The Cardio Free Diet

Did anyone see 20/20 on Friday?  There was a man on it that was pushing his new book called "the Cardio free diet"  Basically, he went on to say that every minute you have in the gym you should spend it lifting weights and doing resistence training if you want to lose weight (FYI This had nothing to do with WLS).  He then said "take this challenge and look at the people in the cardio part of the gym and then look at the people in the weight lifting part of the gym.   Most likely the people in the cardio part are overweight and unfit, while the weight lifters are lean, healthier, and have better posture" (i'm paraphrasing what he said).    I know some of the people on this forum subscribe to this way of working out (doing much more weight training then cardio), and just wanted to know your success with it.   Right now, I've gone from doing 70 percent cardio 30 percent weight lifting to 30 percent cardio and 70 percent weight lifting.  I made this change before I saw the show, and I made it because I saw people like CB who do mostly weight lifting looking really fit physcially by building muscles, and 30 percent weight lifting just wasn't cutting it.  Any comments? Scott  PS just so there is no misinterpretation.  I am not advocating a specific work out, and I still do cardio (and advocate it)  because I think it's important for heart health (the unseen muscle) and upper respitory health, hence the term Cardio for cardiovascular. 

thanks for the kind words Scott and I'll tell you, most of the guys on this board who do weight lift will tell you that it's also good for bone mass and most everything else. the experts know that muscle will burn more calories just "sitting there" as opposed to fat. they are pushing people in their 80's to do resistence training as well. it's just that good for you. now you don't have to do what Dave or I or some of the other guys do. it's our hobby and yes, we're a little over the top but no more than the other guys who like running, biking etc. it's a harmless hobby and nothing more.

having said that i try to incorporate my cardio into my lifting. by that i mean i superset and work out fast. this keeps my heart rate up and allows me to used lighter weights in my workouts. i'm not into heavy lifting for a lot of reasons but most guys would consider the type of weight i lift as heavy. i don't push what Dave does but you can't help but get stronger in this sport. the whole point is to keep lifting heavier. this is what promotes bone growth i was talking about.

now i walk everyday a couple of miles and i do my treadmill at 3.6mph at 12 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes sometimes twice a day. anymore and it starts eating my muscles. if you lift seriously you don't want to lose mass and a lot of cardio can do that. so I agree with your assesment. try doing 70-30 the other way around. but make no mistake, probably everyone of you guys are more fit than i am cardio wise. i'll catch up when i start swimming this spring.....lol.

one more point. if all of you who are doing what Scott is doing try what he is going to do, that is switch your routine to favor lifting. try this for just a month to 6 weeks and see what happens. if you don't cheat and eat right and keep up your protein i bet you'll flip out! why? because you'll kick start your weight loss again and tone up. why? because your muscle will start burning calories like crazy. now you'll be able to eat more but try to stay away from that. i think Scott is on to something here. this is a perfect time to do this in time for summer when you want to take your shirt off and go swimming. so give it a whirl and see what happens. i promise you results! carbonblob

Your post reminded me of something the man on 20/20 said.  He said one reason that the reason weight lifting is better then cardio for losing weight was that when you do aerobic type exercises it makes you hungry.   That type of work out increases your appetite, while on the other side if you do weight lifting, because of the type of work out, it doesn't really increase your appetite.   I have noticed in the past that when I do lots of aerobics (esp. swimming) I get hungry and stay hungry for a day or two, compared to days when I'm not working out.  Scott

I read somewhere that it's best to work out and then eat besides the obvious reason of feeling to full to workout was that all the blood is in your muscles energizing you instead of pooling in your organs for digestion. I have to admit, I'm never hungry after lifting but haven't really noticed if I'm hungry after cardio hmmm......carbonblob