Okay, so I've been reading different things on this board and some have talked about cardio being counter active to weight loss? Can someone explain this to me? I am doing about 45 minutes of cardio a day- a cardio video that has lots of squats, etc. in it. I don't know how I would lose muscle mass for this, my muscles are sore (like the good sore where you can feel that they are there and that they have been worked) especially thighs and abs.

Any insight people can give me on this would be great.

Thanks

Hi!

I've never heard of cardio being counter to weight loss. However, I have heard that workouts that make you sore (more muscle stress than cardio) can temporarily halt weight loss.. but I stress.. TEMPORARILY.

Muscle takes up MUCH less space than fat so even in that case you being losing inches. ALSO, muscles burn more energy than fat so as time goes on any muscle you develop will accelerate later losses.

Good luck..and WTG on the exercise! WOOHOO!

Mike

the more muscle you hace the more calories you burn....so you will loose body fat at the same time that you build muscle...you will look lean, toned and beatiful!!

Don't worry, you are doing exactly the right thing. That kind of cardio mixed with some strength moves is exactly what is considered to be the best mix of exercise for someone your size. Your lean body mass will already be fairly high, so the cardio strength moves will help keep that muscle at the same time as burning the intramuscular fat. The cardio will help burn calories and as long as you are eating less than you were before you started, you're helping your weight loss.

I think people are referring more to walking or long slow running/jogging without much strength training mixed in. I think what you are doing is perfect. Running especially seems to be a problem for some people in terms of making losing weight harder. Some of it is increased appetite and also maybe an increased need for carbs. There are a lot of articles on this subject and everybody seems to have a different personal story. I used to fall in the category of cardio making weight loss harder, now it's neutral. It doesn't have a neutral effect on my health, though!

Here's an article on the subject:

http://nymag.com/news/sports/38001/

Then there's this recent thread that talks about exercise and obese women:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=383451

Then there's my personal experience that says exercise is useless for fat loss. I lost more during one month of staying in bed than I lost during one month of going to the gym. And by my own reckoning, the weight I lost is all fat no muscle since I kept my strength.

The arguments in favor of exercise are; we'll look better, we'll feel better, we'll be stronger, etc. The arguments against exercise are; we'll hurt ourselves, it stalls fat loss, it makes us eat more, etc. But then there's the one we can't go out in public or we'll be ridiculed. I wouldn't want that for myself. I don't think anybody else would either.

What I tell people is that exercise is useless for fat loss. But, it's good for strength, agility, endurance, speed, etc. So, if losing fat is your primary goal, stay in bed. On the other hand if you don't really care how fast you lose fat and want to be stronger, faster, more agile and have more endurance, just do it.

There's also the phenomenon that people don't really exercise more than they did before they took up a specific plan of exercise. Instead, they simply take up a different kind of exercise that ultimately makes no difference in their energy output. Then there's our body that adjusts its energy output based on our food intake. It also does the reverse as the NY magazine article explains.

Yes, that is also my observation about exercise. People who literally go from the couch to walking or jogging will see much more of an effect on the waistline than people who just switch from doing something else to formal exercise. I am a good example - I don't drive, I live in the city so I walk everywhere, I've been renovating (including framing out walls, etc) my house, I have three little kids. When I started running I just replaced some of those activities with running. I was already in good shape, in other words, and may not have been increasing my calorie expenditure by as much as I thought I was.

Thanks everyone. I tend to sit in front of the computer for work most days, don't do a lot of physical activity and I do feel a lot better now that I've been working out for about 3 weeks so it really is "new" activity not a trade.

I feel like I'm breathing easier, and just in generally feel more healthy so I want to keep that up. I feel so stupid that I get winded walking up a flight of stairs or walking the 1/4 mile to catch a taxi from where I live. My boyfriend has athsma and a couple weeks ago he had a fairly bad attack that left him really weak for a couple days- we were in a mall on the lower floor and had to climb a flight of stairs to get out- the elevator was out of order so we had to go up the stairs and it was hard for quite hard for him- he made the comment that "this must be what you feel like when you 80 and trying to climb stairs", I wanted to add "yeah, and when your fat like me."

Anybody would be winded if they had to carry around an extra 100lbs up those stairs. It's not a weakness, it's normal. Take your time. When that extra weight's finally gone, it won't be such a pain.

