use the elliptical. Someone I know has taken a different approach and does weight training a few times a week so they have more muscle and burn more calories during the day. I feel like doing both is better, but the cardio makes more sense for calorie burn because you would overall burn more calories from that, than simply having more muscle? who is right?

I used to have a personal trainer, now I have a gym membership and have no idea what to do with the machines or free weights. I'm tempted just to do cardio or use the machines. Is poor form with weight lifting better than not doing it at all? I hate looking at myself in the mirror, I've been bullied my whole life for having poor posture and I find my body embarrassing to look at. I know body building.com has tutorials on different exercises and how to use machines.

Thanks for the help

is your goal Fatloss or muscle gain? What is your height and weight.

Mostly weightloss, then muscle gain. I'm female, nearly 34, 5'10 and 110.5kg

at your stats you want to prioritize Fatloss and muscle RETENTION. You’ll probably want to get your steps in and not take in more calories. Use the steps to add to your deficit.

A moderate calorie deficit, cardio and some strength training a couple times a week and you’ll see progress.

I have trouble staying within my calories even when I just have a 250 deficit after eating back my exercise calories. How on earth am I supposed to maintain a 1000 calorie deficit everyday without losing my mind?

I took a look at your diary to see if you are eating more satiating foods these days. It looks like you haven't completed it for a week. Plan to hit your protein and fiber goals every day, and earlier in the day. You may find that having a lot less sugar and more protein at breakfast helps immensely with satiety throughout the day.

From reading your post, I am gathering that you 1) like food and want to eat more if it and 2) want to lose weight for self esteem issues. Welcome to the average human experience. Ha ha. Fer reals though, I hear you!!! I have been overweight my whole life and always made fun of from a young age. I did the diet roller coaster for 25 years - and nothing worked until I got more solid on my WHY.

So I think the real question for you to ask yourself is, what do you really want? Would you rather eat lots of food? Or would you rather feel more confident in yourself from losing weight, becoming healthier, and working out? You CAN workout AND eat good food. But first ask yourself why you want to workout. What do you want to accomplish? Why? Why? And why? Get deep in your answer. That will motivate you with the direction you want to go and drive you to workout RIGHT for your goals. stick to simple exercises. Bicep curls. Squats. Lunges. And watch YouTube videos for beginners. Don’t jump in too big.

Someone else alluded to the fact that what you eat will make the most difference. I would suggest really focusing on your diet. Track. Eat mostly Whole Foods that will help you feel energetic and better about yourself. Your mind and body will follow as you get healthier.

So get solid on that why. This is all coming from a girl who ate two cupcakes at a volleyball game last night so I’m definitely not perfect. But it’s a journey. So don’t give up.