If you have read any of my posts, you already know that I am not a fan of cardio. I find it boring, and would much rather spend my time in the weight room. I have had much success doing no cardio at all for months at a time, so I'm not convinced it is an important part of fitness for *me*.

However, I know many who feel that it is as important, maybe even more important than lifting. So I have a couple of questions much like the ones Meg posed in her Hunger post.

(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!

Seriously, if the calories in/ calories out theory is true, wouldn't that make sense?

Trying to provoke some thoughts here.

Laura

Great questions and I am really learning so much from everyone’s responses on the other thread. I guess I kind of opened up this can of worms so I’ll jump in.

(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?

Frankly, cardio has ZERO appeal to me. I would much rather be in the weight room also, and do lift five days/week, so I don’t neglect the weights in favor of the cardio. The reason I do cardio is simply that when I decided to lose weight for good, the trainer I was working with told me to do it to burn calories. I started at 20 minutes a day, 3 days/week, and over the next few months increased to 60 minutes/day, every day. I did this the whole time I lost 135 pounds of fat and added 10 pounds of muscle, so I don’t think it was detrimental to my progress. And that’s why I still do it — it seems to work for me. Let me emphasize the “for me” because it may not be true for anyone else. But make no mistake — the world would be a better place without cardio in my eyes! BTW, I never trust those “calories burned” readouts. Bottom line = cardio stinks and weights are fun, but it’s like spinach — I do it ‘cause I think it’s good for me.

(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 just don’t have any more calories to give up. Let’s say I burn 400 calories in an hour of cardio and I’m eating 1200 calories in a day, that would mean dropping to 800/day. I don’t think that’s possible, at least for me.

Next?

Meg

I can't answer your question Laura because like you I really dislike cardio, the only reason I force myself to do some is for the cardio vascular benefit....

I did not like cardio until I started the BFL interval method. It has become a game. The cardio benifit for me is I in the ability to walk longer, bike and hike further before I get tired.

cc

Ilene, if you ever get a chance to read TheBodyRx, please check out Dr. Connelly's views on weight training and cardiovascular health. You may just save yourself the boredom of cardio.

Is part of the appeal the endorphin high? I've heard this from a few others who did lots of cardio.

I do get the endorphin rush after cardio, but I run on a treadmill now. When I was biking ever minute was gut wrentching boring torturous ****.

Now I like my cardio days I can feel how much LESS jiggle I have hehe. I like to jog so i guess its a personal thing

Tidey

(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?
I hardly do cardio, I have been trying to get myself to do it but I absolutely hate it. When I am on the machine I sit there and think of why I am doing this because I just don't enjoy it. I do about 10 minutes of HIIT cardio about once a week and that is it.


(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!

My thoughts exactly. This is why I last about 10 minutes on a machine and than I get off and go do some weight training! Personally why start with cardio again and than have to keep up with it when I have had no ill effects from not doing cardio? It is not something I want to have to do forever, only when I can rollarblade or run outside. For me I have no problems with maintaining my weight without cardio so I just don't really do it.
I would rather skip the calories by a long shot! This is why I love Body RX because it taught me that I don't have to skip calories and do cardio every week to lose fat and to maintain!

This is kinda my point I guess. By burning up all those calories, as far as your body is concerned you *are* only eating 800 a day. Is that really enough for your BMR plus everything else you do *besides* exercise?

I know that this approach worked for you for a long time. And I wouldn't say a word if you had not expressed dissatisfaction with your progress, but sometimes you gotta shake things up; is your program really still *working for you*?

For me and many others, we found that our bodies would not give up fat until they were sure we weren't going to starve.

And let me reiterate that I know it's a major mental abyss.

Laura

Laura — I welcome your input! I certainly did solicit everyone’s opinions and do appreciate all the information and thoughts I’ve gotten on the topics of cardio and calories and metabolism and all.

Yes, I’m wondering what to do now and I’m thinking that I really have several issues going on (and again I’m talking about them because I'd like to hear what others think)

1 Am I having a hard time giving up “dieting” (actively losing) and just focusing on maintenance? Do we get addicted to seeing the scale go down?
2. Is my fear of getting fat again rational or irrational? Because this is what drives me — I never want to go back where I was and I so fear that the odds are stacked against me.
3. Have I dieted myself into an eating disorder?
4. How does one know where to stop losing weight? Is it pounds? BF %? Clothes sizes? Appearance?

My dissatisfaction with my progress stems from the fact that the scale isn’t continuing to go down and that’s why I wanted to get my BF re-done today — to focus on another tangible method to evaluate progress. Unfortunately my trainer canceled out on me so I don’t have that info — rats, I’ll have to wait until Monday. Perhaps there's not that much more fat that I should try get my body to give up — I don’t know at this point. Maybe it’s time to maintain.

