Cardio vs Lifting

AllanMisner

Duplicate post removed.

AllanMisner

Cardio and lifting are for two entirely different purposes. Cardio is to help you build cardiovascular health (strong heart and lungs). Lifting is for building strength and/or muscle mass. All of these are important health and fitness aspects and should be addressed based on your particular goals.

As a side-effect, you do burn calories doing both. Just like you do washing your hair, wiping your butt, and walking to the refrigerator for another snack. Cardio burns more calories per unit of time than weight lifting (EPOC is great but doesn’t come close to what you can do with moderate to intense cardio). But with this extra burn, and if you want to have energy to do it again a day or two later, you’re going to have to consume those calories back. With low intensity cardio (walking) the appetite is usually easier to control and the effort is easier to maintain on a higher calorie restriction (losing weight faster). But that is not the best approach if you care about health.

The reason people (myself included) lean toward weights is two fold:
1) maintaining muscle mass is important to coming to a better body composition after the weight loss. Losing muscle and fat will make you weigh less, but you will look better if you retain more muscle.
2) muscle mass and strength are extremely valuable to having a good lifestyle and a longer life. Most people over the age of 35 lose 1% of their muscle mass each year. Think about what that means when you’re over 65. I for one want to be able to wipe my own *kitten* when I’m 105. That’s not going to happen without a muscle maintenance (lifting) program.

If your friend wants to look her best for the wedding, she’ll focus on her diet (500 calorie deficit), lift heavy weights (compound movements), and use walking as her active recovery on her non-lifting days.

Capt_Apollo

your friend should make an account on here and track her calories.

GonzoMan530

Yes and no.

Cardio can improve overall heart health, breathing etc, yes, but lifting weights can and does do the same things.

I don't have a cardio routine, per se. Sometimes I do it. Sometimes I don't. I prefer weight training because I see results faster.

When I started, I was at about 300# or so - cardio all the time with a reflex bag. Got boring fast.

Ended up buying weights, benches, barbells, dumbbells. Did A LOT of reading on programs and after doing split routines for a few weeks, settled on stronglifts 5x5 - 3 days (recommended although I tend to do 4) a week of squats every workout, bench pressing, overhead pressing, deadlifts and barbell rows.

I am capable of lifting very heavy, but so I could take full advantage of the program, I started as directed, empty bars with the exception of deadlifts and rows because its not going to work empty.

Im into week 5. Stronger than I've ever been and lifting with better form, safely (thanks to a cage I traded for an Xbox)

Cardio will build better arteries, yes. So will straining your body and systems with weights. Gaining muscle mass accelerates your metabolism in a far superior manner than cardio because you actually build muscle when you're resting - it requires a lot of energy to do this and as a result, fat loss follows.

IF

you watch your calories and eat for strength.

My diet is very balanced, clean, save for cheat meals, which I engage in weekly to preserve sanity and to provide a jump start to my metabolism. I consume at a minimum of 150 grams of protein daily - mainly from chicken, egg whites, nuts and protein supplements, which aren't high on my list, but a necessary staple.

Many will say you can't build muscle and burn fat at the same time. They'd be wrong because I'm proof that you can.

Since late November, I've lost 65#, increased my overall muscle mass and cardiovascular fitness. Blood pressure, resting heart rate have dropped. Confidence and alertness has increased dramatically.

That's not to say I don't do cardio - sometimes I will hit a heavy bag, I walk my dog regularly, skate etc....but the majority of my success has come as a result of lifting weights. Combined with a solid, clean diet, I can execute all of this and not feel starved, weak or sick from cravings or anything else.

If interested, check out stronglifts.com - thus guy didn't invent the program, just wrote a lot about it and created apps for it that help track progress.

AllanMisner wrote: »

Cardio and lifting are for two entirely different purposes. Cardio is to help you build cardiovascular health (strong heart and lungs). Lifting is for building strength and/or muscle mass. All of these are important health and fitness aspects and should be addressed based on your particular goals.

As a side-effect, you do burn calories doing both. Just like you do washing your hair, wiping your butt, and walking to the refrigerator for another snack. Cardio burns more calories per unit of time than weight lifting (EPOC is great but doesn’t come close to what you can do with moderate to intense cardio). But with this extra burn, and if you want to have energy to do it again a day or two later, you’re going to have to consume those calories back. With low intensity cardio (walking) the appetite is usually easier to control and the effort is easier to maintain on a higher calorie restriction (losing weight faster). But that is not the best approach if you care about health.

The reason people (myself included) lean toward weights is two fold:
1) maintaining muscle mass is important to coming to a better body composition after the weight loss. Losing muscle and fat will make you weigh less, but you will look better if you retain more muscle.
2) muscle mass and strength are extremely valuable to having a good lifestyle and a longer life. Most people over the age of 35 lose 1% of their muscle mass each year. Think about what that means when you’re over 65. I for one want to be able to wipe my own *kitten* when I’m 105. That’s not going to happen without a muscle maintenance (lifting) program.

If your friend wants to look her best for the wedding, she’ll focus on her diet (500 calorie deficit), lift heavy weights (compound movements), and use walking as her active recovery on her non-lifting days.

jennifershoo

Lift fast = cardio