Is it necessary to do cardio??

I am not trying to lose weight as I'm at only about 18 bmi. I have been doing a lot of weight training but no cardio bc i eat under 1,000 calories a day and I know I'lll never build muscle with a calorie deficit that high. Trust me..i dont eat that little bc i want to...its just all i can physically eat in a day. I have been drinking protein shakes though to help out a little bit. ANyways...i just want to know if its bad for me to only do weight training and no cardio? or if im doing the right thing since I only want to build muscle and tone. Thanks for any help or suggestions :)

hate to break it to you but you wont see any results eating 1000 cal a day. I eat about 2000 cal a day and I have a bmi of 18 too, so understand, but no obviously you dont need cardio considering all that does is burn calories. of course you should do some wlaking/etc.. but dont worry about it as im sure you get enough cardio walking around your house.

but seriously, you need to up your cal. if you cant eat a lot, eat higher cal food. 1000 cal diet not only lacks nutrients but while your building muscle you dont have enough to feed and repair your muscles.

Any weight training or cardio you do while only eating 1000 calories a day is probably doing you more harm than good.  You are not building muscle by weight training in a sever calories deficit you are distroying muscle mass, not good!

Original Post by kankan213:

...but no obviously you dont need cardio considering all that does is burn calories. 

Actually cardio also strengthens your heart, which is also a muscle.  Thats why people who do a lot of cardio have their resting heart rate drop.  Their heart is stronger, and can therefore pump more blood per beat, therefore lower heart rate.  Cardio is good no matter what one's goals are.

To the OP.  Get some nuts.  Keep a stash in your pocket and munch on them throughout the day.  That is an easy 300-400 calories a day. 

All of the above posters are right.

Instead of berating you about not eating enough (though the above posters are right and you do need to eat more), I will say that... is it necessary to do cardio? No. Of course not. Lots of people get by without doing cardio regularly.

However, the effects of doing cardio workouts are many, and there are few negatives. You get more fit, can do more with your life. There are psychological benefits of cardio workouts too, often acting as stress relief, and releasing natural endorphins, making you feel really GOOD.

For a complete workout, one that will maximize your health, you should include some cardio workouts, some weight lifting and some flexibility training.

Original Post by jeremy6201:

Original Post by kankan213:

...but no obviously you dont need cardio considering all that does is burn calories. 

Actually cardio also strengthens your heart, which is also a muscle.  Thats why people who do a lot of cardio have their resting heart rate drop.  Their heart is stronger, and can therefore pump more blood per beat, therefore lower heart rate.  Cardio is good no matter what one's goals are.

To the OP.  Get some nuts.  Keep a stash in your pocket and munch on them throughout the day.  That is an easy 300-400 calories a day. 

 

I'd like to point out that the OP eats 1000 cal a day. Do you think that it is strengthening her heart to do cardio AND weights?

I am actually a runner, and I do a ton of cardio. But I also eat double the OP and I doubt that she will benefit from cardio with her current diet. Its not healthy and I dont recommend it.

ugh-- girl, how tall are you? with an 18 bmi, at least you're not trying to lose weight-

but as someone who is 5'7" and is at 18% body fat- & ate 700-800 kcal a day- i got FAT instead of adding mass-- while doing heavy cardio & lifting. now i eat 15-2000 kcal a day! I am slowly repairing what I did!

what's the goal? do you want mass? if so, let's talk about your height/weight/bodyfat - bmi can be so misleading for someone who is very small or carries a lot of mass--

there are ways, such as your protein drink- to build up calories in a safe & healthy way so you DO NOT GAIN fat, but gain some muscle!

what are you working on with the weights? what are you trying to build? how tall are you?

How is someone only able to eat 1000 calories a day?

spiro- 1000kcal sounds low, but for some of us, eating is a chore in a mental and physical way--

don't get me wrong, i do love food, but some of us don't have a big appetite or are mentally stuck on the thought that eating more = fat gains...

i have to literally FORCE myself to eat 6x a day-- and i do it bc I HAVE to, not bc I WANT to..

if i had my way, i'd eat lke 700-800 kcal a day and eat it all in the evening-- but obviously that's not healthy in any way (unless I want to get a lot of fat on me like a sumo wrestler) -

so, to eat for some is hard-- especially if they have lived a life of bad relationships with food &/or have eaten junk only &/or are unhappy with more than just their body...

been there, done that-- & believe me- it's hard to eat 1300 kcal a day in real food for me-- getting to 1800 or 2000 makes me cry sometimes!

i just want to build mass & lose fat-- and tweaking the diet to find what works is very, very hard for some individuals to get the body to respond!

