Throughout a three-month period, scientists in Australia did an analysis of 58 obese males and females who performed cardiovascular exercises. Those involved exercised five times a week and burned roughly 500 calories each time. In total, the average weight loss for the group was 7 pounds below the expected weight loss. The problem was that only 32 people were able to lose more than two pounds over a three month period even though they sweated for nearly sixty hours.
From this, we can surmise that there needs to be less importance placed on cardio exercise for the purpose of losing weight.
Do not get me wrong. I am not trashing cardiovascular exercise. Everyone knows that cardiovascular exercises improve your health. It helps reduces stress, improves stamina, lowers blood cholesterol and blood pressure and more. Combined with a sensible, balanced diet, you\’ll get even better results. However, researchers concluded, that (quote) From a public health perspective, cardiovascular exercise should be encouraged and the emphasis on weight loss reduced.(unquote)
Personal trainers, magazines, and health clubs need to stop promoting cardio as the magic formula for weight loss – it isn\’t. Do not give in to the cardiovascular trap. If you depend on the calorie burning counters on cardiovascular machines, you are falling for the biggest fraud in fat loss today.
Running on a treadmill run would not burn off a big meal unless you are running at full speed for over 2 hours. Just do not eat that second serving of lasagna or ice cream. Instead, build your bodys metabolism through strength training. Stop tiring out your body with constant, repetitive cardiovascular exercises. Simply say NO to cardio!
After you understand and believe just how hard it is to burn fat with only cardiovascular exercise, you will find the whole process of weight loss to be very simple. It is necessary for you to do some prep work – plan your meals ahead of time, map out your strength training workouts so that you are never lost in the middle of it, get your social network or workout partner in place, and be ready for obstacles that you know might come up.
Let us focus on a different study, which exemplifies the effectiveness of the diet. As part of the study, men and women who were overweight went on a 12 week reduced calorie diet. Thirty-six pounds and 18 times the weight loss were lost by the study participants compared to the cardiovascular study above. So you can see that you will reduce more effectively by dieting than with cardiovascular exercise alone. Unfortunately, there is a second part to the study that I should mention.
The study participants were divided into two groups. For one year, a group of participants ate a high-protein diet while another group ate a high-carb diet. When the year was over, both groups had put back on four pounds on average. The bottom line is that the two groups gained an equal number of pounds. People were able to retain a large portion of their original weight loss on both of the diets. However, only 47% of the total number of subjects who started the study (180 in all) completed both parts. Which is really a high number of dropouts.
Conclusion: dieting is not the challenge, it\’s getting people to stick with it that is hard. That\’s where planning, finding the right diet that works for you and social support, come into play.
People do not diet because they are told it does not work. The problem actually lies not in the diets but rather in the dieters. You will still have to work hard and stay with it to lose weight even if you are eating properly.
Add short well balanced workouts — strength training, cardiovascular and stretching. Keep-off from doing repetitive cardiovascular exercise that take a long time to get results. And you will see the results you deserve.
1 Br J Sports Med. 2009 Sep 29. Beneficial effects of exercise: shifting the focus from body weight to other markers of health. King N, Hopkins M, Caudwell P, Stubbs J, Blundell J.
2 Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Sep 30. One-year weight maintenance after significant weight loss in healthy overweight and obese subjects: does diet composition matter? Delbridge EA, Prendergast LA, Pritchard JE, Proietto J.
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