No Cardio....Body Fat Loss??

[hch]

Lees, the program I was following is described in a book (from the library, and I don't have it now) called Living Longer Stronger [link to Amazon], written for men over 40. Although I wasn't 40 yet I decided to experiment anyway, heh. It's a six-week program, with an eating and exercise components.

(Note: my mention here is not my advice, recommendation, endorsement, or whatever, but we knew that.)

Every exercise plan I've seen that omits formal cardio doesn't dismiss cardiovascular health but maintains that a certain other exercise (most often, certain forms of weight training or vigorous yoga) suffices for it. This proposition is controversial , and I have no interest in debating it here (I do cardio "just in case" anyway). This plan is one of them, but although there is no formal "cardio" portion, read on.

The exercise part focused on intense weight training: three sessions a week, one hard set of several exercises (six at first, eventually ten). I did the exercises themselves as stated. I did increase strength and probably even increased my lean mass (of course, that's not only muscle), and I wasn't a beginner either--I had exercised regularly for a year before and used weights for a few years before my "break." (One difference: the ideal for the strength training was to go fast enough between sets for ostensible cardiovascular training, but that was truly a rarely attainable ideal in my exercise setting. :rolleyes: )

There was also a daily evening walk, not for cardio or as the primary calorie burner, but for an after-dinner boost (according to a previous study). IIRC, it was 1.5 to 2 miles in 30 minutes, for a speed of 3 to 4 mph (about 2.4 to 3.2 km; 4.8 to 6.4 kph). As I'd been exercising, I didn't find that my walk took me quite up to even the "fat-burning zone," especially on a flat track instead of the slopes of the neighborhood where I most often walked. Although I didn't have a HRM, I at least took my pulse over short periods during the walk, had a low perceived exertion, and was easily in the "singing" zone of the talk test.

Even so, obviously this can be a cardio workout, and in any case, it's probably more sustained walking than most people are used to. This can be a backdoor way of getting a "cardio" workout in this plan.

Seabush, "have you examined your body composition?" was my oblique way of asking if you checked to see what the weight was or how your body composition might have changed. Kimmigirl is correct; I wonder if your body composition had changed and wonder how you concluded that you had "no reduction in fat." I'm wondering if things really weren't so bad as you'd thought, if the gain were more lean mass than fat. Sorry to ask, but you're really the only source of information I have on you. (And I personally don't trust the scale much, but that subject is for another post, heh. While I don't presume that you focus only on weight and wouldn't want to presume if even if you gave me no information, there is IMO a general overemphasis on weight, but that's also a subject for that other post. )

ColleenM, I would agree about nutrition being "extremely important"--but only if we grant that exercise is "extremely important" too (as you implicitly write).

Mindi, "only" 27 pounds? (Right, I don't trust the scale that much, but I wonder how many pounds of fat you lost. My guess is that, as with me, you lost more fat than your net weight loss.)

[Mindi]

You're right Henry, I did lose more fat and inches than I did scale pounds. I gained a LOT of lean muscle as well.

Everytime I do too much cardio, I shoot myself in the proverbial foot if you will, so for me, more weights, less cardio is my key.

[Videophile]

I do know the heart is a muscle and needs to be strengthened through "Cardio" to make it work more efficiently.

Now if your heart is not working efficiently, how would you be able to lift weights (or anything else for that matter) efficiently?

Why is it that people die suddenly from merely attempting to shovel snow from their walkway? Their heart was not conditioned to handle the extra strain put on it.

Burning fat is one thing. It's not the only thing. I go back to what my doctor told me about cardio. "Even if you don't lose an ounce, you are doing something good for your heart".

Your pulse is a good indicator of your heart's condition. The lower your resting heart rate, the more efficiently your heart is working.

Why does every exercise video say, "check with your doctor before attempting any exercise"? To keep from being sued if someone has a heart attack doing their exercise. But is it really the company's fault if you don't know your condition and you begin heavy lifting and have a heart attack? I don't think so. JMO

Nancy

[Mindi]

Nancy, read The Body Rx where the author, Dr. Scott Connelly, explains the heart and the workout it receives during strength training.

You can probably get the book at the library.