Here's what I'm frustrated about: I eat about 1400 calories a day, I do 25 minutes of weight training and 35 to 60 minutes of cardio four times a week. My arms look great, my legs lost most of the jiggle BUT

my stomach is still loose and not attractive at all. I weigh 129 at 5'5 so that's healthy and I eat the right amounts of protein, carbs, and healthy fats but my stomach just looks like it did when I was 20 pounds heavier......help!! lol

People tend to forget that if your calorie deficit is too large and you lose muscle --your heart is a major muscle that you don't want the body to start feeding off of too- if you aren't eating enough not only will you lose muscle from the exterior you are also going to lose muscle from your organs and your going to end up with lots of complications if not sooner but later in life.  I say at least add 2 tablespoons of peanut butter to your diet -- thats 190 cals and not that big of a "meal"  per se.  Put it on a couple pieces of celery or a banana for a great pre or post workout boost.  heck add it to your protein drink.

xosugarbabie05, try decreasing cardio times per exercise and adding it to your weight lifting. I never had abs until I upped my cal to 1700-2000 and added more weights. Then they just sort of appeared! Good luck!

kankan213, Do you incorporate ab workouts into your weight training? So far all I do for abs is some work on the big ball, and then some weighted twists. What is your weight routine like? I feel that mine might not be varied enough to last longer than 25 minutes.

dbacker- I agree on the excessive kcal deficit if especially if you do it for an extensive prolonged period-- it's damaging to the human body all around -from your outside (hair/skin) to your inside (heart/all organs)--

also w/kcal's too low, if you're TRYING to gain mass- i mean you can maintain mass & make 'some' gains while on a deficit- but you really need to up your protein for that to an incredible amount-- and she's not doing cardio- and she doesn't indicate how long/what weights she's pushing, etc... she doesn't sound like she WANTS MASS GAINS-- uck- i think it was a 'safety' to her body thing- & you're 100% right on not enough kcals just isn't good at all..

most important thing is for her to eat a normal, varied, healthy diet- add the PB & protein shakes- and stick with a routine to try & make initial gains-- after that, i think she can tweak the diet & lifting to meet more specific goals --

& sugar babie-- it just takes some tweaking of your diet- listen to kankan about the calories- but make sure they are protein sourced w/acomplex carb pre & post training--

also, ab flab tends to be an indicator of insulin sensitive people- make sure you have good carbs in the am- stick to veggies only as carbs after 3 pm and spread out your meals across 6 a day!

 

well regarding iamme's post, I do eat a LOT of protein (especially peanut butter)...so make sure to get those good cals in.

For my weights routine I usually start by running about a mile, you need to warm up your muscles, I stretch also.

I usually mix it up, legs one day arms the next. I incorporate ab exercises during both routines. I think that the upper body lifting is more important though regarding core muscles like abs. I do a lot of free weights, I like them better than machines, but if you don't think your form is right stick to machines.

Do things like - rows, dead lifts, curls, and just try to keep it fresh. I sometimes use the pulleys in ways that people look at me like "what are you doing?" but if you feel the burn, your doing great!!! I also get a lot of my workouts from Fitness magazine, they feature a lot of great exercises I usually make them more intense though using dumbells.

What I try to do is get familiar with as many different lifting/machines as I can! That way I don't ever get bored. For ab workouts I do the bicycle (not sure what its really called, lay on back and elbow to knee across the body) also I lie down on my back, with a chair over me, hold on the chair legs and lift my legs all the way up and back down slowly with them strait out until it hurts.

When I'm at the gym I think the one thing I notice people doing that makes it so that they dont get the results they want is NOT lifting enough weight. dont underestimate yourself, go for heavier weights as long as you can keep your form! and try to do reps. I usually do 12 at a lower weight, 8 at a medium weight, and 6 at the heaviest I can lift. Usually 2-3 sets of that.

sorry if that was rambling lol.

No you weren't rambling, you gave me a lot of new ideas. I have been stuck in the same weight routine for a while so I'm going to take your advice and incorporate and explore new moves. Thanks.