Fat loss - Does it matter what you do to get there?

[Boulderer]

For the sake of simplicity, let's say you figure out 2000 calories is your maitenance amount. You decide you want to lose some fat but you want to go about it slowly, so you settle on a 1lb a week fat loss goal.

Do you:

A) Reduce your calories by 500 a day. No cardio, just caloric restriction

B) Reduce calories by 250 a day and add in 250 calories worth of cardio

C) No caloric restriction. You bust your ass and burn 500 calories a day worth of cardio.

I constantly hear two different things. One is "It's all diet" and the other is "don't be lazy, do your cardio fatty". So what is it? If the end result is to burn more calories than you put into yourself, does it really matter how you accomplish it?

I loathe cardio. I find it so incredibly boring. I've gone from 23% BF to 13% BF in 3 months without doing any cardio at all, just weights. However, I've hit a wall now and fat loss has seemed to stall. Any thoughts on what I should do? Should I take a month off dieting and eat maintenance levels for a while? My ultimate goal is to get to 10% BF before embarking on a lean bulk.

 

[toughchick401]

me personally it's a mind thing, I always have to change it up, diet and cardio, right now although cold as well here in RI i have been swimming 100 laps a day for a week, till this point it's been running or walking everyday for an hour, plus weights, your body needs a break, and a new routine, add the cardio, leave your cals alone for now, bet you see a diffrence.

TC

 

[ThomasRivera]

Yes it does matter how you get there. Simply put, intensive exercise burns more calories than the calories you think it would. If you calculate the energy it requires to burn off 500 calories in excercise then perform that excercise you will lose more than 500 calories because of the metabolic changes your body undertakes and has to reverse, EPOC.

Cutting out food is simply just creating an energy deficit. If you don't like cardio then do HIIT. You don't need to do low intensity stuff.

 

[Rosie Chee]

For the sake of simplicity, let's say you figure out 2000 calories is your maitenance amount. You decide you want to lose some fat but you want to go about it slowly, so you settle on a 1lb a week fat loss goal.

Do you:

A) Reduce your calories by 500 a day. No cardio, just caloric restriction

B) Reduce calories by 250 a day and add in 250 calories worth of cardio

C) No caloric restriction. You bust your ass and burn 500 calories a day worth of cardio.

I constantly hear two different things. One is "It's all diet" and the other is "don't be lazy, do your cardio fatty". So what is it? If the end result is to burn more calories than you put into yourself, does it really matter how you accomplish it?

I loathe cardio. I find it so incredibly boring. I've gone from 23% BF to 13% BF in 3 months without doing any cardio at all, just weights. However, I've hit a wall now and fat loss has seemed to stall. Any thoughts on what I should do? Should I take a month off dieting and eat maintenance levels for a while? My ultimate goal is to get to 10% BF before embarking on a lean bulk.

This is an interesting question. And yes, it DOES matter how you accomplish it.

Diet is generally the key to fat loss. If you don't have that right, then fat loss will be slow, if at all. However I would NEVER recommend simply cutting calories and doing no exercise to lose fat.

However, in knowing myself I know that TRAINING can also have a huge impact on fat loss. Personally I use Option C: Keep my diet the same and just add in some more cardio (see the later pages of my log - http://anabolicminds.com/forum/supplement-reviews-logs/112832-female-terminator-chronicles.html - for details). It's about knowing YOUR own body and what works best for you.

As for your fat loss plateau I suggest that you STOP dieting (You're going to do your body more harm than good by dieting), start increasing your calorie intake; even better yet utilize calorie cycling (i.e. 2-3 days either at or just below maintenance, then 1-2 days above maintenance). Start adding in some HIIT cardio (you can do this any way you like; look at my log for some ideas) three times a week (at least a day's rest between sessions); this is the most EFFECTIVE cardio for fat loss, being short, hard, and intense (i.e. you can't get bored doing 12-20 minutes of high intensity intervals if you're giving it your all) and eliciting the same physiological response as resistance training without fatiguing the CNS.


~Rosie
Team APPNUT

 

[JDK5386]

me personally it's a mind thing, I always have to change it up, diet and cardio, right now although cold as well here in RI i have been swimming 100 laps a day for a week, till this point it's been running or walking everyday for an hour, plus weights, your body needs a break, and a new routine, add the cardio, leave your cals alone for now, bet you see a diffrence.

TC

Absolutely. If I work out while I'm losing, I don't tend to bleed that much mass. In the past when I've lost weight and hadn't worked out, I was losing a substantial amount of muscle.