Benefits of resistance excercise on a VLCD

Hi read this study yesterday on exercising on vlcd as I know we have discussed this a lot before.

However interestingly it is advising doing just weight and resistance training over cardio in the first 12 weeks of a VLCD.

Apparently you lose a lot of weight doing cardio but the majority is muscle and fat. with resistance you lose the weight (not as quickly) though the majority of it is actual fat loss.

The weight loss will seem slower due to muscle being built and it weighing more than fat but you will be losing it safe in the knowledge that your resting metabolism will be faster due to having more muscle.

the link is - Effects of Resistance vs. Aerobic Training Combined With an 800 Calorie Liquid Diet on Lean Body Mass and Resting Metabolic Rate -- Bryner et al. 18 (2): 115 -- Journal of the American College of Nutrition

I kind of knew that weight training was good for you on this diet to reduce saggyness and tone up, but did not realise how detrimental cardio was.

I know last time when I did CD I did "body for life" style workouts and became really toned with no sagging.

Not sure what to do as we all know the benefits of cardio, considering doing "body for life" again and upping the weights and doing minimal cardio.

Just thought I would share this as it has been debated loads on this site.

Thanks for this.Perhaps now | can convince my husband that running is not a good idea at the moment I'll with my dumbells.. I'll st

Hiya, just thought I'd jump on with a bit more info....

This text is from another thread.. http://www.minimins.com/cambridge-diet-forum/111478-confused-about-exercise-weight-loss.html

I thought I'd paste the text for ease.

less calories in + more calories spent = changes to the body's composition.

The theory is right. It takes 3,500 calories to burn a pound of fat. But eating 3500 calories less, doesn't mean you are going to lose a pound of fat. It all depends.

For one reason, this is based on your Basal metabolic rate being static, which it isn't. It moves up and down, so who knows how much you are burning throughout the day.

Many people who do a lot of cardio whilst on a VLCD, find they are too tired to move around much the rest of the day, and do less fidgeting etc. Basically, they can often 'play dead' after it..thus slowing the metabolic rate.

Also if you are burning so much, and not taking in very little, the metabolic rate can crash big time and you are more likely to go into the starvation mode that people dread.

There's also more chance of lean mass loss and water retention, neither which show on the scales.

Evidently of these problems don't happen if you do resistance exercise which appears to keep the metabolic rate more stable and reduces the chance of lean loss.

Of course, exercise is important, but when on a VLCD, if you aren't used to doing a lot, then don't do a lot A walk, a swim..blah, for the health benefits, not for the results on the scales.

Once you get moving up the plans, you will have more calories for your body to play with without going into shock

BUT, much depends on what sort of exercise, the intensity, the duration, what you are used to etc.