If you want to lose weight long term, don't bother with cardio excercise at all

Andy UK

Andy UK

New member
Having had a constant battle with my weight for as long as I can remember I have tried quite a few things, however I always knew that basically it was all about balancing energy input with energy output.

Last year I tried to really sort myself out and started really training along with a healthy diet. I progressed over a couple of months so that I could run for 30 mins at a decent pace, I would do this 3 to 5 times a week and I started losing the weight.

The problem came when I had to stop running for a while , then struggled to motivate myself to begin again afterwards. I started piling on the weight until I had reached new heights of being overweight. My body had simply adjusted to me running all the time and now I had stopped.

The moral of this story is that if you make changes to your lifestyle to lose weight, they have to be ones that you're prepared to do indefinitely. Sane people don't enjoy running, it's not fun for most of us, I ran to lose weight and it worked for a while. I was never planning to run like that forever so I was doomed to fail, and I did.

I have recently started losing weight again and am now back down to where I was before I started any of this excercise nonsense. I've done this by changing my diet to one that I enjoy but that seems to make me lose weight steadily. I have no problem keeping this up indefinitely (it's not a meagre diet) so hopefully I have finally found my answer. I do a few excercises with my dumbells but nothing too strenuous and certainly no cardio.

Stay away from the cardio - concentrate on getting your diet right for you.
 
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Let me be blunt.

Anybody who actually cares about what you look like and cares about your health.... don't listen to the above advice.

You are assuming that all anyone cares about is the number on the scale. Unfortunately for you, this isn't the case. Most *sane* people actually care about more important things such as cardiovascular health and appearance (which I might add has very little connection with what the number on the scale says.)

Just my 2 cents of course.
 
Wow, that is some of the worst advice I've ever seen on this board. Eliminate cardio, and do some minor weight training with small dumbbells. I guess that's fine if you're aiming for poor cardiovascular health, high LDL, and that emaciated look that people get when they lose all their weight by cutting into their lean body mass.

No thanks!
 
As an avid runner (and completely sane individual), I have to agree with the last two posts. Running is a great form of cardio and cardio is a very beneficial form of exercise. So many studies have shown what health benefits can be achieved running on as little as 30 minutes, 3 times a week.

One study that followed a group of people who lost weight and kept if off for some years, showed that a common trait shared by the subjects was that they maintained healthy eating habits as well as having a regular exercise routine.

Another study found that losing weight by just eating less can lower bone density, losing weight in combination with eating less and running will not.

And the benefits to your heart, lungs, arteries, etc. are well documented, as well as the postive effects running has on diabetes. Running is certainly no "cure-all", but the benefits are many and profound.

If you don't like running, perhaps there are other forms of aerobic exercise you might enjoy and do more often? Biking, swimming, the various machines found in gyms? Even if one's goal weren't weight loss, some form of regular cardio-vascular exercise will greatly improve health, fitness and a person's overall appearance and well being.
 
I'm talking about my own experience. The majority of people on this forum are like me, overweight and not in-love with exercise.

Weight loss is my priority over cardio-vascular health at the moment. Sorry if this offends anybody's holier-than-thou sensibilities.

I have had to deliberatley avoid regular cardio excercise because I know it will end up making me put on weight when I stop. I know I can't stick to an excercise programme forever, so I'm better off not starting one.
 
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Andy UK said:
I'm talking about my own experience. The majority of people on this forum are like me, overweight and not in-love with exercise.

Weight loss is my priority over cardio-vascular health at the moment. Sorry if this offends anybody's holier-than-thou sensibilities.

I have had to deliberatley avoid regular cardio excercise because I know it will end up making me put on weight when I stop. I know I can't stick to an excercise programme forever, so I'm better off not starting one.
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If it floats you boat, more power to you. However, maybe you should rethink the idea of putting it out there as a recommendation for the mass public to follow.

Also, you should think about dismissing the assumption that others are so weak minded that they will not be able to adopt and adhere to a healthy and habitual lifestyle.

Your assumption based on n=1 (YOU) has very little merit when compared to the hundreds of people I have seen actually succeed.

I would never have commented in this thread if you didn't throw it out there as a recommendation for others to follow.

Sorry, I care about everyone's health as well as appearance and could give to craps about what their number says on the scale, actually.
 
Yep - the problem with this thread was that you recommended it.
You wrote:
Stay away from the cardio
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Based on what worked (or didn't work) for you.

Steve is right - being healthy has little to do with just the number on the scale.

A healthy life style means much, much more.

Also, your assumption that no one sane likes to run is just that, an assumption based on your own personal experience - it's simply not true for many people who do, in fact love it.
 
Andy UK said:
Having had a constant battle with my weight for as long as I can remember I have tried quite a few things, however I always knew that basically it was all about balancing energy input with energy output.

