Can I Skip Cardio Workouts?

I don’t want to lose weight, should I avoid high calorie burners?

By Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness

Q. I work out three times a week, doing an hour of weight-training and 30 minutes of cardio exercise, usually running on the treadmill. But I don’t need (or want) to lose weight. So should I cut out the cardio to avoid burning too many calories?

A. Burning calories through exercise can lead to weight loss. So if you’re trying to avoid getting too thin, it’s natural to assume that it would be a good idea to cut out extra exercise, especially activities like running that burn a high number of calories.

The problem is, cardio workouts aren’t only about burning calories. Cardio activities like walking, running, cycling and doing aerobic dance are fabulous fatburners, but they do much, much more!

Cardio strengthens your heart and lungs, improving your maximal oxygen capacity (known as your VO2 max). It also fine-tunes many of the hormonal systems in your body, making you more resilient in stressful situations. It improves your insulin sensitivity, and allows you to better utilize your body fat for energy. Cardio exercise reduces blood pressure, provides a boost in “good” HDL cholesterol, and helps you develop muscle stamina and overall endurance.

Also, if you’re doing vigorous exercise such as running, you’ll develop cardiovascular power and explosive ability—essential for performing well in many sports. Plus, people that do regular cardio activity show lower risks of many diseases, including heart disease. Not only that, you can achieve a stress-reducing, calming effect from cardio workouts, and you may even experience an euphoric aerobic high from longer, high-intensity sessions.

Depending on how you weight-train, you may be able to attain some of these benefits. People that do high-intensity circuit training—where they lift heavy weights in an explosive way with short rest periods in between exercises and sets—or who include aerobic intervals like jogging in place for a minute or two in between weight exercises, can improve their cardiovascular system.

But weight training won’t provide everything that cardio can (in the same way that cardio can’t provide the same benefits as weight training).

So, no, you shouldn’t skip your cardio. For all-around health and fitness you should cross-train, or include a variety of different types of exercise in your overall repertoire. (You can read about how in my book, Cross-training for Dummies.

So how can you prevent unwanted weight loss?

If you were running miles and miles every day, it might be beneficial to cut back on how much you run. But you’re not running enough to create a serious calorie drain. Running three times per week for a half an hour suggests that you are probably only using up an extra 200 to 300 calories per session, or roughly 800 to 900 extra calories per week.

If you ate an extra 130 calories a day, you could offset that calorie burn. It’s easy: add an extra tablespoon of walnut oil or olive oil to your beans or veggies for dinner, or eat an extra slice of cheese in your lunchtime sandwich, or drink a sports drink during your run, for example.

It’s not a good idea to cut out all of your high-intensity cardio—it’s good for your heart and lungs. But you can cut back on the amount of time spent in high-intensity fast-running mode to reduce your calorie burn. Simply switch from a long, steady run to an interval walk/jog routine. For example, instead of running at 6 or 7 mph for 30 minutes, alternate five minutes of brisk walking at 3 to 4 mph with one to two minutes of 5 to 7 mph sprints during the 30 minutes.

If you find that you are losing weight, it may be that you are simply not eating enough.

If you are underweight and trying to increase your body mass, you should eat a little more than normal, and make sure to include a pre- and post-workout snack that consists of carbs with a little protein, such as a peanut butter sandwich, nuts, an energy bar, eggs and toast, chocolate milk, and so on