i'm one of the few that LOVES cardio and i do it because i LOVE it, for no other reason in the world really.

i like the way it makes my body feel, i like the fact that it does all kinds of good things to my health from the inside out. i like the time spent moving because my job consists of sitting all day long in front of the computer.

i like knowing that i am getting better at it and it gives me a whole lot of residual energy and it happens to burn fat too, which is really only an *extra* for me.

after spending so many years basically not moving, i'm feeling REALLLLLLLLL good with all the moving that i'm doing now and i wouldn't change one minute of it. i also LOVE weights, so it's pretty balanced for me........ i do both of them intense, or a bit less intense, depending on my mood on any particular day.

i think that people who don't like to do cardio just shouldn't do it. why torture yourself? i don't even like the idea of yoga so you'll won't find me doing it. simple as that. i'm here for the fun and health benefits of it all, not for much else -- the way i look is completely secondary to me; that's why i eat good and i train good.

hope this answers your questions.

adriana

Again, Goddess Jessica, take a minute if you can and read the Body Rx and Dr. Connelly's explanation of heart health and weight training. If I had my book with me, I'd copy the section regarding this, however I don't have it. But cardio is not the efficient way to good heart health, its a way of course, but there are better ways.

but i would tend to trust the cardio-vascular specialists that say that inclusion of daily cardio-vascular exercise, and not just diet and strength training, is good for the heart.

Dr. Bernard Christian, probably THE leading expert in cardio-vascular medicine, did a show last year here in israel, two weeks before his death. in the show he very clearly stated that cardio-vascular exercise is THE BEST for heart health.

personally, i think i trust Dr. Christian more on this one. of course, i combine his other facts (over 40 years of clinical research) and also eat well, keep my stress down and just enjoy life.

this is the same solid advice my father received after his quintuplet by-pass surgery and for the past 17 years he's been able to control the arterosclerosis that caused the blockages in the first place -- with good amounts of cardio-vascular exercise and proper nutrition, and NO medications !! my 83-year-old father doesn't even weight train either, however, he does power walk, ride his bicycle, swim, play golf AND jump rope on a weekly basis.

but like i said, don't do cardio if you don't like it. simple as that. why go through the torture of something that you just don't like. and if Dr. Connelly suggests that there are other ways to good heart health which do not include cardio-vascular exercise, then by all means, jump on that wagon. life is to be enjoyed, especially in our quest for good health

in good health,
adriana

The only cardio I can force myself to do isn't considered cardio to me. I love rollarblading and outside running. What I cannot stand is machine cardio. Drives me nuts!
This has been an interesting thread. I wish I could like cardio, but I don't.

(1) For those of you who do cardio- do you think that cardio gives you a more tangible sense of accomplishment than lifting does? Ex: you did 30 minutes at level 8 on the treadmill, and burned X number of calories. Lifting is more mysterious than that, there are no hard and fast numbers. I'm wondering if this is part of cardio's appeal?


(2) If you are doing cardio to burn calories, why not just skip eating the food you are burning? It would save so much time!

I keep my calories between 1600 and 2000. I do a bodypump class on Monday and Saturday, sometimes on Wednesday. I do Cardio Mon- Thurs and Saturday.
My reasoning behind doing lifting twice a week is to allow time for my muscles to recover. It takes my body about 4 days to recover from an intense workout. So I do cardio on the other days so that I can keep my calories in a deficit.
The idea for me is to burn 3500 calories a week by keeping my calories low enough so that my body doesn't think I'm starving it. Then to workout lifting and cardio to burn more calories. Doing this I have steadily lost a pound a week or more for 7 months.
So I really can't skip eating the food I'm burning to save time. The science of losing weight is still a mystery to me. If I could just know exactly what my metabolism was so that I could know how many calories I could eat and how much time to spend at the gym to lose 2 pounds a week.
I wish there was a specialist that we could see that could answer these questions. It would make weight loss so much easier. Or eliminate gaining all together.

Just my two cents,
Bodypumpgirl

Yes exactly Adriana, one tends to trust the one who's method they prefer. Since Dr. Connelly is a leader in metabolic research and also spent years working w/heart patients and patients who suffered the wasting syndrome and walks his own talk by looking like a million bucks at age 50+ years by doing his own program and since beginning his weight training method, my own blood pressure and cholesteral has dropped several points, which is the key factor in heart health, I'm sticking w/him.

Let me paste in a few facts about Dr. Connelly's qualifications in this respect:

Dr. Scott Connelly has devoted his life to the science of nutrition and fitness, and is considered around the world as a leading expert in the field of human nutrition and metabolism. A summa cum laude graduate in neuro-physiology from Boston Universtiy, Dr. Connelly has distinguished his career in anesthesiology, internal medicine, intensive care and cardiovascular medicine.

During his internship and residency at Harvard Medical School's prestigous Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Connelly began working with critically ill intensive care patients. In order to help his patients maintain their health, he began researching and formulating products to help prevent the loss of muscle mass. What he learned about the effects of nutrients and exercise on human metabolism, body composition, disease prevention and immune system function, however, would soon have more far reaching impact. While continuing his research as a Senior Fellow in intensive care medicine at Stanford University, Dr. Connelly created a high quality protein formulation, which he trademarked Metamyosyn. This became the key ingredient in MET-Rx, the high protein low-fat vitamin and mineral enriched drink mix he went on to invent.

