Cardio VS Strength Training
bauzston
Posts: 5 Member
Hey everyone!! I’m new to the workout world and have quite a few questions. I’m 5’6 and 245 lbs. A little over 3 weeks ago I began to walk on the treadmill on my lunch breaks at work and counting my calories with MFP. I’ve went from walking, to speed walking, and I’m trying to work myself into jogging. Currently I’m at 3 miles in 45 minutes which isn’t terrible I suppose. I don’t have a whole lot of time on my lunch to go from machine to machine which is why I chose the treadmill. As of last week I had lost 5 lbs. I weighed myself the other day and I gained 2!! I’m not noticing a whole lot happening which is discouraging. All that being said am I wasting my time on the treadmill and bike? Should I be more focused on strength training? Any advice for this newbie would be greatly appreciated. It sucks to do all of this and not be losing the way I thought I would be. 😕
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Replies
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Why one or the other and not a mixture of both?
(Different benefits from different kinds of exercise.)
Neither is a waste of time.
Neither will drive your weight loss - that comes from your long term calorie balance and for you exercise will be the very minor player compared to how much you eat.
Neither should only be done while losing weight, that's why MyFitnessPal encourages you to eat back your exercise calories - to help establish a lifelong healthy habit not a short term fix.15 -
It's normal to see your weight fluctuate up and down even when you're doing everything right. There are lots of factors in your weight. Depending on your lifestyle and activities, you're retaining more water at certain times and that will result in you weighing more.
You aren't wasting your time doing cardio, but you wouldn't be wasting your time adding some strength training either. Both are important parts of fitness. Do you have a current plan for strength training?4 -
http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
Read this^^ reference the 2 lb gain.
A mixture of both is good.
Strength training helps preserve muscle as you lose weight. Cardio is good for heart health and is better calorie burn.4 -
During the week I only have an hour to workout so I normally just stick to the treadmill. The weekend I tend to do both treadmill and strength but I definitely tend to stick more to the treadmill. MFP is having me stay under 1790 calories a day, which I’m doing, and I’m choosing healthier foods. I drink only water, I don’t eat fast food, and I work out everyday (literally). It just blows my mind that my rate of weight loss or whatever is so slow. Plus I haven’t noticed much loss in the inches department. Like I said I’m new to all this so it’s probably normal it’s just not what I was expecting. Also I beat myself up a lot about fitness. I’ll definitely try to find more of a balance! I plan on making this my lifestyle and something I enjoy. Any routines you recommend for me would be great. Thanks 😊2
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During the week I only have an hour to workout so I normally just stick to the treadmill. The weekend I tend to do both treadmill and strength but I definitely tend to stick more to the treadmill. MFP is having me stay under 1790 calories a day, which I’m doing, and I’m choosing healthier foods. I drink only water, I don’t eat fast food, and I work out everyday (literally). It just blows my mind that my rate of weight loss or whatever is so slow. Plus I haven’t noticed much loss in the inches department. Like I said I’m new to all this so it’s probably normal it’s just not what I was expecting. Also I beat myself up a lot about fitness. I’ll definitely try to find more of a balance! I plan on making this my lifestyle and something I enjoy. Any routines you recommend for me would be great. Thanks 😊
Five pounds in three weeks isn't slow! That's a good rate of loss.12 -
Yeah the scale said 5 lbs lost but then up 2 a few days later. That’s pretty normal right? Why if I’m doing all this would I have any gain? TMI but my period isn’t until 1.5-2 weeks from now. After what you have read does it sound like I’m on the right track though? That if I keep this up I should start noticing something soon? 🤦🏻♀️1
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quiksylver296 wrote: »http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
Read this^^ reference the 2 lb gain.
Did you read this article I linked?3 -
Hey everyone!! I’m new to the workout world and have quite a few questions. I’m 5’6 and 245 lbs. A little over 3 weeks ago I began to walk on the treadmill on my lunch breaks at work and counting my calories with MFP. I’ve went from walking, to speed walking, and I’m trying to work myself into jogging. Currently I’m at 3 miles in 45 minutes which isn’t terrible I suppose. I don’t have a whole lot of time on my lunch to go from machine to machine which is why I chose the treadmill. As of last week I had lost 5 lbs. I weighed myself the other day and I gained 2!! I’m not noticing a whole lot happening which is discouraging. All that being said am I wasting my time on the treadmill and bike? Should I be more focused on strength training? Any advice for this newbie would be greatly appreciated. It sucks to do all of this and not be losing the way I thought I would be. 😕
As a matter of general fitness and overall health and well being, both resistance training and cardiovascular training are important.
As to losing weight, that comes down to a calorie deficit, not what exercise you are doing.
As to losing 5 Lbs and gaining 2, that's pretty normal...losing weight is a slow process (though 5 Lbs in 3 weeks isn't remotely slow) and it's not linear. You're talking months and often years, not a handful of weeks. You need to look at weight loss as a general trend over time. Individual data points are just that...the trend is what is important. You're going to have weeks with bigger losses, smaller losses, no losses, and gains...that's all completely normal and how this *kitten* works.
