@CaitKlug wrote:
Good news-I lost weight! Like a gooooood amount! Enough so that I’m officially in the healthy BMI range!!! I have updated my weight periodically (each time I reached a new number on the scale) on my Fitbit. Each time I was excited thinking my cardio fitness level would change.
Bad news-my Cardio fitness level remains constant. It tells me if I lose an additional 13 lbs (same amount for the last ~10. Lbs lost!) that my cardio fitness level will go up.
What gives?!? If ~20 lbs weight loss doesn’t change my cardio fitness level I don’t think anything will!
note: I don’t run. All my workouts are aerobic / HIIT.
Has anyone actually had their cardio fitness improve? What did you do? Does it only work if you run?! Help.
Losing weight has no bearing on your cardio fitness as you can lose weight with only moderate levels of exercise. Losing body fat%, however, has some bearing on your cardio fitness because a higher fitness level allows you to burn more fat.
Fitness level relates closely with Mitochondrial Biogenesis, as this is the process for which the amount of Mitochondria in your muscles multiplies. It will only multiply reliably when you subject your muscles to complete muscle failure. The more Mitochondria in your muscles, the more fit you are as you are able to perform exercises stronger, faster and with more endurance as your muscle glycogen storage improves. The exercise that would motivate the growth of Mitochondria in your muscles is HIIT. High Intensity Interval Training. As the name implies, it was an exercise routine first studied by a Japanese research by the name of Izumi Tabata and many variations of HIIT was born out of the Tabata training methodology. So basically, you would exercise in short intervals till total breakdown. If you do it correctly and with some professional guidance as doing them incorrectly will lead to injuries as you are NOT only breaking down your outer muscles, but you are strengthening your inner organs like your heart and circulatory system. Mitochondria do exist in the heart muscles, so having more Mitochondria allows you to burn visceral fat as those fat that are coated around your organs are harder to get rid of fat wise.
So I think you are now seeing that your fitness level relates closely to your body fat%. In fact, body fat% of athletes are usually at the 10-15% and people being in fitness at around 15-19% body fat. Body builders are at the 5-7% body fat% and usually you can't sustain that for very long. These body fat% are for men. Add about 8% more for women as women need more body fat for child bearing and hormonal management. A healthy BMI range simply means that your body fat% is at a normal healthy level that reduces your risk of having diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular diseases and lately dementia.
Having said that, if you want to increase your cardiovascular fitness, which I think you are eluding towards. Then yes, you need to do cardiovascular exercises, as any exercises train you to have both strength and endurance. HIIT produces the strength component, whereas long steady cardio provides you with the cardiovascular endurance to last a certain event. You don't need to run, though running provides the most cardiovascular training benefits. Swimming can be a replacement to running as it provides almost all the benefits of cardiovascular strength and endurance, but it is impact free. As you swim faster, you will face more water resistance so your heart rate will increase and that training strengthen your heart and will help lower your RHR (Resting HR). My HR can go as low as 38bpm at rest. That would be a measure of your fitness level and it is your RHR. The lower the RHR and the lower body fat%, the more fit you are as it takes less effort for your heart to pump and maintain your circulatory functions and to move with a lighter body.
Hope this helps.
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