If Fat Loss is Due to Cardio, With No Change in Diet. What Happens Afterward?

Predaking

New member
What would happen to the amount of fat on your body if you ate whatever number of calories that maintains your starting weight (excluding weight training), and did cardio to lose fat, over 6 months... Then stopped the cardio?
 
If your calorie intake would stay the same after you cut the cardio then you would gain it back. Your calorie deficit would be due to high activity levels and if your diet would stay the same after you become less active you would slowly gain it back.

A lot of older people claim to have gained weight due to their metabolism slowing down, but its usually not so much the metabolism but them having less active lifestyles (no longer playing sports or having a physical job) combined with the same eating habits held when they were active.
 
If my caloric deficit is always only 500 per day from cardio, my body would adjust to functioning with this amount. So when I stop the cardio, the small deficit disappears and I should be able to maintain my fat level. Are you saying my metabolism would slow back down again?

I think the older people probably gained weight because their active lifestyles were keeping their fat levels stable, and any reduction in activity created a caloric surplus.
 
Predaking said:
If my caloric deficit is always only 500 per day from cardio, my body would adjust to functioning with this amount. So when I stop the cardio, the small deficit disappears and I should be able to maintain my fat level. Are you saying my metabolism would slow back down again?

I think the older people probably gained weight because their active lifestyles were keeping their fat levels stable, and any reduction in activity created a caloric surplus.
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Also need to take into account what kind of food you're eating, and how you are spacing it out through the day. You'd be surprised how the same caloric intake will treat your body if its spaced out into 6 timed meals rather than 2 or 3 huge meals.

If you stopped doing cardio, this would slow your metabolism quite a bit... meal spacing helps keep it elevated somewhat. Why you stopping cardio? Should just keep that as a constant for cardiovascular health.
 
If your only method of creating a caloric deficit were cardio, would you eventually stop losing weight, and why?
 
Predaking said:
If your only method of creating a caloric deficit were cardio, would you eventually stop losing weight, and why?
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Yes and No, your body needs calories to function, if your not taking in enough calories, by burning them off, you body will continue to lose weight untill your down to a weight that your nutrient intake will support.

As far as losing weight with cardio, then after? you would need to recalculate your maintenence calories to that new weight to not gain the pounds back.
 
futurepilot said:
Yes and No, your body needs calories to function, if your not taking in enough calories, by burning them off, you body will continue to lose weight untill your down to a weight that your nutrient intake will support.
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Do you mean I would keep losing weight until my caloric intake is just too large for my smaller size... My metabolism can only go so fast before I need to exercise harder?
 
Maybe i can simplify this...here goes.

Yes, you'll get to a point were your weight stabilizes. At that point your calories and/or cardio must be adjusted.

At the point that you stop losing weight, you need to either futher reduce caloric intake, or do more cardio, or both.

Theres other variables like what BF% your at, if your metab has stalled etc. but this is the basic rule of thumb for weight loss.

EX. If your losing weight at 1hr of cardio a day, taking in 2500calories. At some point you'll stop dropping pounds. At that time you could either do 1 1/2-2hrs of cardio, or drop to 2000 calories. These are just ficticious #'s, but its the general idea.
 
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