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Exercise is for heart health and body improvement - usually has water weight gain as side effect.
Diet is for hopefully just fat loss if done right - done wrong can include muscle mass.
You could likely do a decent full body resistance routine in 1 hr at work 3 x weekly. The other days and weekend do the treadmill.
In either case correctly log the exercise done since you are doing more than MFP based your eating goal on - your goal will likely never be 1790 except on Sun perhaps, and that is correct.
Do more eat more. Do less eat less. Life lesson there on weight management.
Log Weights and eat the extra you are given - body will want to improve from the workout - let it.
Log the running/walking with 1/2 the suggested calories - while the suggested is probably correct for the block of time, MFP already accounted for you burning a decent amount during that time, so have to remove that.
Besides the water weight hiding the fact fat could still be getting lost faster - is your food logging by weight to be accurate as possible.
While reaching the eating goal given to you could be reasonable, you may be eating more than you know.
So while perhaps 1.75 lbs weekly is reasonable (you have 30-50 lbs to lose?) for now, you know making it slower than that.2 -
Can you see a difference?0 -
Yeah the scale said 5 lbs lost but then up 2 a few days later. That’s pretty normal right? Why if I’m doing all this would I have any gain? TMI but my period isn’t until 1.5-2 weeks from now. After what you have read does it sound like I’m on the right track though? That if I keep this up I should start noticing something soon? 🤦🏻♀️
Body weight fluctuates naturally...not all losses and gains are fat. The human body is comprised of roughly 55-65% water and that will always be in flux. You will always have varying degrees of waste in your system, etc. Losing weight isn't a linear process...it looks like this...
The red line is the trend...that's what's important. Individual data points can and will be all over the place despite anything you're doing or not doing because that's the way the human body works.3 -
It just blows my mind that my rate of weight loss or whatever is so slow. Plus I haven’t noticed much loss in the inches department.
For what it's worth, the visceral fat is typically much later in the process. You might be able to help target it with intermittent fasting or certain food choices. There's some research out there on the topic.
Five pounds in three weeks sounds significant to me. At that rate, you could potentially be under 160 in a year. Probably hard to even imagine that. It likely took you a lot longer to put the weight on.4 -
It's seems like the biggest thing you are missing is patience 😉. Weight loss and change takes a lot of time. Don't expect immediate results or you are just going to end up discouraged and quitting. Most people go several months before they notice any visible progress. Take your time, read the article @quiksylver296 linked, and be patient with the progress.6
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3 weeks isn't enough time to see any difference. like everyone has said above, weight fluctuates up and down, every day. Patience. Ignore the day to day differences, look at averages.2
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Although I agree with everyone's comments that you are losing weight at a perfectly reasonable rate, are you weighing and measuring all your food and making sure the log entries you pick are accurate (not just picking the lowest)? The food/eating component is definitely the most important part of weight loss, more so than fitness, so you need to make sure that is all on point first. You may also want to use a weight trending app like Happy Scale so you can use your weight as data points to see how your weight is trending generally.
FWIW I run (cardio) four days a week and do barre classes (strength) two days a week. They both contribute to my health and fitness. I had never done a strength component during my weight loss in the past and I will say I love it and feel stronger and I like what it does to my body and how it helps my running. I also like knowing that I am burning more calories at rest because the strength training and I am less likely to lose muscle mass.1 -
Yeah the scale said 5 lbs lost but then up 2 a few days later. That’s pretty normal right? Why if I’m doing all this would I have any gain? TMI but my period isn’t until 1.5-2 weeks from now. After what you have read does it sound like I’m on the right track though? That if I keep this up I should start noticing something soon? 🤦🏻♀️
Yes, it sounds like you're on the right track. It just takes time to fine-tune what we're doing and figure things out: That's also a normal part of the process.
Different women add different amount of water weight at different points in their monthly cycle. If you stick with it and track your weight for a couple of months, you'll start to understand what your personal pattern is. There are also bunches of other reasons water weight fluctuates (read the link quiksylver296 provided: it's very enlightening, reassuring, and helpful).
As a premenopausal woman, you'll get the clearest view of progress from comparing your weight at the same point in two different menstrual cycle. Even then, water weight fluctuations from other causes can obscure fat loss sometimes (really, read the link quiksylver296 provided
).
Realistically, it takes a while to notice results.
Visually, or in terms of clothes fit, it can take a while to notice results. Think about what 5 pounds of cooking shortening or lard looks like. Then, think about the fact that we (especially women) lose weight all over our bodies, kind of like layers off an onion, not all in one spot all at once. This is a terrible mental visual, but if I smeared 5 pounds of shortening over my body, it wouldn't increase my size noticeably, and it wouldn't decrease much when I gratefully showered it off.
As you get lighter, smaller increments of weight loss will make more of a difference, just like with the onion's inner layers make a more obvious difference in its size.
The same thing is true of clothing sizes. At first, it took me probably 20-30 pounds to drop a size. Once I got close to goal, it was more like 5-10, if I wanted a good-looking fit.
