Cardio does not help in body fat reduction?

I found this very interesting article: http://www.biologiclabs.com/advice/details.asp?article_id=23

If you read it and take everything to heart then you will never do cardio again! I like how he debunks the claim that cardio reduces fat %. I agree with almost everything he has to say. I like his simple equation which relates food, muscle, weight and fat.

• Food determines your weight
• Strength determines your lean mass
• The difference is fat

If you eat more, you will gain weight. Now if you increase strength proportionally then you will keep the same body fat. At the end of the day you have less body fat % yet you weight more and have more strength. Although putting this principle into practice is not easy. Because you cannot exactly measure how much to eat so that you just gain muscle and not fat (with excess calories). Similarly you cannot be eating less than what is required otherwise you will not see the best strength gains and your recovery and metabolism slows down too.

Many people attribute losing weight to looking lean. They are completely 2 different things. Looking lean means having a low body fat %. You could loose weight by getting rid of all the muscle. You will look thinner and smaller, but definitely not stronger or leaner, let alone healthier. You will look soft and rounded and your skin sags with the fat it is holding.

So to close:

body weight = muscle weight + fat weight
fat weight = body weight – muscle weight
fat weight = food intake – strength

To reduce fat either increase strength or reduce food intake. I prefer to increase strength please

Filed under: Uncategorized, body fat, cardio, food, muscle

Phase II of fat reduction

Having lost a lot of enthusiasm because I took 10 weeks to lose 5% instead of the planned 5 weeks, I decided to finish phase II quickly with a lot of cardio. First I started walking about 2 to 4 miles every other day. Since monday, wednesday and friday were my workout days I decided to go walking on tuesday, thursday and saturday. Sunday being the rest day. But walking did nothing to me. I continued for 3 weeks and my fat % was still in 11% range. First week (august 22, 2009) it was 11.9% no difference at all. Next week (august 29, 2009) it was 11.6%, next week (september 5, 2009) it was 11.7%. I thought I might have reached my plateau.

I tried again in one last desperate attempt to reduce fat by taking up running. I never jogged, much less run. I gave it a try on september 1, 2009. I ran as fast as I could. I ran for about 20 to 30 seconds before I was completely out of breath and thought I would die. My shins were killing me. Then it hit me, I was super unhealthy. My body is not made for endurance nor strength. What good am I? I decided to take it slowly so I looked up on the web for some tips on how to improve in running for the weak. I found couch to 5k. I did it for 2 weeks. Every time I did c25k I would feel I want to throw up. And my shins kept hurting me more and more. I finally have to give it up after doing only 5 workouts in 2 weeks. I went down to 10.9% body fat during this time.

While I was doing cardio I was also reducing the number of calories I was taking in. And was taking a toll. I always felt too tired. I was sleepy by 9 in the evening and morning started with a headache and feeling of tiredness. I was struggling with my weights too. Slowly I was going down. I was almost at the point where I started! It means I did not gain any muscle since I started (well I gained and lost it too). What am I to do? It is the curse of skinny guys I guess. After all the experimentation I decided to just give up leaning to 6-7%. It is not worth if I have no muscle left. Also it has been 4 months with my diet restriction. Now I started my gaining phase again. I will see how it goes.

Here is the body fat and weight graph up to date.

Filed under: Uncategorized, body fat, cardio, fat reduction