Why Doing ONLY Cardio Can Actually Make You "Fatter"

When you focus solely on cardio without incorporating muscle-building exercises, you may see a drop in the # on the scale, but also an increase in your body fat percentage.

This happens a lot with group fitness classes where the sole intention is to get your heart rate up, make you sweat and feel like you’re working hard.

Don’t get me wrong, its great to get more movement in and build consistency, BUT it is not helpful for changing your body composition (decreasing body fat + improving muscle mass)

And when most people say they want to lose weight, they really mean they want to lose fat.

But doing these types of activities in isolation just does the opposite.

Don’t believe me?

Let’s break it down with a simple example

Starting point:

▪️Body weight: 100 lbs

▪️Body composition: 50 lbs of fat, 50 lbs of muscle

▪️Body fat percentage: 50% + Lean muscle mass: 50%

You spend 6 weeks sweating your ass off doing ONLY cardio and here are your measurements

▪️Body weight: 95 lbs (yay, the # on the scale went down)

(BUT of those 5 lbs you lost, 4 lbs were muscle, 1 lb was fat)

This brings you to a new body composition of 46 lbs of muscle and 49 lbs of fat

▪️Lean muscle mass: 48% + Body fat percentage: 51.5%

So although the # on the scale went down, your body fat percentage actually increased.

And when you lose muscle your metabolism slows down and it makes it harder for you to maintain weight loss in the long run

So if you want to lose FAT, cardio cannot be your only form of exercise

And the scale cannot be your only measurement of progress.