The visual part is complicated by the tendency most of us have to look in the mirror and see "me", with all of our experience of and assumptions about ourselves built into that. Even in photos, I didn't see a difference in myself at the time from weight loss even other people found noticeable. Now, looking back with some distance on my self-perception, I can see the difference, too.
You can expect your scale weight to go up and down as you lose. If you follow your sensible process for weeks and months, patiently, you'll see the overall downward pattern on the scale. That will build your confidence that your process is working, and when there's a scale jump (while you're still following the process accurately) it's a meaningless thing. I get that it's a little stress-y at first, but hang in there!
For progress evaluation purposes, I'd suggest the following:
* Weigh yourself regularly, at a frequency up to daily, that is not stressful for you; and do so at the same time of day, in the same state of dress. (Many of us prefer first thing in the AM, after bathroom, before breakfast/drinking).
* Measure yourself with a tape measure. Hips, waist and bust (maybe under the bust and fullness) are pretty standard, but maybe also upper/lower arms, thighs/calves, and/or neck. Yes, we lose weight in all those places (even ring sizes and shoe sizes can change!). It probably doesn't make sense to do that more than every couple of weeks to a month.
* Take photos, dressed in something that is either snug but not compressive, or low-coverage, in a solid color, in good lighting, in a standard position. A two-piece swimsuit or close-fit shorts/sports-bra are especially good, because your midsection may change. (I don't suggest naked or undies because I'm betting someday you're gonna want to show off your before/afters, even though that may seem daunting now.
). Take front and side views, at least, no sucking in or other contortions. You don't have to show them to anyone. Back view is also good, if you can manage it. This is probably a once a month thing, or maybe longer.
* Pick an item of clothing whose fit is clear to you, either something that's snug you can wear now, or something that's just that little bit too tight. Try that on maybe once a month, and see if you see a difference. The usefulness of this will vary depending on how your pattern of weight loss varies around your body, and how much water retention is in play, but it is an indicator.
If you stick with this, you will see progress. I can't tell you exactly when, but it will happen! :flowerforyou:
P.S. Can I make a suggestion about treadmill vs. strength training? If you plan to use the same weight machines or do the same lifting exercises, it might be good to think about doing that M-W-F, filling any remaining lunch time with more treadmill (or other cardio), then do just the cardio on Tu-Th. Best results usually come from leaving 2 sleeps in between strength work of the same muscle groups. The 3-day thing is one way, or splitting up exercises to do some parts some days, and others on other days.4 -
Since weight loss only requires a calorie/energy deficit and you are just starting you should do whatever it is that is easiest for you to do right now. You have plenty of time to add ingredients to your fitness soup but right now it should mostly be about staying within your calorie goal each day without feeling overly deprived or overly hunger doing it.
It sounds like the treadmill is treating you nicely and you can do a little more on the weekend. I would suggest sticking to that for right now. Try not to allow yourself to get caught up in what you or others think you "should" be doing. That could lead to changing too much too fast and drastic changes seldom seem to turn out to be a good idea.
I am afraid that your path to success is going to involve a lot of scale "upticks". Mine moves around so much you'd think I was weighing myself on a trampoline. It is not easy to look at an increase and remind yourself that you still lost fat weight the day before (assuming were in a calorie deficit) even when the scale is reporting a gain. I have seen it happen many times. If I go three weeks with erratic scale movement and I am trying to lose 1 pound a week I will, at some point, see my last low weight less 3 pounds show up on the scale. Some people use weight trending apps to help them visualize it better.1 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
Read this^^ reference the 2 lb gain.
A mixture of both is good.
Strength training helps preserve muscle as you lose weight. Cardio is good for heart health and is better calorie burn.
This link is really good and i have bookmarked it myself as a reminder. I just went through this mental crap this week. Only to realize I gained 2.7 Muscle and loss 2.3 in BF.
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I weigh daily and log it into Happy Scale, which helps my brain deal with the normal fluctuations.
I gain water weight at ovulation and right before my TOM, and have a subsequent loss afterwards. Because of this, I compare myself to the same point in my cycle last month, not last week.3 -
Everyone has given you good advice but one thing I want to strongly suggest is for you to take your measurements right now (if you haven't already done it). I lost 90 pounds and never took my starting measurements. I would love to know how many inches I lost in total.3
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Hi
I am currently at the same height and weight that you are right now I started my journey at beginning of September at 274 and im at 238 . I added hit 2 to 3 times a week two months ago and my body feels more toned . I like that its short and it combines strength and cardio and i am still losing 2 pounds a week. Weight flucates for example my last weekly weight in i only lost just under a pound and this week im four pounds. This is likely becuase I was retaining more water last week while I was on my period.
I am also struggling on losing the inches in my stomach where i hold the most weight after having two kids via csection. Its slowly going down but and we can't choose where we lose. Over time it will come off quicker with consistent diet and exercise If you are only starting out than its your body adjusting your changes. I flucatesd 8 to 10 pounds at the beginning. Now I only flucate 3 to 4 pounds becuase my diet is pretty steady.
Keep going mama..add some strenght training..tons on short videos on YouTube3
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