The Cardio Myth

I have met with hundreds of clients over the past few years, and there is one common theme I see. When someone is trying to lose weight we see the same thing over and over. Most people will start with some type of diet program, which is definitely a great start. The diet you go on is not the focus of this posting however. The mistake people make when trying to lose weight is, they immediately start performing cardio exercises.

Now initially this might be enough to lose SOME weight. They will probably will stick with their Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Atkins, or whatever diet program they have started, for a few weeks or months. The drop in calories along with some additional exercise is probably enough to get the first 5-10lbs off.

But then what happens? They probably started to slack on their diet, but figured they will just increase their cardio to make up for it. I guarantee this is a plan that will not work for very long. The biggest weight loss myth is that cardio is the BEST to lose weight. The reasoning behind this is completely faulty and now there is more and more research that is proving it is just not a good way to lose weight.

Here are a few studies demonstrating this:

Adiposity changes after a 1-year aerobic exercise intervention among postmenopausal women: a randomized controlled trial

International Journal of Obesity (2011) 35, 427–435; doi:10.1038/ijo.2010.147

This study followed a group of 325 women aged 50-74 who performed on average 3.6 days a week of aerobic exercise for 1 year. After 12 months of training 3 days a week for 50 minutes at a time the average weight loss was 2.3kg or 5lbs. 1 year of training, 3 days per week, and the loss was ONLY 5lbs!

Acute EPOC response in women to circuit training and treadmill exercise of matched oxygen consumption.

Eur J Appl Physiol. 2005 Aug;94(5-6):500-4. Epub 2005 Jun 8.

This study looked at which form of exercise would increase EPOC or Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption more. This is the afterburn affect of exercise. So they wanted to see if after a session running on the treadmill and after a session of circuit training, who would see the greatest increase in metabolic rate and burn more calories. They matched the intensity of the work so the effect of each exercise was the same. The group that performed the circuit training saw a high increase in EPOC for 1 hour after the workout.

Effects of Resistance vs. Aerobic Training Combined With an 800 Calorie Liquid Diet on Lean Body Mass and Resting Metabolic Rate

J Am Coll Nutr April 1999 vol. 18 no. 2 115-121

This study compared resistance training with cardio to see what would have the better effect when combined with a low calorie diet. Obviously with an 800 calorie diet, both groups lost weight. But only the resistance training group lost weight without losing lean body mass and they were able to prevent their resting metabolic rate from dropping. So while both will lead to weight loss, down the road the cardio group will continue to slow down their metabolism and their weight loss.

I could keep listing more and more studies but I think I have proven my point. If you are trying to lose weight remember these three things:

1. Cardio exercise can lower your resting metabolic rate, making it harder to lose weight in the future.
2. Strength training prevents your metabolic rate from lowering with a decrease in calories, by maintaining lean body mass.
3. Strength training burns more calories after you have finished your workout.

I am not saying that you don't ever need to perform traditional cardio exercise. Cardio does burn calories and when you are trying to lose weight this is very important. Instead I think we need to take the approach of making strength training the foundation of our program and use cardio (mainly HIIT) as a secondary tool.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training

3 Simple Nutrition Rules To Follow

I few months ago one of my clients suggested I read the book, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. It was my goal this year to read 1 new book each month to make sure I was keeping up with learning as much information as possible. So I was eager to get started on it.

It is a great nutrition book and I highly recommend checking it out if you are interested in learning more. The main premise of the book is examining the Western Diet and why Americans are experiencing so many health problems. While I can't say that all of our health problems stem from the food we eat, it is hard denying that it plays a HUGE roll in it. There is a lot of great insight into why we eat the way we do, and how misinformed we are about proper nutrition. For example, remember how we were told to avoid fat in our diet. How did that work out? We got fatter.

Nutrition is not an easy topic to discuss, but I do like the 3 rules that are found in this book. Below are the rules and a quick explanation to help you build a better foundation for your diet program.

1. Eat Food.

Sounds simple to start right? Just eat food. Think about what you eat throughout the day though. Is it really food? There are things that we consume that really shouldn't be called food. They are inventions or creations from the food industry. For example Doritos. This is not food. It is processed ingredients that give you something that is edible. So here are some things to look out for:

• Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
• Avoid products that list ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than 5 in number, or have high fructose corn syrup (or corn sugar now).
• Avoid food products that make health claims.
  

2. Not Too Much.

This one really need no explanation. If you are trying to lose or maintain weight you simply can't eat too much. If you follow rules 1 and 3 you do not have to worry about this too much, but it is possible to gain weight eating real food.

3. Mostly Plants.

While I am by no means a vegetarian, it is important to increase the amount of plants we eat. There is nothing else that can replace the vitamins and nutrients you receive from eating plants. More and more research is showing the dangers of consuming too much animal protein. Remember that we are what what you eat eats. Sounds confusing but eating beef from an animal pumped with hormones and fed corn will lead to problems for the animal as well as you. Stick with fruits and vegetables that are in season and vary your food selection.

This may be an over simplification of a diet program but if you follow this philosophy you will have less weight struggles and lead a much healthier life.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Premier Training