Cardio before or after lifting

Azdak

Just to repeat, as I always do, that doing weights first solely for the purpose of "burning more fat because you're glycogen depleted" is pointless. This is true for two reasons: 1) the actual amount of fat one burns in a workout is fairly trivial anyhow, and the difference between a "fat burning" workout and any other kind is only a fraction of that trivial amount. 2) even if you do burn more fat during a workout, the body regulates itself during the rest of the day, so that there is no difference.

There can be reasons to lift weights first in a workout, but "extra fat burning" isn't one of them.

TnTWalter

i do it both ways but i prefer to lift first because i get so sweaty from the cardio. ;o)

hamptontom

i sure am thankful for you guys, as i find that coming here and reading threads like this are enlightening.

i've been going it alone since i started this process a few months ago, and i've been going to the gym less than a month...and most of the guidance and feedback i've collected during that time has been from here.

i don't know why it never occurred to me to do strength training first before cardio - but i've been doing cardio first for purely circumstantial reasons (the step counter on my phone clicks over to the next calendar day at midnight, and I hit the treadmill first to get my 10K steps in before the counter resets...and THEN moving on to the weight training), but I'm going to go early enough from here on out to flip them around and see if my results change at all.

I've actually been making solid progress with increasing weight across most of the spectrum of stuff I'm doing, but I'm interested now in seeing if there's a change if I flip it around.

Thanks, everybody.