The MET-Rx formulation took Dr. Connelly over twenty years to develop, and is currently being issued as standard nutritional protocol in Harvard Medical Schools Brigham and Women's Burn Care Trauma Unit and Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital. A study published in the Journal of Burn Care and Rehabilitation revealed that MET-Rx doubled the weight gain of severe burn patients over Ensure and Sustacal protein supplements. In turn, increased strength, mobility, and wound healing reduced hospital stays by as much as 30%.

First and foremost, Dr. Connelly is a physician whose goal is to improve the quality of life through superior nutrition for both the healthiest and sickest people. Dr. Connelly's work is respected by health care providers, top athletes, Hollywood celebrities, and fitness enthusiasts worldwide. Expanding his involvement in public health, Dr. Connelly is the namesake of UCLA's Connelly Laboratory for Applied Nutritional Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine, Division of Clinical Nutrition. He is also a visiting professor at UCLA's School of Medicine with teaching responsibilities in the area of the physiology of nutrition and muscle metabolism.

For a feeling of accomplishment, nothing beats lifting for me! Successfully completeing a tough workout is the best!

About the calories those machines say we've burned-I don't put much stock in them. I doubt they're very accurate.

I love the high I get from cardio-but it's different. Cardio gets the seratonin levels up and can make a bad day seem good. The single worst advice I ever got was last fall. I was under more stress than ever and getting depressed. One person suggested I stop working out and look for a job 24/7. Well, no one interviews at dinner time or 7 am which are the times when I usually work out. If I had listened to her & become a couch potato, I have no doubt I could have found myself in a deep depression. Instead I kept working out and added more cardio when things started to overwhelm me. It made the situation easier to handle because I felt good.

I did/do cardio that I enjoy and that makes a big difference. I don't hall myself onto the treadmill or stepper and sweat mindlessly until the machine tells my I've burned X amount of calories. I use them once in a while but not often. I honestly haven't used any of the cardio machines at Gold's since joining a few monthly ago. I am having fun going to spin classes and from what I understand I'm burning lots of calories while I'm doing it!

Calories in/out is way more complicated than that. I do BRx & you know I'm not about to skimp on my nutrition. Less is not better. If I was doing 4 days of weights I would not worry about the cardio, though I would still be doing spin because I love it! Unfortunately, I'm only doing 1 day of weights and I know I need to do more than that. Besides, I'd go nuts doing nothing! I've chosen the cardio I do because it is also a good workout for my video by The Firm sometimes. It includes things like lunges and squats. It's definitely cardio-but more.

Meg & Ilene you guys really should check out BRx.

Jessica, I disagree with your #1 reason to do cardio. Resisitance training does everything cardio does for your heart and more. Something else to check out in BRx.

Meg, I competely understand about the "issues."

1. I've been in "lose" mode on & off all my life, but it's been non-stop since July 2000. I am not sure I am going to know how to "stop" when the times comes.

2. I'm not sure it's an irrational fear when you've lost over 100 lbs. I lost 80 lbs. once and gained it-and more-back. There is no way I'm going to let that happen again. I am aware that I worry about it when I am not in total control of my nutrition. Even allowing myself extra carbs in Cycle 1 made me worry and feel out of control at times. I find I am much more comfortable with the strictness of Cycle 3. Easing up a bit on nutrition to maintain would be hard and make me feel a bit less in control, I think. Not really sure at all how to stop having that feeling. I wish I did.

About the odds, you've already beat them by getting this far. You need to celebrate that and realize that. Maybe you need to realize that you've made lifestyle changes. This is not a diet that ends when you go off it and eat every thing in sight. If you do do that (but you won't), then yes, the Cinderella analogy would fit and you could easily turn back into a pumpkin.

3. Good question. Sometimes I wonder, too. I mean, in order to lose this much weight we've had to become rather obsessed about it for a long time. How do you become less obsessed and feel good about ceasing to do the things that have given you such great success? In my mind that would mean I was asking for failure. I think it is important to be able to really see yourself as you are, make current goals for yourseff. That one about losing all the weight is an old one. You've done it.

I think it becomes an eating disorder when you can't stop. What do you see when you look in the mirror? The old Meg or the new improved version? It is very important to see yourself as you are. It would be understandabley difficult too prevent problems if you still saw yourself as you were a year or so ago-you'd feel the need to continue losing even when you shouldn't.

4. I freaked out when I got within 15 lbs. of me "goal weight." I realized that losing 15 lbs would not get me my goal body.I've got a vague BF% goal of 15%, but how do I know whatthat will look like? It's really kind of dumb to have it at all, I think. I'll know it when I see it in the mirror-it's definitely appearance for me. One of my goals is to have plenty of visable muscle. Some goals will require surgery.

If you are really still judging your success by the number on the scale you need to change that. I still get a thrill when the number goes down and sometimes it's a struggle to put that in a place of less importance. That number is not going to make my goal body appear in the mirror.

