weight loss and strength training questions

dhumbee1210

Hi all! I have about 60 pounds to lose. i just restarted last monday. so far doing ok. I use a fitbit and keep my MFP setting to sedentary. I avg. 1800-2000 calories to eat a day. i strength train (pretty moderate IMO) 3 evenings a week and cardio (usually treadmill/elliptical/zumba) 4-5 days in the morning. wondering if anyone else has done this similar schedule. I weighed myself today ( maybe it's too soon?? ) i know it takes longer to lose when doing weights too. but i'm wondering if 3 days is too much for total body workout? maybe i should do two days and focus on improving cardio? i do 30-40 minutes of it now, usually burn 250-350 depending on what i'm doing and how into it i feel...i hate cardio. i would rather lift weights. but i know i have to do it. i also am on a lower carb diet due to dietary restrictions. trying to eat whole food, natural, not processed. and trying to kick diet soda out of my life...it's quite hard. any suggestions would be great.

smc864

Instead of doing all that cardio, which you hate, I would just take in less calories. Cardio is not necessary for weight loss... just a caloric deficit. You may get burned out rather quickly exercising that much in the beginning. Just my opinion.

I would eat 1500-1600 each day and cut the cardio down to 2 times/week.

dhumbee1210

I would LOVE to only do heavy cardio 2 days a week! (I also walk my dogs and I don't count that as cardio because it's more casual walking than speed walking) In your opinion should I keep my strength training days the same? Here is an example of what I do:
Mon:
sumo deadlift 4sets of 6
pallof press 3 sets of 10 each
dumbbell press 3 sets of 10
glute bridge 3 sests of 8
seated cable rows 3 sets of 10
reverse crunch 3 sets of 10

wed. and friday follow similar patterns with diff. exercises.

SezxyStef

I lift 3x a week and do HIIT 2x a week...on my off days from lifting.

Perhaps you could try a set program such as Starting strength or Stronglifts.

SL 5x5 is a progressive load weight lifting program designed to help build strength...it's easy to follow and doesn't take a tonne of time...

You get a lot of compound exercises Deadlifts, squats, OHP, rows and bench

MeanderingMammal

I would LOVE to only do heavy cardio 2 days a week!

If you increase the intenity of your cardio to even a moderate level you'll get enough effect out of them to cut them down. fwiw you may find you actually prefer it when you're putting more effort in.

You're currently burning only about half of what I'd anticipate for a reasonable CV session of 30-40 minutes. Your other option would be to reconfigure them to do one longer, moderate intensity session and two 30 minute sessions, one tempo at higher intensity and one interval session getting up to your highest intensity.

Of course your other option is to do your CV outside, rather then being stuck in a box. Personally I hate doing CV indoors, I'd rather get out on two wheels or for a run.

mschicagocubs

I would LOVE to only do heavy cardio 2 days a week!

If you increase the intenity of your cardio to even a moderate level you'll get enough effect out of them to cut them down. fwiw you may find you actually prefer it when you're putting more effort in.

You're currently burning only about half of what I'd anticipate for a reasonable CV session of 30-40 minutes.

Since she just started doing cardio, I don't think her burns are unreasonable. Could they be more? Yes.

I agree with trying to shorten your cardio down and do a HIIT workout.

I do 15 minutes. 5 Minute warm up. 10 minutes of HIIT, doing 40 seconds as fast as I can, followed by 20 seconds of rest. The owner of my gym recommended I do that to get a more effective burn in less time.

I burn about 200 per session, so imagine what you could burn in a shorter amount

dhumbee1210

Ok good suggestions. Thanks everyone. So cardio is not necessary for weight loss? I never heard that before. I set my setting on MFP to deduct 500 calories and it's set at sedentary since my fitbit will adjust it. So i just eat my calories through out the day as it changes. So some days it says I need 1600 calories, others will be 2000 depending on how much I move and what I'm doing. Should I keep my settings the same? I don't feel hungry doing it this way. But I'm not stuffing myself either. lol

Nice2BFitAgain

Ok good suggestions. Thanks everyone. So cardio is not necessary for weight loss? I never heard that before. I set my setting on MFP to deduct 500 calories and it's set at sedentary since my fitbit will adjust it. So i just eat my calories through out the day as it changes. So some days it says I need 1600 calories, others will be 2000 depending on how much I move and what I'm doing. Should I keep my settings the same? I don't feel hungry doing it this way. But I'm not stuffing myself either. lol

MFP give out more exercise calories than actually burned, not sure if it is the same if using the Fitbit, but I wouldn't eat back all of the calories it give you. And no, you do not need to do cardio to lose weight. I lift 3x a week using this plan http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-easons-livefit-phase-1.html and do 30 minutes of moderate cardio or 20 minutes of HIIT a week.

You can lose weight just by restricting calories but that will be both fat and muscle weight...

dhumbee1210

How fast do you go for it to be considered HIIT? I usually use a heart monitor.

JTick

How fast do you go for it to be considered HIIT? I usually use a heart monitor.

I would do some research on HIIT. I personally have never done it, but from what I understand from reading the forums you're supposed to go as hard as you can for a short period of time and then slow back down, repeat for a few mins. I've read that if you're doing, say 15+ mins of HIIT, it's not real HIIT as you can't keep it up that long. I'm sure if what I just told you is wrong someone will come along and correct me. :laugh:

MeanderingMammal

I would LOVE to only do heavy cardio 2 days a week!

