Vary up Cardio?

[bcap]

Hey guys - just have kind of a discussion topic here, as this article brought to my attention that I am doing exactly what they say NOT to do, just wanted to know your thoughts.

In this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12270299/from/RSS/ they say that it is bad to do the same cardio workout for long periods of time. Well, I'm currently cutting (see 12 week transformation thread in the diet section for my diet/stats) and DO walk 45 - 60 mins a day, at 65% heart rate. I've been doing this for 8 weeks, and I HAVE noticed that my weight loss has slowed down - is this article true?

[1buffsob]

Are you serious Bryan. lol. MSNBC, my God. You're talking about the news company that just had an article a couple months back about the serious, and potentionally fatal, diets containing too much protein. Bwahahaha.

Q: When I work out, I spend 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer and 15 minutes on the treadmill, and then lift on weight machines. But I cannot seem to reduce my stomach size. What should I be doing differently?

For starters, how about you don't freaking do cardio before weight lifting.

Q: I do two days of cardio (40 minutes on the elliptical trainer each time) with some weights, and two days of aerobic classes with a little weight training. But I'm not getting as toned as I'd like. Any ideas why?

Maybe it's because you have a box of snackwell cookies before bed.

Q: I walk two miles a day, five days a week, and strength-train about two to three times a week. Still, I cannot lose those extra pounds. Would taking a step class help me? I heard doing more cardio might help.

Cause we're all after the body that step aerobics produce.

Seriously Bryan. Look where all the media hype has gotten the general public in terms of health. Varying cardio is good, just to keep the body guessing a bit. I like switching between the eleptical and treadmill, but only cause I get bored. But the results come from the 65%-70% HR. Don't take the public too seriously. Just think about it. Ask Dr. Atkins or the subway guy.

1buffsob

[bcap]

Haha, oh kyle!

I obviously DONT believe any of this crap - it's MSNBC for christ sakes, I just wanted to start a discussion, and the whole concept of changing up cardio kind of caught my eye, seeming as i haven't changed mine and my weight loss has staggerred thats all.

You make some interesting and funny points, we shoudl definetly have our own Q-A forum here haha.

[1buffsob]

A Q-A would be good, except the mods would have a full time job weeding out the same questions over, and over, and over again. That, and those newb questions; "How much deca can I take a week? Oh, and I'm 18 years old and weigh 150lbs. Thanks."

I advocate switching up cardio when possible, just because of the change of pace and the different strains on different parts of the legs. Eliptical vs incline treadmill. But for fat loss, it really would make little, if any, difference since the goals are only to burn fat by monitoring your HR.

1buffsob

[bcap]

Yeah figured, and now that the weather is nice, i'm walking outside again. YAY lol. I think a Q-A would be good, granted ppl followed a set of rules.

Stupid people

[Giants11]

BS....Fintess rut...You kdding me. If you are expending cals and dieting. You will lose weight. You body doesn't know the difference between cardio. It only knows intensity. That article is pure Bullshit, your diet makes you lose weight not your workouts.

[bcap]

LOL Thanks Giants! Stupid MSNBC - no shit America is so fat, they listen to stupid things like that.

[1buffsob]

BS....Fintess rut...You kdding me. If you are expending cals and dieting. You will lose weight. You body doesn't know the difference between cardio. It only knows intensity. That article is pure Bullshit, your diet makes you lose weight not your workouts.

So much mis-information in the public, it's crazy. We should get a few of the mods/vets here to start a government organiztion to educate the public. Kind of like Homeland security but more of a Homeland Health.

Giants11, would you be interested in heading the office?

1buffsob

[bcap]

I've got dibs on the team mascot - we can show off how you're methods have chaned me from "flab to fab" haha - the new subway guy!

[Giants11]

So much mis-information in the public, it's crazy. We should get a few of the mods/vets here to start a government organiztion to educate the public. Kind of like Homeland security but more of a Homeland Health.

Giants11, would you be interested in heading the office?

1buffsob

Hey Man,

I already tried to start the AR Obesity Task Force. It never took off though

[Superballer]

Varying cardio sounds GREAT to me about now. I'm on house arrest and have been making laps around my backyard every morning with a heart rate monitor... oh boy does it get old. But so does being fat... haha

[bcap]

I have an alternative superballer, you're going to love this one. You don't even have to get out of your chair ... chew gum really fast for an hour straight

[Mike Dura]

I somewhat agree with your point. Take it with a grain of salt if it comes from the media but listen anyway. And not only is health news suspect. Politics, war and policy issues are especially questionable. News is better called propoganda or sensationalism IMO. It's not about informing it's about entertaining or persuading and that should be kept in mind. The hardcore bodybuilding outlets such as Muscular Development (MD) seem to give more useful info. Yet even MD has ulterior motives so to some degree it pays to be critical when it comes to any information source.

