“I’m exercising all the time, doing tons of cardio, and being really good, why aren’t I losing weight? It’s a commonly held assumption that doing cardio will help you lose weight, but what if it’s actually the opposite, and cardio makes you gain weight?
Are you eating for fat loss or cardio endurance?
I remember it all too well… I had my usual eggs, veggie and cheese scramble with a side of black tea and cream. An hour later I was on the trail, pumping my legs on my mountain bike. And then, all of a sudden, I had nothing left, my legs were spent, gosh, I could barely even walk my bike. I had bonked. Nothing left in the tank to get me through the 10 mile ride. I had eaten a protein, veggie, fat rich meal, but no starch. Great for fat loss, bad for cardiovascular endurance. The most frustrating thing was that my bike shorts were tight, squeezing out my muffin top over my waistband. I vowed to really try and lose a couple of pounds so that I’d be more comfortable, that’s why I’d eaten this particular breakfast. But what I had forgotten was this: eating for fat loss and eating for cardiovascular endurance are 2 different animals. I’d fooled myself into believing that I could do both, when in reality I couldn’t. Lesson learned: I needed to wait until after the summer (mountain biking season for me) to get back on my fat loss program, and for the time being I needed to maintain and eat more starches on the days I rode, to keep up my energy during these longer cardio bouts. I needed to accept that the extra cardio workouts were not going to get me any closer to my fat loss goal. In fact, I’d have to be careful that I didn’t gain weight with all the extra cardio I was doing. Lets talk more about this, because I bet you are scratching your head right about now. What? Cardio makes you gain weight? Yep!
If you think I’m crazy, start by checking out this article on how cardio can make us gain weight…
http://blogs.denverpost.com/fitness/2013/11/23/is-your-cardio-routine-making-you-fat/13461/
Appetite like a ravenous bear after cardio exercise
Probably the main reason why some people gain weight doing tons of cardio is the appetite increase that occurs, along with the emotional need to “reward” yourself for the work done! I don’t know about you, but after I do a long ride or a strenuous hike, I’m ravenous, I feel like I deserve a burger and fries. The problem is that we can overdo it, we eat more than we burn, thereby squashing any chances of weight loss. When I do a weight workout, I don’t experience the same appetite increase, in fact sometimes I’m not even that hungry and I have to remind myself to drink a post workout protein shake.
Muscle loss from cardio
Then, there is the way that cardio training can whittle away muscle mass, thereby reducing how many calories you burn a day. Read John Berardi’s article on the research of cardio vs weights for fat loss here: http://www.precisionnutrition.com/rr-cardio-vs-weights. If you want the takeaway it’s this: strength train & do cardio to get the best results.
If cardio makes you gain weight, then what does work?
When it comes to cardio and weight loss, the short answer is that it doesn’t work. The longer answer comes down to this: to lose body fat, it’s ideal to eat for fat loss (what we know works is to eat frequently, lots of veggies, plenty of proteins and fats, and to time our starch consumption after our workouts). How we eat is the primary thing that determines how we can change our body composition. When it comes to exercise, make sure to do about 2-3 strength training workouts a week, 1-2 interval workouts a week, and then if you still want to exercise more, do your steady state cardio. That’s how you should prioritize the way you exercise if fat loss is your goal.
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–Sarah Eley