Cardio or Strength Focus, What's Best for Massive Weight Loss?

mrsbeasy

I have around 60 pounds to lose! yikes! Should I focus more on cardio or strength training, or both? I'm not concerned at all about muscle or toning right now. I just need to lose the fat. That's goal #1. After I can shed at least 40 pounds, I'll then start looking at toning. Any suggestions? I read somewhere that you should burn at least 500 calories in cardio per day to lose weight. Plus eating right. Anyone in tune with burning fat through exercise?

TavistockToad

both

but you dont need to burn 500 calories in exercise per day - thats pretty unsustainable. use your calorie deficit for weight loss and exercise for good health.

jemhh

Calorie deficit for fat loss. Lifting for muscle retention and strength retention/building. Cardio for heart/lung health.

Not being concerned at all with muscle is a terrible idea. Your goal should be to lose fat while minimizing muscle loss. That is what improves body composition.

StarvingDiva

I lift and do cardio. I only do cardio about 3xs a week and I have lost 85 lbs. So It can be achieved with not strictly cardio. I also agree with the above poster about not being concerned with muscles. My friend "technically" lost more weight than I did on the scale by strictly doing cardio, where I did cardio and lifting weights and while she technically lost more on the scale I was smaller than her and wearing smaller sizes and she couldn't understand why she looked flabby and still looked "big" when I didn't. I urge you to do some strength training as well.

kwtilbury

Strictly speaking, for calorie burn, which leads to a caloric deficit, cardiovascular exercise is better. That said, you should experiment with different types of training and discover what you enjoy most.

SideSteel

I think you are possibly misunderstanding the value of resistance training outside of it's effects in the short term.

Resistance training in the long term will cause you to have a greater amount of skeletal muscle at the end of the diet (when you are done losing weight) and skeletal muscle is more metabolically active than fat. This may matter a great deal when it comes to maintaining your weight loss for the rest of your life, and so it would probably be in your best interest to add in some resistance training now rather than afterwards.


Basically, even if you don't care about keeping/toning your muscles right now, there are other benefits to resistance training that you're probably not considering.

malibu927

Calorie deficit for weight loss. Cardio for heart health and endurance. Lifting to preserve muscle as you lose.

globug41561

Strength, cardio, and stretching (yoga) are the key. All three are equally important and each provide a different benefit to help reach your goal and overall sense of well being.
Consistency is key and, of course, monitoring what you put in your mouth.
Garbage in, garbage out. If you eat poorly, you won't have the enthusiasm or strength to do any of it.

mrsbeasy

Ah! Great input! Thanks guys. So from reading all of your responses, I see that both, plus stretching will be the best route to start doing now.

croftie4

StarvingDiva wrote: »

I lift and do cardio. I only do cardio about 3xs a week and I have lost 85 lbs. So It can be achieved with not strictly cardio. I also agree with the above poster about not being concerned with muscles. My friend "technically" lost more weight than I did on the scale by strictly doing cardio, where I did cardio and lifting weights and while she technically lost more on the scale I was smaller than her and wearing smaller sizes and she couldn't understand why she looked flabby and still looked "big" when I didn't. I urge you to do some strength training as well.

^^^^ this

My best friend with same stats and same body type has dropped 11lbs more than me but I'm already in smaller sizes. I almost feel embarrassed to tell her I'm dropping another size in trousers and skirts.

I do kettlebells for my strength work and a mixture of cardio 2/3 times a week. I don't really need to do cardio as my heart rate is raised enough with the kettlebells but it's nice to mix it up sometimes

cwolfman13

mrsbeasy wrote: »

I have around 60 pounds to lose! yikes! Should I focus more on cardio or strength training, or both? I'm not concerned at all about muscle or toning right now. I just need to lose the fat. That's goal #1. After I can shed at least 40 pounds, I'll then start looking at toning. Any suggestions? I read somewhere that you should burn at least 500 calories in cardio per day to lose weight. Plus eating right. Anyone in tune with burning fat through exercise?