So please feel free to lend me any insights, gang. Who else can I talk to about this stuff? I’m so glad you all are here!

Meg

Meg, how do you feel about how you look? In fact, how do you FEEL? Are you healthy? As far as your scale weight goes, is it that important to your overall mental health and self-esteem? Or is a shapely, muscular, fit body what you want? What are your goals? Just to have a small scale weight or to be healthy and fit. Do you fear losing control? Do you have issues with control? These are some of the questions I ask myself so maybe you could benefit from them as well.

I can't answer your questions, only YOU can do that. But we, (meaning all of us here), can help you figure out what you really want and at the same time, this will help us (me) figure out what we (I) want and how to get there.

It would be a flat out lie to say I "love" cardio, but I do like it.

I love the endurance. I'm a dancer (Morris, Belly, Swing, Contra) and the endurance that comes with regular cardio workouts is phenomenal. I can't get that with weights. Plus, marathon sessions of sex don't wear me out.

I love to sweat. I mean pouring down my face, can't believe I'm still standing, everything is soaked, kind of sweat.

#1 reason... it's VITAL to your heart. By doing cardio you are forcing your blood vessels to create new paths to your heart. If you have a heart attack, you're more likely to survive if you have those extra little vessels giving your heart what it needs in its time of crisis. My family has a history of heart attacks and stroke. I need cardio because I do NOT want to have a heart attack (i'm only 26 and when I get indigestion, I SWEAR I am having a heart attack )

Meg,

I am very interested in everyone’s opinion as well. My greatest fear is that upon reaching my physique goals, the clock will suddenly strike twelve and like Cinderella’s coach, I will turn back into a pumpkin, literally.

After deciding to go for it last week, I took some time this week to clarify what “it” is for me. This is what came to mind: I want to feel like I used to; like an athlete, strong, lean and aerobically fit. Being a particular body fat, weight or size is not very important to me, just as long as my body looks good nekkid. Have to tell you after all these years of being overweight anything will be an improvement.

Laura to answer your question: .I like both cardio and weightlifting equally. With weightlifting it is the pump in my muscles and the ability to move more lbs today than the week before that fuels me, and the unknown of what it will be next week. With aerobic exercise, walking in particular, it is the ability to move my body over x number of miles in x number of minutes. It gives me an incredible sense of freedom to able to that, especially after being sedentary for so many years.

"My greatest fear is that upon reaching my physique goals, the clock will suddenly strike twelve and like Cinderella’s coach, I will turn back into a pumpkin, literally."

That's it. Precisely.

Meg

Something Meg said in her post really hit me. I have days where I *seriously* do feel like I have an eating disorder, but in the opposite extreme of the kind I used to have. I have had days where something calls my name (ice cream, a burger, what have you), and I'll have it. Within 5 minutes of eating it, guilt settles in, and I hop in my car and drive to the gym, where I proceed to put in an hour's worth of cardio. Now, this has happened maybe 10 times in the last year, but it's still the general mentality I have about food lately. Some people would say that's a logical reaction, and would congratulate me for that mindset. But it's not "me being a strong person" that makes me do it. It's me being a *weak* person, who not only cannot pass up whatever food has a hold on her, but allows herself to become SO overwhelmed with guilt that she quickly goes to the opposite extreme?? 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...

OK, I'm rambling, but I guess my point is that sometimes my brain doesn't know the difference between working hard to be healthy, and working hard to avoid becoming fat again.

Colleen — I’ve done exactly the same thing — given in to that little voice in my had that says, “go on … eat it because… (insert rationalization)” and then, of course, been overcome by remorse five minutes later, especially when I realize that whatever I ate didn't taste nearly as good as I imagined it would. So I go off to the gym (which is a whole lot better than a finger down the throat, you know?). I’m glad that you posted about this. Isn’t it kind of funny/ironic/sad that we can lose weight and still have all these issues with food to deal with? It’s not like making it to a certain weight is the Promised Land and we suddenly will have healthy relationships with food — I think it’s something we have to keep working on.

I know that this kind of behavior is driven by our fear of getting fat again. I’m not sure that is so different from the desire to be healthy, though. Perhaps it’s because you and I are relatively recent losers — maybe living with and maintaining a weight loss for a longer period of time gives one a more relaxed perspective? For me, it’s so much like Sel said — that having worked for so long and so hard to get where I am, the omnipresent fear is that I will wake up one morning and be fat again. On another thread, in another forum, 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 don’t know what the answer is, but I do want to let you know that I know exactly how you feel. 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?

Meg