Does Cardio Build Muscle? Burning Leg Fat?

Many women end up frustrated when they start trying to burn fat with cardio. After a couple weeks they begin to wonder “does cardio build muscle?” when they see their bodyweight start to increase.

Many times they see the increased muscularity, or oftentimes just weight gain, in their hips, butt and thighs… and because all they’re doing is cardio, they think it must be building muscle.

So does cardio build muscle? The answer is yes and no. Helpful huh?

Don’t worry, I’m going to explain everything…

Resistance + proper calories = muscle gain

The truth is your muscles are dumb and lazy. So if they encounter resistance, they are going to try to adapt in a way that makes the next time they encounter that resistance easier for them. One of the easiest ways for your muscles to adapt to greater resistance is to build more muscle.

So provided the proper amount of calories are there, you can build muscle from the little bit of resistance that cardio training provides. Add to that the fact that most women focus on the treadmill, ellyptical, stairmaster and bike — which are all lower body exercises — and you have a pretty good recipe for building muscle.

Women can redeposit fat in hips, legs and butt!

Some recent research has noted that fatt acids can be mobilized (pulled out of fat cells) and redeposited into other parts of the body after entering the bloodstream.

This may explain why it’s so hard for females to lose fat in their hips, legs and butt because the body may mobilizing fatty acids from the upper body and storing them in the lower body due to a number of sex specific reasons for women.

This increased weight gain in the legs would make it appear you are building muscle there too by doing cardio.

How To Burn Leg Fat

So the question for most women is “How can I burn leg fat so my thighs don’t jiggle?” Good question. Here’s some guidelines:

• Do interval training. Pick exercises that utilize your whole body for these routines (to minimize lower body isolation)…
• Lay off the steady state, long duration aerobics. Read my article on the only times you should do aerobic training…
• Start to do resistance training. Either bodyweight training or strength training with weights…
• You need a calorie deficit — eat less…

In short, don’t worry about the little bit of muscle you are building with cardio. You should instead be worrying about burning off the fat on top of the muscle. The bottom line is: you’re not going to look like the hulk anytime soon — those professional bodybuilders with huge muscles didn’t get that way on accident — it takes a LOT of effort to get a physique like that.

On the topic of creating a lean, sexy body you should read this article I wrote as well: Fast weight loss for women. Hopefully this article has helped you with the eternal question (at least for most women) “Does cardio build muscle?” and “How can I burn off leg fat?”