Cardio and dieting

[Will Goes Boing]

Some people don't realize it, but if you have sex on a regular basis, you are technically doing a shitload of good quality cardio.

 

[oso0960]

lol, turn it into a HIIT session.

 

[the.gladiator1987]

lol, turn it into a HIIT session.

lololol!

 

[steve_m33]

I think it's bullshit.

Here's my belief:
To diet, you need to consume less kcal than you expend obviously. So say you're dieting and working out, but not doing any cardio and you lose weight for a month (hoping it's fat). Then you hit a plateau. Is it not true that you have two options: A) Lower the calories or B) Increase daily expenditure? So why would you EVER have to do both? Sure cardio is great for heart health, etc, etc, but some people aren't real concerned with it. Why do so many people freak out when you decide to keep cutting Calories rather than just add cardio? Say someone decides to do 30 mins cardio to burn an extra XXX amount of Calories. Couldn't you just say F it and decide to decrease the number of Calories eaten by XXX amount? Obviously your body is not going to use those XXX amount of Calories for anything important like vital organ functions since you plan on just burning them off anyway. So now with that in mind, say you are coming close to obtaining 3-4% body fat...of course it's becoming really hard to lose the fat now. I mean you body/metabolism is already extremely efficient at lower caloric level. But, instead of doing 6 days of cardio like I've seen some people prescribe, couldn't you just drop your Calories more until you're below your expenditure yet again?

Maybe I'm not understanding that there's more to it with cardio? Does it somehow bypass the food eaten during the day and come directly from the fat stored in your body? Well, then there would be no point in morning fasted cardio if that were the case...

Also, what do people mean that steady state cardio burns more 'fat'? more fat as in the lard around your belly, or fat as in the macronutrient as fuel instead of carbohydrates?

I don't mean to come off rude in my topics, it just annoys me when this stuff makes sense to me but might be completely wrong.

Cardio helps with nutrient partitioning- just like lifting iron increases protein synthesis and insulin sensitivity, cardio helps deplete glycogen stores when done at a high enough intensity. This helps ensure any carbs eaten are used to refill glycogen, rather than stored as fat.

2. Cardio allows one to eat more during the day, rather than go on some starvation diet where you're eating 1800 cals/day.

3. John Berardi talks about a concept called G-Flux - where you expend more, AND eat more, and body comp increases dramatically. Think of football players, hockey players etc. all who eat like crap (sometimes) and still remain lean. seriously check this out, really interesting.

HIIT cardio also releases Growth Hormone naturally. HIIT cardio also works the lower body really well. One of the keys to workout progression is upping frequency (sometimes).

4. Cardio is just plain healthy. Guys that hate on cardio because they wanna stay huge are usually the guys that stay at 15% bf, all the time. Or, they reduce cals rediculusly low, then binge in 5 days because they're starving.

Hope this helps.

 

[oso0960]

Cardio helps with nutrient partitioning- just like lifting iron increases protein synthesis and insulin sensitivity, cardio helps deplete glycogen stores when done at a high enough intensity. This helps ensure any carbs eaten are used to refill glycogen, rather than stored as fat.

2. Cardio allows one to eat more during the day, rather than go on some starvation diet where you're eating 1800 cals/day.

3. John Berardi talks about a concept called G-Flux - where you expend more, AND eat more, and body comp increases dramatically. Think of football players, hockey players etc. all who eat like crap (sometimes) and still remain lean. seriously check this out, really interesting.

HIIT cardio also releases Growth Hormone naturally. HIIT cardio also works the lower body really well. One of the keys to workout progression is upping frequency (sometimes).

4. Cardio is just plain healthy. Guys that hate on cardio because they wanna stay huge are usually the guys that stay at 15% bf, all the time. Or, they reduce cals rediculusly low, then binge in 5 days because they're starving.

Hope this helps.

Definitely helps, answers all my questions. I'll definitely give the G-flux thing a look at.

 

[oso0960]

youre 19 250lbs?

dude i never do cardio and my diet is OK. I stay at 10% for some reason. I did 30 minutes of walking on the treadmill at 3.0mph and when i got off i was lightheaded lol. i burned like 180 calories and i felt like shit. im glad i dont have to do carido lol

For some reason I didn't see this post. I used to be 250lbs lol. I had a VERY hard time getting there. In college I had an unlimited meal plan in which I probably ate 1000kcal a meal 5-6x a day. It was so ridiculously hard for me to gain weight (I'm not a true ectomorph, more like a meso leaning toward the ecto side). After I started gaining, my mind was set on more=better. Decided to drop the fat around April and have consistently lost 3lbs a week lol. Not pure fat, more like water fluctuations etc..still though I'm MUCH leaner than before.

 

[Will Goes Boing]

Dude you are nowhere NEAR being an ecto if you're able to get up to 250lbs. And in all seriousness why would you want to force yourself to get up to that weight? I am completely baffled by this.

I think some people are taking the terms, "getting huge" or "getting massive" the wrong way.

 

[oso0960]

Dude you are nowhere NEAR being an ecto if you're able to get up to 250lbs. And in all seriousness why would you want to force yourself to get up to that weight? I am completely baffled by this.

I think some people are taking the terms, "getting huge" or "getting massive" the wrong way.

You seem to believe that it's impossible for a meso-ecto to gain up to that much weight? When I first started working out, I was skinny, 6'1 and ~150lbs. To me it seems that I am leaning towards it because I got up to 220lbs at a fairly slow rate drinking a gallon of whole milk a day on top of whatever I could fit into my stomach. Then once I got into college I just couldn't believe how much I ate. It was literally 6 buffets during the day. Once I stopped force feeding, my weight started dropping significantly.

Live and learn? lol I guess my mind was fogged because I had never experienced such great weight and strength gains before. I could've cared less about what I look like as long as my strength was growing, it was all that mattered. Besides, it LOOKED like I was gaining muscle. The weight kept moving up and I could still see an outline of my abs even though I had a 43inch waist, and I couldn't pinch much anywhere (didn't really know much about visceral fat).

I think where I got that mindset is from seeing a lot of powerlifters. A lot of them are big and fat but strong as hell.