Yes, that's what I'm working towards.. One other thing I forgot to mention as that my calorie intake is still very significantly below what it was before I started Atkins, and I'm staying around the 20 carb mark per day. I guess we'll see on Wednesday how things are going- my 3rd weigh in and I feel like maybe a more true idea of weight loss rather than using the first two weeks.

If you do find that exercise impinges on your weight loss rate, you can always alternate a bit. Do lighter exercise for a period to lose and do heavier exercise during a period to get healthier. That is what I did - I lost 100 pounds that way. It can be frustrating, but never give up on exercise altogether - you need it for your health.

Jamacaine..long steady state cardio is counterproductive to weight loss...45 minutes is a long time for cardio.. I know that sounds absurd, but if you were to build up to where you were doing a very intense form of cardio in half that time, you would lose more weight and lose it faster.

I mean this with all due respect to all ,but if you are on a treadmill for 45 minutes and over, and not doing some sort of interval training, are you really working out that hard?

I see people at the gym on their bikes, treadmills,gazelles watching tv, reading books\magazines carrying on conversations..are they really working out hard? Are they really focused on their workout? Yeah they may work up a little sweat(hardly the marker of a good workout), but think about this..

If one was to try and get as much work in as they could in 15 minutes of 'cardio", don't you think that would be a truly beneficial workout..one that promotes fat loss and strengthens the cardiovascular system?

Now don't get me wrong..anything is better than nothing and long steady state does have a place in ones routine. But there are diminshing returns..you have to keep working out longer and go farther and work out longer and keep going farther with this type of routine..for you to progress that 45 minutes will have to be 60 minutes, then 75 minutes..plus you have the huge issue of cortisol..

You could make it more challenging for yourself in those 45 minutes, but can you sustain that for all of those 45 minutes??


You don't have to..it could be a simple routine on a statioanry bike..where you do intervals for 5 minutes.. and then every 2 workouts add a minute..and build up to where you are doing 15 minutes of this non-stop..

And I promise you, you'll lose weight faster than you could imagine..and it is low impact so you don't have to worry about your joints.

Do this..

Pedal as fast as you can for 10-20 seconds..
Slow(recovery pedal for 30 seconds)
Fast as you can 10-20 seconds
Slow 30
Repeat til that 5 mintue mark..you are done!

You can play with the interval times,,some like 15 seconds on 15 recovery..or 20 seconds on, 30 seconds recovery

Now do this for your first workout for 5 minutes..after your third workout do it for 6 minutes..and every third workout add a minute...til you've reached that 15 minute threshold.

For those of you who are having a hard time doing anything, you can do this with walking..walk fast or jog for 20 seconds, walk for 20 seconds..again work with the time intervals..for some it may be 10 seconds of walk fast\ jog and 30 seconds of walking recovery.


For those advanced..try sprints or running the bleachers..killer, killer workout.

Sprint 15 seconds, recover 15 seconds..

Bleachers..run up the bleachers,,walk down the bleachers.

but again you should build up your times..

Now of course you can go for walks, swims etc..but if you embrace and focus on this type of cardio, I guarantee you amazing results. You pounds and inches,,,

Good luck if you decide to give this whirl.

I agree. I ran a ten mile race in May. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? It wasn't really and it required very minimal levels of fitness because I was going so slow. I ran for the whole race, but I don't see it as a particularly impressive achievement athletically - more mental than anything else.

I feel like the video I am doing does have some of this in there- It goes through the easier times and then goes to squats or lunges that takes much more work, and then back to the easier stuff and so on. It goes through a warm up then 4 sort of individual workouts- each that contain something harder (lunges or a squat with a kick- that kicks my butt) and then it does some strength training which I am now doing about 1/2 of then a cool down. I'm definately working hard to do it, my heart rate is going and it is hard. I don't have access to a bike- and quite honestly right now I hate walking- it's so hot where I am I really like to have a fan on me.

I agree interval training is the most beneficial and can be done in a quarter of the time with 4 times the results, however their is nothing wrong with keeping active by walking even tho I wouldn't say walking is cardio. Maybe I'm confused but it seems like this thread is saying don't bother exercising. If that's the point I personally think it is the most ridiculous and counterproductive thing I have ever heard.