[Janet B]

Originally posted by susan p
Bodies are different. . . I hear a lot of people saying they lose more fat doing strength work. I'm in my fourth week of mostly ALL strength and very little cardio except what is in my Firm tapes.

It is NOT working any miracles.

I haven't done much cardio since the turn of the year - mostly upper body strength and yoga and my weight and body fat have increased I was blaming a cold which just wouldn't go away but I've got to face it and add cardio back in .... and soon! My behind is getting far too cushy and comfortable, my saddle bags could feed a horse for a year and as for my tummy........

[wpw721]

I just finished reading Flip The Switch by Jim Karas. This book advises the reader to allocate 75% of exercise time to weights, and 25% of the time to cardio. He believes that most people devote entirely to much time to cardio. He points out that weight training boosts the metabolism, and helps one to lose weight. There is also a healthy eating component. I don't know if all of his advice is good or not, but the book is very inspirational and thought provoking.

[Videophile]

Originally posted by Mindi
Nancy, read The Body Rx where the author, Dr. Scott Connelly, explains the heart and the workout it receives during strength training.

You can probably get the book at the library.

Thanks, I'll look into it. You know how I love to read this stuff.
I only just started lifting light weights recently and haven't worn my HR monitor while lifting, but would like to challenge those of you who lift (either heavy or light) to wear your monitor and see what percentage of fat you burn while lifting compared to what percentage is burned doing cardio.

I'm not sure you can do that since most HR monitors only calculate the calories after your HR gets up to 100 and only certain monitors give the % of fat, but it would be an interesting experiment if it can be done.

I find I burn around 55% fat calories doing cardio unless my workout gets too intense as it did today when I burned only 35% fat calories.

Edited to read: I just zipped over to the library's site and they do have the book which I reserved. Ain't technology grand?

Nancy

[videogirl]

I believe through my own experience that you only see dramatic results with weight training when you begin to seriously strength train. At that point you can see an amazing improvement in musle tone and definition with lets say 75% strength, 25% cardio. But once you have established that muscle base it is pretty hard to continue to increase it.

Then as you age and you lose muscle naturally the fight begins to keep what you've got and not eat too much for your needs. And there is the struggle. Because as I age it just seems to me that my body requires less food. I don't know why that is because I have the same amount of muscle mass I had 3 years ago, but it seems to be true. So if I don't reduce the amount of calories I eat I gain fat. And so to stop gaining fat I need to burn more, which means I need to move more, which means cardio!

[Mindi]

Let me know how you like it and if you have any questions. I moderate an MSN board where Dr. C has posted answers to many questions and you may as well get it from the horse's mouth!

[Videophile]

Originally posted by Mindi
Nancy, read The Body Rx where the author, Dr. Scott Connelly, explains the heart and the workout it receives during strength training.

Well I read the book. It's interesting in that he says he doesn't recommend cardio to others because he himself detests doing it.

The comparison between this book and "Smart Exercise" by Dr. Covert Bailey (a biochemist) is also interesting. One book barely mentions cardio while concentrating on weight lifting and the other barely mentions weight lifting while concentrating on cardio.

Dr. Bailey does say that weight lifters (who also do cardio) "have the best of both worlds" because they burn fat while doing cardio and continue burning it after doing weight lifting, so he doesn't poo poo weight lifting whereas Dr. Connelly says the benefits of aerobics "pale in comparison to weight training" and doesn't recommend it because in his opinion "it has no bearing on heart health". He then contradicts himself by saying it lowers blood pressure.

Dr. Connelly says "surely" weight lifting also lowers blood pressure, but Dr. Bailey says that since blood pressure rises DURING weight lifting, people with moderate or severe high blood pressure should not lift weights. However, he than goes on to say that research shows that people with only mild hypertension can benefit by lifting light weights with high repetitions.

I have some experience with this as, even tho' my BP has gone down somewhat, it is still high enough that I have to continue medication and have to watch the intensity of any workout and therefore cannot lift heavy. Not that I'd want to anyway, hypertension or no. Just not my thing so you can't go by me But then I find high reps with light weights just as much a pain in the a$$ as lifting heavy would be so there ya go.

Anywho, thanks for recommending the book. Always interesting to hear another point of view. Too bad reading about exercise doesn't burn fat. If it did, I'd be skinny as a rail.

And the beat goes on.

Nancy