You don't have to physically burn 500 calories more with exercise. You "burn" calories 24/7...most of your "burn" is a bi-product of merely existing. With my stats and total activity (day to day stuff and exercise) I maintain weight on about 2800-3000 calories...i.e. my energy expenditure is commensurate with my calories coming in. If I want to drop weight, I just eat less than 2800-3000 calories...so like if I wanted to drop 1 Lb per week I'd eat something like 2,300 calories.

dougii

Both! Personally my favorite exercise is running so I run for an hour or more every other day; I lift weights 2 or 3 times/week and do some light cardio afterward (stationary bike for example). I'm not into lifting heavy or gaining a lot of muscle mass. The lifting I do maintains my muscles while I lose weight and increases my strength, both of which improve my running. I disagree that maintaining a 500 calorie burn/day from exercise is unsustainable because I have been doing this for years without an issue - you just need an hour or so a day to workout and to work hard when you are exercising.
Remember that when you are done with cardio your calorie burn drops right back to normal. When you are done lifting weights you continue to burn calories at a higher rate for up to a full day; over time this adds up!!
Good luck!!!

Traveler120

For massive weightloss, then cardio is king because it will burn more calories/hr compared to lifting. And contrary to popular belief, even cardio will enable you to preserve lean mass. People think only resistance training does that but all kinds of exercise will help preserve muscle.

As for 500/hr, there's no limitation. If you have the time and you're fueling enough, and you're sleeping well and recovering well, you can do double or triple that.

mrsbeasy

WOW! I am inspired! So when you do cardio, how long do you do it, and do you do only cardio on your 3 cardio days? For lifting, I'm thinking I should do a 5-10 minute job/warm-up, then lift for 45 minutes. Is that correct? I'm not sure, just trying to figure out the right way to do it, and then do it. I'm also thinking light weights, more reps.

StarvingDiva

mrsbeasy wrote: »

WOW! I am inspired! So when you do cardio, how long do you do it, and do you do only cardio on your 3 cardio days? For lifting, I'm thinking I should do a 5-10 minute job/warm-up, then lift for 45 minutes. Is that correct? I'm not sure, just trying to figure out the right way to do it, and then do it. I'm also thinking light weights, more reps.

My cardio lasts probably 45 mins, when I do a combined day I always lift first, HIIT second. I do a 5-10 min warm up before I start anything and 5-10 stretching afterwards. Most of my workouts last about 1.5 hours total from start to finish sometimes 2 depends on the day and the workout and how beat I feel lol

cwolfman13

mrsbeasy wrote: »

WOW! I am inspired! So when you do cardio, how long do you do it, and do you do only cardio on your 3 cardio days? For lifting, I'm thinking I should do a 5-10 minute job/warm-up, then lift for 45 minutes. Is that correct? I'm not sure, just trying to figure out the right way to do it, and then do it. I'm also thinking light weights, more reps.

My cycling workouts at the moment are simply designed for me to maintain a good base so that when an event comes along all I need to do is hop on a 6 or 8 week training program...they aren't a set amount of time really. I do at least one day of sprint intervals...sometimes two. Usually a tempo ride and a longer endurance ride every week.

I follow a full body lifting program for the gym...it's 3x per week...sometimes life makes it 2x per week, but I'm trying to be consistent with 3x as much as possible.

I also have a "free" day where I usually go do something completely different...like a hike in the mountains or hit the rock climbing gym...or go bounce around on trampolines with my boys at the trampoline park.

TimothyFish

You don't have to burn 500 calories per day to lose weight, but 500 calories burned through exercise is reasonable. I've been burning about 1,000 per day recently. Most of that is done cycling.

acorsaut89

You can't really gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. Losing fat requires a deficit and gaining muscle requires eating at maintenance, or even sometimes in a surplus.

Also - there's no such thing as 'toning'. Your muscles have a shape - your abs are 6 pac shape even if you have a belly right now. The shape of your muscles is always, always, always the same. What changes is the amount of fat around the muscles. As that fat goes down, the shape of the muscle comes out and you start to see it. It isn't toning. You can recomp your body but that isn't the same thing.

If you are just starting out, and since you have a decent amount to lose, you have a bigger margin for error with your deficit numbers so really it's up to you. Lifting/strength training doesn't burn nearly as many calories as cardio exercises do so really what do you prefer? You want to have a little more room to play with while still figuring out the eating habits, or do you have the eating habits down and you don't need that buffer? It's completely up to you.