Home / Articles / Nutrition & Fitness / Exercise Programs

By: Marc David

In the next 2 minutes you are going to learn...


Why women who ONLY do cardio will never achieve the results their weight training and cardio using counter-parts will. This is a BOLD statement that's sure to aggravate a few people but I'm not going to make that without giving you the full story.


Unfortunately this myth won't die! And even with previous articles on this subject the question still comes up in various forms like this one:


"I am helping a friend incorporate weight training into her fitness routine because all she has done is cardio. She does not seem to understand that weight training builds muscle. Although the scale is not showing she is losing weight, her clothes are looser. Do you have any advise? Do you agree that weight training along with cardio is an effective way of weight loss?"


Maybe I should have entitled this article something like "Your Scale is a Big Fat Liar!" There are several points in your question Taking them one by one in a point by point fashion might be best. Let's take that approach.


1 - Women who only do cardio...


Are missing out on building muscle. Now I'm not talking about big man like muscles but just simply maintaining and building muscle. While it's true that cardio does involve muscles, it's not designed to "build" per se. Most women look at images of 'fit' females who are not only in shape but have a nice feminine muscle quality about them. They want to achieve this by doing cardio but completely forgetting the model in question probably does a fair amount of weight training as well. You know what I mean don't you?



2- Women who have more muscle burn more fat...


That's right. You read that correctly. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate and the higher your metabolic rate the more fat you can burn. As I sit here (arrogantly as I'm sure some may think while reading this) I'm burning more fat then the person in the hallway across from me. Neither of us are moving mind you. But I have much more muscle mass. Muscle burns more calories per hour then fat.


All this means to you is...


A female who does cardio and weight trains to build up some muscle (while keeping her goals in mind) will burn more fat then a female who only does cardio and does not use muscle to their advantage. I'm not advocating females build up slabs of Olympian style muscle! I'm just confirming the fact that a woman who has more muscle then a woman that does not will burn more calories per hour and will burn more fat.


3- Your scale is a liar...


This one's really cool! All weight is not created equal. Is the weight water, fat or muscle? People who get caught up in weight are bound to lose the battle of getting fit. If you weight 150 lbs and you lose 20 lbs in a year everybody would give you congratulations. Maybe some would throw a party.

Page: 1 2 Next »»