“Can you lose weight without doing cardio”? Sis, that’s what I did during this cut. If you don’t follow me on Instagram (1- you should), but 2- I have been in a 4 week cut for an event this weekend. I haven’t been doing any cardio and I am 8lbs down from what I weighed before I got pregnant. Is weight the end all be all for health? No, it’s actually the lowest on the totem pole for success measurements for me. What else is going down? My body fat %, my inches around my waist, my face is getting leaner, I am visibly leaner, my clothes are fitting differently, etc. I would also like to mention that I am doing this all WITHOUT compromising my strength in the gym or my happiness levels (as many dieters become extremely unhappy)!
What Am I Doing? Plus an Example
I hit my 10,000 steps a day and lift 5 days a week. That’s it. My diet also reflects my activity. Let’s take an example (because I don’t share my calories as they mean nothing to anyone but me):
Let’s say we want to aim for a 300 daily calorie deficit (this number isn’t magical but it’s easy for math). This means your calorie intake must be 500 less than your TDEE but stay above your BMR
TDEE (without cardio but lifting 5 days a week and hitting 10,000 steps a day): 2000 calories
BMR: 1500 calories
This means you would need to eat 1700 calories to hit your goal of a 300 daily deficit
Let’s take that same person and add in 30 min of cardio on top of the 10,000 steps and lifting 5 days a week
TDEE increases from 2000 to 2200. This means you get to eat 1900 calories instead of 1700 for the same 300 daily deficit
Does this make sense? Cardio is simply a TOOL to burn more calories, which results in you getting to eat more during the day to hit the same deficit. I recommend starting a cut WITHOUT cardio because then you have room to increase the deficit
Other Blogs
Please refer to my other blogs regarding cardio:
How Much Cardio Should I Be Doing
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