Cardio make you fat???
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Have you ever seen an addicted runner with a FAT midsection? Pfffft.. Soooo not true!
*Raises hand* ... when I look in the mirror lol...0 -
trainers usually try to quietly figure out what your favorite exercises are, then sell you a different plan (e.g. make you feel like you're missing out on something). if you're still getting results from whatever you're doing, keep going!
Thank you!!!!0 -
I have done no less than 6 days of cardio for the past 3 years, have been in a calorie deficit, lift weights 3 days a week, and take 1 rest day and have went from:
This fat guy:
To this 250 lb. guy:
pretty sure I have burnt up alot of fat, even gained alittle muscle, and am pretty sure I am not fat now... Have alot of loose skin LOL but not fat..... So OP now you won't get fat doing cardio..... Best of Luck
I know this isn't in the Success story heading, but I just had to say,
You sir, are an inspiration.0 -
So based on what I learned, cardio will not make you fat. It will also prevent you from gaining muscle unless you eat back those calories and then more for the muscle growth.
That makes sense to me. In your experience, do you feel like you lost muscle/strength in your upper body while doing all of that endurance training, or did you just not gain?0 -
I have done no less than 6 days of cardio for the past 3 years, have been in a calorie deficit, lift weights 3 days a week, and take 1 rest day and have went from:
This fat guy:
To this 250 lb. guy:
pretty sure I have burnt up alot of fat, even gained alittle muscle, and am pretty sure I am not fat now... Have alot of loose skin LOL but not fat..... So OP now you won't get fat doing cardio..... Best of Luck
FANTASTIC WEIGHT LOSS!! if there is anyone I would trust, it would be someone who can prove they've "been there, done that"! Thanks for sharing with us Jjw1125!!0 -
So based on what I learned, cardio will not make you fat. It will also prevent you from gaining muscle unless you eat back those calories and then more for the muscle growth.
That makes sense to me. In your experience, do you feel like you lost muscle/strength in your upper body while doing all of that endurance training, or did you just not gain?
There's a difference between "muscle strength" and "muscle mass". You can significantly increase muscle strength without large increases in mass. So someone who is doing a lot of cardio training -- for a specific purpose-- may find the ability to increase mass is compromised --which may or may not be relevant for them-- but should be able to see steady increases in strength.0 -
A trainer at the gym told me that doing lots of cardio without any weights can make you put weight on around the middle. Something to do with endorphins that your body releases when doing cardio and stress on the body....
is this true?? I am all about cardio (running, zumba, cross trainer, dvds) but now I am wondering if I am going about it all wrong?
Utter nonsense. He may be refering to over-training with cardio-type exercises, which can put stress on your body, but it will NOT make you fat. Ever seen a marathon runner with a huge waist? :huh:0 -
Have you ever seen an addicted runner with a FAT midsection? Pfffft.. Soooo not true!
Yes, all the time. Go watch a marathon sometime. You'll see quite a few that have no muscle tone, but have a little pooch around the midsection. You could also go frequent some running forums, and you'll see posts all the time about how hard they work, but never can lose the gut. The problem is that as your body becomes more efficient at running, you really don't work that hard. The calorie burn can actually be a lot less than you might think. So you can run long distances, but if that's all you do, it's not that hard to have a gut too.0 -
Have you ever seen an addicted runner with a FAT midsection? Pfffft.. Soooo not true!
Yes, all the time. Go watch a marathon sometime. You'll see quite a few that have no muscle tone, but have a little pooch around the midsection. You could also go frequent some running forums, and you'll see posts all the time about how hard they work, but never can lose the gut. The problem is that as your body becomes more efficient at running, you really don't work that hard. The calorie burn can actually be a lot less than you might think. So you can run long distances, but if that's all you do, it's not that hard to have a gut too.
I have a cousin that run marathons and I've been to a few of them. I've never seen anyone with a fat midsection, or with poor muscle tone. They weren't big pumped up muscles like a bodybuilder, but the definitely have muscles.0 -
Have you ever seen an addicted runner with a FAT midsection? Pfffft.. Soooo not true!
Yes, all the time. Go watch a marathon sometime. You'll see quite a few that have no muscle tone, but have a little pooch around the midsection. You could also go frequent some running forums, and you'll see posts all the time about how hard they work, but never can lose the gut. The problem is that as your body becomes more efficient at running, you really don't work that hard. The calorie burn can actually be a lot less than you might think. So you can run long distances, but if that's all you do, it's not that hard to have a gut too.
You don't become THAT efficient. Not even close. And for every tiny bit of efficiency you gain, the result is..........you run faster, which then burns more calories.
Since anecdotal evidence is less than useless, I am not going into the whole "gut" question--except to say that genetic patterns of body fat distribution are as likely to be responsible as anything else.0 -
LOL!!!! For me: it was the Doritos, whole Tombstone pizzas, and chocolate!0
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This is true because I read it on the internet.
