Too many women think cardio or aerobic exercise by it self is a good solution for permanent weight loss. Nothing could be further from the truth. Performing a cardio only exercise program will leave you fatter than you started. Too many women think that cardio burns fat. Truth is, it doesn’t. It can be properly structured in an exercise program and be very beneficial for weight loss but in and of itself, cardio or aerobics will not bring permanent results.Why Not?
In case you don’t know cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise. That being said we do cardio primarily to strengthen the cardiovascular and respiratory system. The benefits of such exercise is: more efficient uptake and delivery of oxygen, more efficient transport of nutrients, fat and waste. It’s true various cardio exercises can burn a lot of calories; some cardio or aerobics classes can even burn as much as 700 to 800 calories but fat loss is usually short lived because muscle is usually sacrificed in the process. Yes, that’s right too much cardio can result in muscle loss and if your goal is fat loss you need to build muscle not lose it.
Sue’s failure
Most people when they attempt to lose weight in an cardio only exercise program do too much cardio. I know why they do it. They think the more the cardio they do the quicker they will lose the weight. So, this is what typically happens. Sue wants to lose weight. She aggressively does cardio five to seven times a week. Sue does 1/2 hr on the tread mill, 1/2 hr on the recumbent bike, 45 min on the elliptical trainer and then tops it all off with an 1 hr long aerobics class. She keeps it up for a couple weeks and notices some weight loss. Sue’s eating habits are ok but only eats three to four meals a day. Sue thinks doing weights will make her look like a guy, so she avoids it at all cost. Sue continues with her routine but finds it hard to stay committed to her taxing exercise schedule. Sue preservers and is thrilled with her weight loss. She lost 30 pounds! Great, Sue now thinks I don’t have to frequent the gym so much and reduces her visits to two to three times a week. Sue continues her trend and further reduces her visits to once a week. She notices her weight slowly creeping back up and is soon 40 pounds overweight. She wonders how come her weight came back so quickly and why it’s so hard to maintain her desired physique. Frustrated, she hits the gym hard again seven days a week hoping to repeat her success but wonders why it’s taking so long to lose those unwanted pounds second time around. Sue decides to add more cardio to her routine to speed up the progress.
Sue’s Mistake
Sue’s problem is too much cardio. She lost weight initially but lost muscle as well in the process because of excess cardio without a concern for muscle. As a result, Sue’s metabolism slowed down making it harder for her to lose fat, despite increased efforts. Sue’s excess cardio, poor eating and lack of weight training was her downfall. Please understand, what Sue is really doing is being super active or expending a lot of energy, once Sue backed off of her exercise routine her weight came back on and then some because she didn’t have the muscle mass or metabolism to maintain her slim physique. So many women make this mistake. Cardio only routines are no good for permanent weight loss. What Sue really needed to apply was synergy: good nutrition, a concern for muscle and moderate aerobics. The only way for permanent weight loss. Read related articles: “Fat Skinny Women”, “Women & Weights”
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Chris Walker
The why can't I lose expert!
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