Last year I tried to really sort myself out and started really training along with a healthy diet. I progressed over a couple of months so that I could run for 30 mins at a decent pace, I would do this 3 to 5 times a week and I started losing the weight.

The problem came when I had to stop running for a while , then struggled to motivate myself to begin again afterwards. I started piling on the weight until I had reached new heights of being overweight. My body had simply adjusted to me running all the time and now I had stopped.

The moral of this story is that if you make changes to your lifestyle to lose weight, they have to be ones that you're prepared to do indefinitely.
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Correct.

' Changes ' which include......

- eating a better diet
- getting cardio exercise
- getting resistance exercise
- being more active overall ( excluding exercise )
- getting more sleep​

Andy UK said:
Sane people don't enjoy running, it's not fun for most of us, I ran to lose weight and it worked for a while. I was never planning to run like that forever so I was doomed to fail, and I did.
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That comment is a rather naive one and a very sweeping over-generalization - at best .

It is YOU that doesn't " enjoy running " - speak for yourself.

Andy UK said:
I have recently started losing weight again and am now back down to where I was before I started any of this excercise nonsense.
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Exercise isn't nonsense...ask the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The American College of Sports Medicine, The American Council on Exercise, The American Heart Association, The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, American Dietetic Association etc. etc.

Andy UK said:
I've done this by changing my diet to one that I enjoy but that seems to make me lose weight steadily. I have no problem keeping this up indefinitely (it's not a meagre diet) so hopefully I have finally found my answer. I do a few excercises with my dumbells but nothing too strenuous and certainly no cardio.
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Too bad you couldn't ask you your heart, lungs and arteries it THEY think you've found the answer eh ?

Andy UK said:
Stay away from the cardio - concentrate on getting your diet right for you.
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Too funny !
 
Andy UK said:
I'm talking about my own experience. The majority of people on this forum are like me, overweight and not in-love with exercise.

Weight loss is my priority over cardio-vascular health at the moment. Sorry if this offends anybody's holier-than-thou sensibilities.

I have had to deliberatley avoid regular cardio excercise because I know it will end up making me put on weight when I stop. I know I can't stick to an excercise programme forever, so I'm better off not starting one.
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This would be funny, if weren't so incredibly wrong.

Yes, the majority of people on this board may start out overweight and not in love with exercise -- that certainly described me to a tee 9 months ago.

But I would have to say the majority of people on this board who are succeeding are exercising, whether they are "in love" with it or not. The point isn't doing what only what you love to do; the point is doing what's healthy.

I assume you're a young man, because if you were older, you'd realize that weight loss and cardio vascular health go hand-in-hand, just as weight gain, heart disease, and t2 diabetes go together.
 
I can concede there are some fair points, but

Also, you should think about dismissing the assumption that others are so weak minded that they will not be able to adopt and adhere to a healthy and habitual lifestyle.

Your assumption based on n=1 (YOU) has very little merit when compared to the hundreds of people I have seen actually succeed.
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I didn't just base this on me. Most people on this forum are overweight, some very overweight. I think it's fair to say that although many people change their lives and lose their excess weight, the majority suffer with it forever.

Also, my original post wasn't just a single line informing people that excercise is evil, it did actually explain my experience/circumstances/feelings towards this subject. So while it might reasonably be considered that my advice is not exactly "textbook", I did at least give it some context.

There will be others out there who are similar to me, who know that committing to a long term exercise plan is unrealistic for them. My advice may help someone to lose the weight they are desperate to shift, even if it's not the best way.
 
Andy UK said:
I'm talking about my own experience. The majority of people on this forum are like me, overweight and not in-love with exercise.
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Well if that is the case, perhaps they are more " in love " with food......which is why they've ended up on this forum in the first place....and wanna bet there are more of those people asking for help here than those who " love exercise " ? ;)

Andy UK said:
Weight loss is my priority over cardio-vascular health at the moment. Sorry if this offends anybody's holier-than-thou sensibilities.
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Actually, advocating a sub-optimal approach at complete odds with generally accepted ' best ' practices to health / fitness / weight loss is what offends most people here

Andy UK said:
I have had to deliberatley avoid regular cardio excercise because I know it will end up making me put on weight when I stop. I know I can't stick to an excercise programme forever, so I'm better off not starting one.
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Stunning logic and a truly amazing grasp of the obvious.

Did it ever dawn on your that if you STOPPED this current regimen ( that you now claim is so wonderful ) you would ALSO put on weight ?
 
Did it ever dawn on your that if you STOPPED this current regimen ( that you now claim is so wonderful ) you would ALSO put on weight ?
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Yes. As I said in my first post, I have no problems keeping up my new eating regime indefinitely, it's not a hardship diet.
 
Avoiding genralizations.....