If you increase the intenity of your cardio to even a moderate level you'll get enough effect out of them to cut them down. fwiw you may find you actually prefer it when you're putting more effort in.

You're currently burning only about half of what I'd anticipate for a reasonable CV session of 30-40 minutes.

Since she just started doing cardio, I don't think her burns are unreasonable. Could they be more? Yes.

It's a suggestion, I can understand why pootling along at low intensity on a hamster wheel in an air conditioned box is dull. I can't stand more than about ten minutes of it, where I'm happy going out for three or four hours of fast riding.

I agree with trying to shorten your cardio down and do a HIIT workout.

I do 15 minutes. 5 Minute warm up. 10 minutes of HIIT, doing 40 seconds as fast as I can, followed by 20 seconds of rest. The owner of my gym recommended I do that to get a more effective burn in less time.

I burn about 200 per session, so imagine what you could burn in a shorter amount

It's always worth understanding what effects different types of CV workouts deliver. They increase calorie consumption, so provide quite a lot of flexibility around what to eat, but the main benefit is what it does to the CV system. Using running as a comparator, doing an hour at a 10 minute mile helps deliver endurance, increasing intensity to an 8 minute mile for 30 minutes will burn a lot faster but won't burn more and helps increase the ability to convert fuel to power. Moving to a 20 minute session of alternating 20 seconds at 4-5 minute miles vs 20 seconds at a 10 minute mile, or 400 metres vs 400 metres moves into anaerobic territory so improves ability to operate in that range.

fwiw if one is only interested in calorie consumption then a 20 minute tempo is going to burn about the same, if not slightly more than an equivalent time spent doing intervals, principally as there is less rest, and the system is working at top end aerobic performance rather than into anaerobic and then recovering.

Essentially they're all tools in the box.

Last nights interval session for me was 15 minutes warm up at 10 minute mile, 5 repeats of a 400/400 interval then fifteen minutes cool down. Hard work, personally I don't like 400 metre intervals, they're a bit too long to find the right pace on.

MeanderingMammal

How fast do you go for it to be considered HIIT? I usually use a heart monitor.

It's not an exact science as there are many ways to increase your intensity. If you're doing something like running then you might increase your intensity through increasing your speed, or increasing the elevation that you're climbing. Same with riding, but on a rower you can increase your stroke pace, stroke length or, on a Concept, increase the resistance of the fan. Kettlebells seem popular with those that only train indoors, or for some it's light weights and lots of fast reps, or bodyweight exercise,

Rate of Perceived Exertion is a better indicator to you than an HRM, in part because the response time of the HRM itself and in part because levels of accuracy at highest intensities isn't that great. The HRM reading lags your actual heart rate.

Essentially your Highest Intensity is that which you can sustain either for the whole exercise session, or for each cycle of exercise within the session. If you go for the former, then in your earlier intervals you won't be working at you highest possible, if you go for the latter then your speed will diminish over time.

As an example if I'm doing 20 second highest with 20 seconds recovery pace then I'll generally find that if I can do a 4 minute mile pace in the first interval then by the end of the tenth interval I'm pushing it to maintain a 5 minute mile, but I can sustain a 9 minute mile across all of the rest intervals. If my intervals are 400 metres then I'm closer to starting at 4:15 and over five intervals that'll reduce to 5:00. If I'm doing kilometre intervals then I'm not going to sustain those paces, starting at a 5 minute mile, and my fifth kilometre is generally a lot slower than the first, down to 6 minute miles, and I'm positively hanging out by the end. Sometimes what I'll do is hill climbing, there are a few good trails near me with steep inclines. Then the intervals are running up, followed by running down as the rest interval. It's quite a fun session, but it's significantly less replicable than 20s, 200s, 400s or 1km runs on relatively flat pavement.

Alternatively I'veread a number of times on here about doing intervals of 1 minute high intensity with 4 minutes at walking pace, repeated five times. That's a cycle that's more suited to keeping a similar speed thorughout the five high intensiy intervals, although for me the fact that my heart rate would be subsiding down to near normal in each rest would be a concern. That's close to a full cool down after every interval. My HR can peak at 200, but after 4-5 minutes it's normally down to around 100, whereas if I do a tempo session it'll sit at 170 for 30 minutes., just below anaerobic.

An alternative is Heart Rate based intervals, where you work towards a target eart rate in your high intensity intervals and your low intensity. In practice that's probably more hassle than you need, as it depends on doing quite a lot of work to understand your rate range. It also depends very much on your fitness, as the time taken for your HR to reduce decreases significantly as fitness improves.

As upthread, it really depends on your objectives. If you're ownly interested in calorie burn then do something that keeps you at just under your anaerobic threshold for a reasonable period of time. If you're interested in improving your cardiovascular performance and capabilities then use intervals as one of your quality sessions per week, complementing an endurance session and a tempo session. Note that I do quite a long warm up and cool down around my interval sessions, given how intense they are there is a need to be properly prepared for them.

Note that there is a lot of nonsense out there about HIIT being somehow magical and the effects lasting for hours after training. Essentially Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption is derived from intensity, but the difference between what it'll give you after 20 minutes at 170 cf bouncing between 140 and 180 five times is negligible,