“Why Won't More Cardio Make Me Skinny?”

I get it. It feels like it should be the answer. If you want big, bulky muscles, you lift heavy weights. If you want to be lean you lift high reps and stretch a lot. And if you want to lose fat, you do a lot of cardio. But that plan won't work. 

Actually all of that up there won't work. It's too much to go into EVERYTHING, so let's just focus on the cardio. 

You want to do a lot of cardio to lose weight? Bad plan. There's a phrase you hear a lot, "You can't outrun your fork" and let me tell you I've been coaching people for over a decade now and it's TRUE. I've seen a lot of people try to cardio their way to the body they want and it's not going to happen. If you show up to the finish line of a half marathon you'll see a LOT of people that just finished spending a few months doing hours of cardio every week and you're unlikely to see a ton of people that are rocking the lean muscular body you're looking for. You'll be shocked at how many are carrying the exact fat you're trying to lose.

It's not going to work for a variety of reasons. First, you're not burning as many calories on that treadmill as you think you are. The machine is probably overestimating it and when we compare those calories to the calories in food, it's a poor strategy. 

More importantly though, it's a bad plan because your high cardio, fat loss plan is likely going to end up making you lose as much muscle as you do fat. You won't actually look any better when you lose 5 pounds of fat and 5 pounds of muscle. You'll probably feel worse. AND now your metabolism is slower because you lost muscle. 

It's a losing game. 

Now, you may read this and think that I don't want you to do cardio. Far from it. I want you to do a lot of cardio. I want your heart and lungs to be in amazing shape. My gym doesn't do contracts, it's in my best interest that you live for as LONG AS POSSIBLE. I just don't want you to use cardio as your tool for fat loss. 

Sincerely,

Corey Davis