Cardio question?

[Becoming]

There is someone I am helping out with restructuring their diet, lifting, cardio etc...

(BTW some GREAT advice up in this forum, as pertaining to female specific training, especially the top threads links-and Daisy's thread #1 is awesome)

Anyways, she was in better shape 6-12 months ago, but seems to have put on some extra fat recently that she has asked me to help her get rid of before it increases more... I know her diet needs to be re-tweaked a bit ane will be working on that as well as restructuring her lifting/cardio schedule (thanks again for the great threads)....

In looking at these things, I did notice that she has changed her cardio significantly now vs before...

She used to run more (40-50%), maybe some machines like a stepper etc (10-20%), and do some kickboxing aerobics (40-50%) etc...

Where as now it seems like she spends more time spinning (like 80%)....

Anyone with thoughts on spinning as cardio?

Could it be that the other cardio activities might have been more effective for her specifically? Or perhaps that the variety of cardio activities might have been better?

Or is it probably all just diet (and time) and the switch to spinning is just a coincidence? It seems that her overall time doing cardio seems about the same.

BTW-It is not that she cannot do the running etc, the spinning has just been more convenient for the last several months...

Thanks!

 

[jenscats5]

I don't see where Spinning would be more or less effective than the other activities she was doing....Spinning, IMO, is an excellent CV workout and you can do it at your own pace, etc.....

Quesitons:

1) has she had her body fat tested lately so she can compare it now as opposed to 6-12 months ago?

2) Can she input her regular diet into a site like www.fitday.com to see what exactly she is eating?? Maybe her diet is off & she's eating more than she thinks, etc....

3) How many days a week was she doing cardio before compared to now??

 

[Becoming]

1) has she had her body fat tested lately so she can compare it now as opposed to 6-12 months ago?

2) Can she input her regular diet into a site like www.fitday.com to see what exactly she is eating?? Maybe her diet is off & she's eating more than she thinks, etc....

1- you can tell her body fat has gone up... visually you can tell (that is the nice way to say it). there is a significant difference. muscle difference is negligible.
2-yeah, i am inclined to think the skewed diet was more off over this period of time than she is saying
3-cardio time is pretty close to the same. sometimes actually more. she does quite a bit actually.

 

[*Bunny*]

I don't see where Spinning would be more or less effective than the other activities she was doing....Spinning, IMO, is an excellent CV workout and you can do it at your own pace, etc.....

Quesitons:

1) has she had her body fat tested lately so she can compare it now as opposed to 6-12 months ago?

2) Can she input her regular diet into a site like www.fitday.com to see what exactly she is eating?? Maybe her diet is off & she's eating more than she thinks, etc....

3) How many days a week was she doing cardio before compared to now??

^^^ I agree with you Jens

IMO, I think if she tightens her diet she will see fantastic results... start there

 

[jenscats5]

1- you can tell her body fat has gone up... visually you can tell (that is the nice way to say it). there is a significant difference. muscle difference is negligible.
2-yeah, i am inclined to think the skewed diet was more off over this period of time than she is saying
3-cardio time is pretty close to the same. sometimes actually more. she does quite a bit actually.

Has she changed her lifting schedule at all?? Maybe she has decreased her LBM??

If all else is pretty much the same, then there may be a diet issue.....have her start keeping track of her food intake as she may be WAY overestimating what she's eating.

 

[Becoming]

Has she changed her lifting schedule at all?? Maybe she has decreased her LBM??

If all else is pretty much the same, then there may be a diet issue.....have her start keeping track of her food intake as she may be WAY overestimating what she's eating.

IMO, I think if she tightens her diet she will see fantastic results... start there.

Her lifting has dropped a tiny bit. I will make sure she picks it back up. I thought it seemed to be mostly diet, I just wanted to get some opinions on spinning vs other cardio, mainly since it was such a drastic shift in what she was doing from what she was doing before.

Thanks for the input ladies, I appreciate it.

 

[*Bunny*]

Her lifting has dropped a tiny bit. I will make sure she picks it back up. I thought it seemed to be mostly diet, I just wanted to get some opinions on spinning vs other cardio, mainly since it was such a drastic shift in what she was doing from what she was doing before.

Thanks for the input ladies, I appreciate it.

I'm sure others will chime in... but honestly, other than a VERY sore Tush (the 1st couple of times), I LOVED spinning, one heck of a fat burning cardio workout IMO...

I have an event of my own I am prepping for this month, but in the last 3 weeks (since Sassy's show) I have went back to my base diet and I am feeling and looking SO MUCH BETTER... Diet = key

Best of luck

 

[jenscats5]

Her lifting has dropped a tiny bit. I will make sure she picks it back up. I thought it seemed to be mostly diet, I just wanted to get some opinions on spinning vs other cardio, mainly since it was such a drastic shift in what she was doing from what she was doing before.

Thanks for the input ladies, I appreciate it.

You're welcome!!

I think a variety in Cardio is important -- but I personally, thought Spinning was the best!! I miss it.....

 

[necia]

I think variety is key in Cardio. If I do a particular Cardio exercise too often (for me that's 3 weeks into a month), I won't see any significant gains (or in my case losses), mind you my diet remains unchanged. As soon as I take a break and do NO CARDIO or DIFFERENT cardio, the scale will start to move down again. I try now to change things whether I want to or not. It challenges my body.

Necia