This tends to be a big problem with any boards on any subject. Everyone has different opinions and ideas about what works and what doesn't. Everyone also has different experiences, good and bad. But to make "blanket statements" like: "Avoid all cardio." is similar in my mind to saying "women are too weak for weight lifting" and "aerobics are for gay men and women". Not only will these types of overgeneralized statements cause offense, but they will very often lead to long drawn out posting wars over who is right and who is wrong. More often then not feelings get stepped on and it really isn't necessary at all.

But, all those little things aside, lets take a real look at the potential damage it could do. A lot of newbies to this weight loss game come here looking for advice. How sad that some of them might read a post like yours a decide, "Ah hah! I knew it! I don't need to exercise!!" And just maybe that person, like myself, could really benefit in more ways than just weight loss from an exercise program, even a simple one. Stress relief and disease prevention are scientifically proven side benefits of regular exercise, not just weight loss. Even thin / fit people really should be encourage to exercise more, once again a fact proven time and time again.

I myself have found the most amazing weight loss and overall well-being benefits in my life after I started running, after 30 years of telling people running was worthless. I now look forward to making this a regular activity for the rest of my life. I would never jump on the bandwagon mind you and tell everyone "Only running will make you skinny! Stay away from diet and other exercise" That would be a blanket statement that I KNOW would get some nasty reactions.

Instead I say in many a post that "the most important weight loss tool for any person is one they can stick with long term, or in fact for the rest of their lives."

That IS a blanket that is not only supportive and non-condemning of any particular idea, but it is a blanket statement I am very sure no one in the group would challenge me on. I would bet money on it.

I am sure you meant the exact same thing, but you just said it in a way that was negative instead of supportive. We are all here to support and help each other over the biggest hurdles most of us will ever face. I can't speak for everyone here, but a little positivity goes much further than negative statements, and by golly, you will get called on them.

sirant
 
In regards to the title of this post, I've been at a very healthy weight for about 2 years after being really overweight, and all I did was cardio (and of course diet changes!).
The reason people are overweight is because of a lifestyle. If you want to be thin, you will have to live a different lifestyle. By the sounds of your post it sounds like you're not willing to change your lifestlye, so you can't really be that desperate to lose weight. It's not about running for 5months then just going back to normal habits afterwards - you'll just get back to the same weight..
Sane people don't enjoy running? The feeling of being fit and healthy and going for a long run without collapsing is one of the best feelings.. ask anyone with a decent level of fitness. It's like a natural high.
You have to make serious changes to your life if you're gonna loose weight. The way I see it is you can be on a diet for the rest of your life (so much fun), or you can just eat normally and take regular exercise (which in turn makes you feel a whole lot better..), I know what I prefere.
 
I think it was a bad choice of words of words by Andy, but he makes a sort of valid point that running isn't to everyone's taste. I can't abide it myself.

In that situation I'd recommend that people hunt around for a form of cardio exercise that they enjoy doing. For me what works is getting to the gym and getting on the elliptical trainer - personal DAB radio tuned in to Planet Rock - working hard, the endorphins are kicking in - they play some track that I really used to like years ago, say Twenty First Century Schizoid Man - what a buzz! What's not to like about that?
 
I've only just started running, and I'm loving it at the moment. I love cycling too, but I'm not so keen when the weather's wet. Up until now, I've only been running on the treadmill at the gym (I've been told to only run on "cushioned" surfaces to begin with until my legs get used to it), and I think that's part of the fun for me. I really enjoy the social aspect of the gym. Although I am looking forward to when I'm confident enough to start running outside, preferably in the early mornings when the sun's just coming up and I'm the only one out to see the beginning of the day.

I think there were a few good points in the opening post (ie, to lose weight you need to make changes you can stick with, and diet is more important for weight loss than exercise), but Andy spoilt it by recommending that people avoid cardio altogether.

Most people on this forum know how important cardio is for long term good health. That isn't about weight loss. That's about being healthy enough to enjoy your new slim body.

And, Andy, you said you put on weight because you stopped exercising. You didn't. You put on weight because you stopped exercising and didn't adjust the amount you were eating to compensate. I've been there, done that, more than once, which is why I'm making sure I find forms of exercise that I enjoy enough to stick with them in the long term.
 
sirant said:
"aerobics are for gay men and women
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I agree :p (just kidding of course)

If you look at the biololgy stand point, your information doesn't make sense either. Lets take a look 100 years ago, no, 50. Do you think everyone had cars? Do you think everyone had a desk job? No. People were extremly more active back then now. Now, with EVERYONE owning cars, and an increase in "desk jobs", while the diet remains the same (actually, increasing when you think about it), its no wonder why obesity rates has shot through the roof.

Take a look at biology. Was human beings meant to sit in a share all day and just watch what they eat? Does that sound healthy?
 
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