While I feel confident that I will *never* be as big as I was before, there is always that gnawing feeling that one day of excess calories will turn into two days, then a week, then a month, and before you know it, I'm busting out of my clothes...

Colleen, this thought is never far from my mind. I believe it is what drives me to eat so squeaky clean. I am afraid a bit of unplanned indulging will lead to a nonstop binge as it has so often in the past. I've had food call my name too and did pretty much the same thing.

I actually went over 2 years without letting myself listen to theat voice and eat. Last fall, I listened and found that I hadn't gotten rid of those food issues. They're still there and waiting to take control if I let them. I'm realizing I'll have to fight those demons forever.

...another big loser once said that she would rather die than go back to being fat again (you can tell I’ve never forgotten that post) and though those are drastic words, I think I feel the same way.

I know I'd rather die than go back to the way I was. Those words may be drastic, but they are true for many of us. It's not an overly dramatic statement. It's an accurate one.

Maybe we’re just too hard on ourselves, equating “diet perfection” with being strong and eating something unplanned as “weak.” Maybe it’s human? Thoughts?

Yes it's human, but I think we get to a point where we need to change our definition of "diet perfection.” We had to work hard to change the way we thought when we began this journey. We'll have to change our thinking again to stay where we want to be.

You know, sometimes I think about all the wrong, negative harmful things that were pounded into us as true and good as we were growing up. No wonder we're confused. So much has turned out to be the opposite of the way we were told it would. Maybe 1 + 1 really equals 3...

Deb

runners high.....its a real thing
i looooooove running and running as fast as i can.
i only do it 3 - 4 times a week though for 30 mins a pop.
maybe one day when i'm satisfied with my speed at 30 mins i'll move to increase the time...

hi Mindi,

my cholesterol went down by more than 100 points, triglycerides down by over 200 points and HCL went up by 5 points, in 5 months, by eating a well balanced nutritional plan. i didn't use any specific program, following anyone to a "T"; i used only solid common sense and learned a whole lot of new good habits.

i also worked out 6 days per week during those 5 months (and still do), lost 30 pounds of fat and completely changed my metabolism around.

i don't really care who is *RIGHT*, as i'm sure that there is NO one *right* way to do anything in this world --- all i know is that i feel wonderful and that all the test of my insides show that i'm in the best shape i've ever been in, heart and everything else.

i do TONS of cardio because i love it. plain and simple. no other reason than that. all the benefits of it are simply an added pleasure to me. i also lift weights with great intensity, because i love it !! both aspects of my program are very, very important to me.

continued good luck with Body Rx -- i'm very glad that you have found a program that you are happy with and that produces such wonderful results for you, just as i have created one that works so good for me

adriana

When I went back and read the whole thread again, I was struck by the fact that we really are all over the place when it comes to cardio -- some of us love it, some can't stand it, some do it anyway, some don't. But we are united by our commitment to our fitness and health lifestyles and every one of us is doing her best to reach her goals. And we have some incredible success stories here at LWL! Sure, we may all be on different nutrition and exercise plans (remember Camp Meg and Camp Adriana and Camp Mel etc when we started Bootcamp), but we all still support each other along the way.

Weight and fat loss/fitness/health: geez, if you spend any time on the boards or Internet, you realize how much info is out there -- often contradictory. In the end, we all have to customize a program that works for us. The wonderful thing about our LWL part of the world is that we can come together, share knowledge and experiences, and take away what we need to keep putting together the puzzle pieces of health and fitness for ourselves.

Love you guys and I'm so glad you're here!

Meg

Yes that was exactly my point and why I posted Dr. C's credentials, that while he is highly qualified and extremely respected in the the fitness industry and the medical field, there is no 'best' way or no 'best' expert in a field as varied as this one. Its much like religion, IMO.

Mindi and Deb == After Easter and this challenge, I am deffinitely doing BRx... Last week I was at Coles and I was looking at the BRx Book and SPII and bought SPII.... Bun now I'm sorry I didn't buy BRx!! SPII I just can't get into for some reason....But I'll continue to read it and will buy BRx ASAP!!

Great thread, LWL!!

One last thought on cardio/weights: I do weights for my body, I do cardio for my mind. I need both at 100% to have the life I want to lead, to achieve the goals I've set out for myself.

BethO

Betho - I so agree with you about cardio and the mind. If there is a problem buzzing in my head, nothing, but nothing quiets my mind like a fast paced walk or a good spin on the bike. My mind starts to focus on the task at hand - getting up the hill one minute faster than I did last week, picking out a walker in the distance and increasing my stride to pass and then out pace them. By the time my cardio is over my mind has grown quiet and I can face my problem(s) objectively and rationally.

Sel

Ilene, have you read the first SP? It may help you get into SPII more. I'm eating a bit more SPII style now, but this eating is similar to BRX and she recommends weight training over cardio for certain insulin types. Depends upon which one you think you may be?

SPII incorporates a bit less protein and a bit more use of fats than BRX. I'm going to see how SPII eating works for me and then if it does as I hope it will, I'll be able to incorporate a combo of these two programs for a lifestyle I can live with!