[Frodo]

I asked a friend who's into fitness and is in pretty good shape about the "no cardio plan" that sented here. This is the response I got:

Where did you read that cardio was a waste of time?
I totally disagree with this statement unless the
following exist:

You are a Body Builder.

Weight lifting is anarobic and does not burn enough
calories for the ordinary person to lose weight. For a
small percentage of people this is true and that would
be for body builders. In order to just do
weightlifting and stay trim, a person must adhere to a
strict diet. The lifestyle us Americans are accustomed
to today is not conducive to eating 6 mini meals per
day that are planned out by a nutritionist.

[...personal comments removed...]

Moreover, in my case, I do weightlifting, but I also
need to do cardio to keep my weight down. Even if I
had six pack abs, it would never show under that layer
of blubber. It would make my stomach look even bigger,
catch my drift??

Ironically, I have been eating 5 mini meals per day that I plan myself, and so am still losing weight, but I do wonder if I could lose it even faster if I resumed cardio. I have 15 lbs to go, and I hear that once I hit that 10 lb mark, it's supposed to get really hard.

Cardio can help with weight loss. I am not sure where you got the idea it couldn't? It's just that it won't work as the only element. Here's an example:

Let's say you weigh 180 pounds and you are going to use a stationary bike for 30 minutes 3 times a week. You'l burn roughly 260 calories in each session, for a total of 780 calories per week. At this rate, it will take you 4 1/2 weeks to lose one pound (3500 calories). Even if you up it to the point where you are doing this aerobic exercise 5 times a week for 30 minutes each time, you'll only be burning 1300 calories per week, which will let you reach your goal of losing one pound in slightly less than 3 weeks rather than in 4.5 weeks. (The less you weigh, the less you will burn during each session, so your aerobic activity becomes less efficient as you get closer to your weight goal.)

So it's not that aerobic activity doesn't burn calories; it does. But it is not the most efficient way to lose weight.

Conversely, weight training helps you to build muscle, which increase your metabolism at all times, even when you are sleeping :-) One of the reasons we gain weight as we age is due to the roughly 5% of muscle loss we experience each year after 30 or so (it may even start earlier than this). This reduction in muscle translates to a slowing down of our metablism, which means that if we keep eating the same amount, we will see our weight gradually creeping upwards.

If you are currently losing in the range of 2-3 pounds per week, you are on the right track. Congratulations!

[Frodo]

Thanks cdn,

I know I must sound rather demanding, but I'm trying to figure out what's going to work for me. I'm serious about losing this weight and I think I can, but here's a lot of info to sort through to make it work.

My primary fear then was that if I didn't do cardio, my metabolism would slow down, but I take it from what you say, weights can prevent starvation mode.

Eating fairly frequently will prevent starvation mode. Starvation mode occurs when your body receives so few calories -- or calories spaced so far apart (i.e., eating just one meal a day) -- that it starts to horde those it does receive, rather than allowing the body to operate at a deficit and shed pounds.

Building muscle will increase your metabolism. Permanently (unless you stop working out and lose the muscle). So once you reach your goal, you will be able to eat more to maintain your weight.

You can certainly add cardio if it's something you like and it will help. It just isn't the major contributor that some folks seem to think.

How much have you lost and what's your goal? Just curious -- feel free to tell me to myob!

[Frodo]

I started at 23% bodyfat and my goal is to get to 15%. It was slow going at first because I had to develop the habit of exercise. Man, was that hard. I justmade myself do it everyday, regardless of whether I wanted to or not until it didn't intimidate me. I didn't lose much weight then. It went down about 6 lbs and got stuck until I changed my diet. Now I've lost about 10-15 pounds depending and I've lost 2.5 inches off my waist. 15 more to go according to the chart. Only frustrating thing is that the goal weight keeps changing when my neck-to-waist proportion changes.

I think I'm at a dating weight now. I lost an inch in my neck, and there's not much babyfat. starting to get more of that V shape. Hopefully I'll have this weight off by next spring if not sooner

That's great, Frodo. Sounds like you will make your goal. Congrats! And good luck with the dating :-)