Cardio and dieting

[oso0960]

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.

 

[*ebony*]

you reduce cals and do cardio at the same time because it burns more cals than just doing one or the other thus faster results. weight loss from exercise is better than weight loss from diet.

you can lose fat with diet alone, better if you add in some heavy lifting to maintain you mass. we are meant to eat and move, not keep reducing cals, less and less. cardio has many benefits as you stated and should be done regularly. keeping with the natural flow is always good stuff(i mean all the stuff your body will thank you for.)

 

[Manuelmcom]

you know when i smoked pot in the old days i used come upon cool realizations like yours. thumbs up man!

 

[oso0960]

you reduce cals and do cardio at the same time because it burns more cals than just doing one or the other thus faster results. weight loss from exercise is better than weight loss from diet.

you can lose fat with diet alone, better if you add in some heavy lifting to maintain you mass. we are meant to eat and move, not keep reducing cals, less and less. cardio has many benefits as you stated and should be done regularly. keeping with the natural flow is always good stuff(i mean all the stuff your body will thank you for.)

how is weight loss from exercise (cardio) better than it being lost from diet assuming you workout to maintain muscle mass? Thanks for the reply, yeah cardio does have it's great benefits, I'm just wondering this from an extreme stand point.

@Manuelmcom - hah, that's good shit. Only if the stuff were legal...random drug tests are not cool lol.

 

[timtim]

you are oversimplifying the whole process. your body downregulates your metabolic needs when in a starved state. to lose bf without cardio, you would need to drastically lower calories and once your body adapts, when is low too low? youll end up storing more fat and chewing up muscle because your body is fighting to hold onto weight. metabolic processes are strictly regulated. homeostasis is what your body wants. once you start using methods that alter homeostasis, your body will alter things to combat you. try it out and see how you feel. ive tried it in the past and i wasnt pleased with the results. took forever and i wasnt nearly as dry as i wanted.

 

[oso0960]

you are oversimplifying the whole process. your body downregulates your metabolic needs when in a starved state. to lose bf without cardio, you would need to drastically lower calories and once your body adapts, when is low too low? youll end up storing more fat and chewing up muscle because your body is fighting to hold onto weight. metabolic processes are strictly regulated. homeostasis is what your body wants. once you start using methods that alter homeostasis, your body will alter things to combat you. try it out and see how you feel. ive tried it in the past and i wasnt pleased with the results. took forever and i wasnt nearly as dry as i wanted.

Thanks, yeah I figured I was oversimlifying a bit. I'm actually in the process of trying it, that's where the question came up. My calories aren't really too low right now and I am losing at a fair rate without cardio...Although I hope I can say the same thing when I get into the single digits lol.

 

[Manuelmcom]

how is weight loss from exercise (cardio) better than it being lost from diet assuming you workout to maintain muscle mass? Thanks for the reply, yeah cardio does have it's great benefits, I'm just wondering this from an extreme stand point.

@Manuelmcom - hah, that's good shit. Only if the stuff were legal...random drug tests are not cool lol.

Ahhhh if only

 

[Will Goes Boing]

Are you just trying to find something to justify the fact that you're too lazy to do cardio? In another thread you stated that you've been "bulking for 5 years"..... I'd take it you have a lot of work ahead of you if you want to do a cut.

It always bewilders me when I see people on a cut or on a weight loss plan and they're doing a crapload of weight lifting and barely any cardio. We all hate it, but in my opinion weight loss/fat loss doesn't come without a cost, and it certainly doesn't come easy.

Just do cardio

 

[oso0960]

lol, I HATE cardio, but it was a serious question/statement.

As for me, I won't do it if I don't have to. Every week I lose about 2-3lbs a week. If I see my progress stall, I'll add it in...even though I'll dread every agonizing second of it. Only exercise I do is weight training 3x a week besides just being generally active. (walking, swimming, etc) It was actually quite hard for me to put the weight on, I was a tall, skinny 14 year old weighing in around 150ish I believe lol...5 years and 100lbs later...

 

[the.gladiator1987]

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