There are a few reasons to do cardio and losing weight is possibly the least of them. I don’t benefit from more than 3 30 minute lifting sessions per week. It elevates my heart rate to aerobic levels but it’s not enough. I walk 4 miles a day, 80 minutes, at 60-65% of age adjusted heart rate and 60 minutes of cardio on an air bike at 70-75% of max heart rate. The walking is zero burnout, I can do it everyday. It burns 450 calories. The hour of cardio burns 575 calories. If I was typically sedentary my resting metabolic rate would be 1,430 calories a day. Thanks to some added muscle mass my RMR is probably near 1,700. If I couldn’t eat those calories it would be almost impossible to get all the micro’s from food. The human body must be designed for a minimum amount of activiity regardless of age. I would never be able to limit calories to 1,430 calories a day meaning I’d gain weight. If I tried to burn 800-1,000 extra calories by resistance training alone I’d burn out in a few months. Even 25 years ago, younger and dumber, I knew my body was optimized for plain food and a hard work. If only I’d known I needed to reduce carbs and increase fat instead of the reverse.
One more thing, it is a social norm, when greeting someone to ask, how are you doing? Lately I’m more likely to be greeted with, ‘Hey, hi, you look great.’ That’s because I do and that’s because I earned it. I’m 70 and look 50 and it’s about nothing more than diet and exercise that just about anybody can duplicate. We should all be greeting each other that way all the time.