I'll tell you what I think applies as a general rule for getting the best result for body recomposition. I think it's about keeping your body guessing. That means cycling things during the course of a week (or some time period). So that in the begining of the week I might have a 45 min. cardio session with ECA "up the yin yang" but the next day I'll do 20 min. cardio with no ECA. Clearly I'm burning more k-calories in the former case over the latter. Than once a week I'll have a high cal, high carb day. That day, my body temp goes up to about 100 degrees. That resets my metab for the upcoming week. I use these loose principles to guide me through my shredding and I never have to count calories. I just monitor the scale and make adjustments and keep my body guessing. It works because by the end of 12-15 weeks, I look in the mirror and I see veins popping out everywhen and striated legs and if I walk around in cosco with a tank top, I feel like quite the spectacle.

I think that general principle works for everyone. In terms of how individuals tolerate ketogenic diets, that depends on the person.
One has to experiment to find out what's best for them. This is my oppinion but I'm not as knowlegeable as Swolecat or Booz or some of the "heavier hitters" on this board so maybe you should ask them or refer to their web sites. There are some really knowlegeable people aboard and I've learned so much being here myself. That's whats great about it. You can always learn something new and never exhaust your knowledge. Good luck to you all.

Are you serious Bryan. lol. MSNBC, my God. You're talking about the news company that just had an article a couple months back about the serious, and potentionally fatal, diets containing too much protein. Bwahahaha.

Q: When I work out, I spend 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer and 15 minutes on the treadmill, and then lift on weight machines. But I cannot seem to reduce my stomach size. What should I be doing differently?

For starters, how about you don't freaking do cardio before weight lifting.

Q: I do two days of cardio (40 minutes on the elliptical trainer each time) with some weights, and two days of aerobic classes with a little weight training. But I'm not getting as toned as I'd like. Any ideas why?

Maybe it's because you have a box of snackwell cookies before bed.

Q: I walk two miles a day, five days a week, and strength-train about two to three times a week. Still, I cannot lose those extra pounds. Would taking a step class help me? I heard doing more cardio might help.

Cause we're all after the body that step aerobics produce.

Seriously Bryan. Look where all the media hype has gotten the general public in terms of health. Varying cardio is good, just to keep the body guessing a bit. I like switching between the eleptical and treadmill, but only cause I get bored. But the results come from the 65%-70% HR. Don't take the public too seriously. Just think about it. Ask Dr. Atkins or the subway guy.

1buffsob

[1buffsob]

BS....Fintess rut...You kdding me. If you are expending cals and dieting. You will lose weight. You body doesn't know the difference between cardio. It only knows intensity. That article is pure Bullshit, your diet makes you lose weight not your workouts.

I think Giants11 pretty much summed it up.

1buffsob

[Giants11]

The body doesn't need to guess when it comes to workouts. Do you have to change approches when weight lifting to gain LBM? Yes to some extent you need to change the stimulus. However do you not burn calories because you are doing the "same" workout. HELL NO, the fundamentals of physiology would be defied if you could figure out how to lift weights without burning cals. Do you need to cycle supplements, yes you do, as there are negative feedback loops that will prevent effectiveness after prolonged use. Cycling lets what was down regulated, up regulate before taking again.

Now here's my issue when its comes to burning calories. This is the one thing that remains constant when you workout. Your body will still need fuel. Will it adapt and become more effcient, yes, of course. However as I stated before you need only concern yourself with intensity. The better shape you get in, the higher the intensity needs to be. Plain and simple. However I do not ever forsee the case where you do not expend calories while doing cardio, it jsut simply is not possible.

This article was geared towards people who do not have their diets dialed in. So they increase expendature to make up for lack of understanding of diet. All they really need to do is adjust calories and save themselves a ton of trouble. Quite simple really, just that most of America doesn't know dick about dieting.

[Mike Dura]

I wanted to respond to a small part of what you're saying: I remember reading somewhere that mixing up cardio modes is a good idea. You ever read that? Like with weights your body will acclimate to say, the cross trainer, but if you mix it up with other modes (treadmill) you will optimize cal burning. That's counterintuitive to me - I would imagine that cardio at a given intensity would always burn roughly the same cals.

[QUOTE=Giants11] However I do not ever forsee the case where you do not expend calories while doing cardio, it jsut simply is not possible.

[Giants11]

[QUOTE=Mike Dura]I wanted to respond to a small part of what you're saying: I remember reading somewhere that mixing up cardio modes is a good idea. You ever read that? Like with weights your body will acclimate to say, the cross trainer, but if you mix it up with other modes (treadmill) you will optimize cal burning. That's counterintuitive to me - I would imagine that cardio at a given intensity would always burn roughly the same cals.

However I do not ever forsee the case where you do not expend calories while doing cardio, it jsut simply is not possible.

Exactly, I mean who's to say your body knows the difference between cross trainer and bike. You monitor your HR for intensity, that will gauge what type of cals your burning (Fat/Glycogen) and the intensity will also reflect you cal expenditure.