LOVE IT!0 -
I'm not suggesting that cardio makes you fat, by the way, just that if truly being "fit", rather than "skinny" is your goal, doing only cardio and no strength training is NOT the way to go. To the OP, I think that may have been the point your trainer was trying to make. Take a look at these photos and decide which body you want to strive for yourself:
Stick woman:
Fit woman:
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Oh, one more thing to the OP: feel free to Google "skinny fat". there will be more than sufficient information out there to convince you that cardio alone is NOT the way to go.0
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Stick woman:
So you use the scrawniest runner you can find. Here is another example of a world class female runner.
I was thinking about this today after I finished my run. I think that there are three categories of contributors here.
Vanity Group - Concerned about how they look
Fitness Group - Concerned about how the feel and their health
Performance Group - Competitors
All three have very different ideas about what they want their body composition to be, based on what their goal is. There is no perfect shape, size or form. Whatever produces the result you are looking for is what is right for you.0 -
Two word review: Total. Crap. :-)
Actually... it's not.
Anyone interested in more than two words... Rachel Cosgrove wrote a great article called "The final nail in the cardio coffin"...
Google it!
It's based on her experience of Ironman Triathlon training and doing literally hours and hours of steady state cardio at the expense of a lot of strength training.
I did the same when I trained for an Ironman... hours and hours of cycling & running... all steady state cardio... getting the miles in... and I got wobbly around the middle. No -- no overcompensating with food either.
Read the article before you shout it's all nonsense.0 -
Stick woman:
Fit woman:
Isla Paulson runs a 2:31:49 Marathon!!!!!!!!!!!
I doubt very much the lady below does.0 -
I'm shocked this thread is still alive. I mean, the initial questioned as been answered. None of us believes cardio makes you fat. And we've all stated that the article posted in the first response seems like a bunch of hooey. But this thread has been hijacked by the "does cardio inhibit muscle" question.
Rachel Cosgrove is the author of The Female Body, a big time contributer to Womens Heatlh magazine, the inventor of the Spartacus workout that people started doing a couple years ago, gym owner, licensed trainer, and physique competitor. Here's what she wrote about how her body reacted to the intense cardio she performed to train for a triathlon:
http://members.rachelcosgrove.com/public/The_Final_Nail_in_the_Cardio_Coffin.cfm
Alwyn Cosgrove married to Rachel and co-own and runs the gym the own, has a degree in sports performance, is also a licensed PT and strength coach, and is the author of the New Rules for Lifting books. Here's one of his many posts on cardio.
http://alwyncosgrove.com/2010/05/the-new-science-of-fat-loss/
They, along with me and any strength or bodybuilding coach you can find will all agree that cardio works to the detriment of muscular gains. That's the only topic I was addressing in my original post before I started getting called all sorts of meathead. A poster said that lots of cardio doesn't inhibit strength or growth, and that's just wrong information. I replied in a snarky way that I guess didn't get across my meaning, so the blowback on me is my own fault.
To everyone saying "to each their own goals", OF COURSE! No one is disagreeing on that. Certainly not I! Heck, I'm doing a ton of cardio myself for the month of July to get ready for an upcoming Tough Mudder event. Do all the cardio you want. Do all the lifting you want. For the goals of most people, especially on a non-meathead site like MFP, doing cardio will not stop them from making the modest strength/size/toning(!) goals that they desire. Just don't say that cardio does not affect strength training, because in 20 years of lifting/running/biking/hiking, that has not been true of me, anyone I know, or any coach actually working in the field.
Sorry I missed you had already posted that. :flowerforyou:0 -
So based on what I learned, cardio will not make you fat. It will also prevent you from gaining muscle unless you eat back those calories and then more for the muscle growth.
That makes sense to me. In your experience, do you feel like you lost muscle/strength in your upper body while doing all of that endurance training, or did you just not gain?
There's a difference between "muscle strength" and "muscle mass". You can significantly increase muscle strength without large increases in mass. So someone who is doing a lot of cardio training -- for a specific purpose-- may find the ability to increase mass is compromised --which may or may not be relevant for them-- but should be able to see steady increases in strength.
Right. I think we're on the same page here. Some people seem to think that if you do mostly cardio, your body will eat the muscles you aren't using. That's very different from not being able to bulk up, which is also (as you say) different from maybe losing some mass without losing any strength. If you're totally sedentary except for while you're running, maybe you'll have some trouble. Most of us use our muscles all the time (picking things up, moving them, etc.) and run no real risk of withering away in our upper bodies because of our excessive cardio. That said, I do body weight exercises because I want to get stronger and it's working, even at a caloric deficit with plenty of cardio.0 -
These threads always end up in the same place with a picture of a competative runner next to a fashion model.
If you are training to compete at your best then that calls for one type of training.
If you are training for looks then that calls for a different type of training or just save the effort and get some liposuction and implants.0
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