Cardio to lose the most weight...THEN weights??

1Cattychick

I'm a former exercise queen. Used to do two hours of cardio a day 4x a week-spinning, rowing, and sometimes elliptical. I also did some free weight training once or twice a week. I was in the best shape of my life until I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease two years ago & put on prednisone for an extended period of time. I gained 100lbs in a year and a half!

I've lost about 45lbs since January (I had a sleeve gastrectomy) and JUST started working out two weeks ago. I want to lose another 70lbs.

I'm currently doing spin class 3x a week and the elliptical and rowing (cardio, not the weight one) machines the other 2 days of the week.

Since I have SO much more weight to lose I'm wondering the best way to go about it. Should I continue do tons of cardio over the next few months to torch calories and help get my weight down and THEN start adding in a good weight routine a few days a week OR should I start doing BOTH now?

I know they say your body gets used to doing the same crap all the time and that starts to slow down your progress, which is why I'm thinking I might be able to get away with another few months of straight, intense cardio and then start doing weights.

Opinions?

cbarn025

IMHO your doing it all wrong. I don't know why everyone insists on running to the cardio machines and carioing themselves to death. I think if your diet is on point you should only do cardio maybe twice a week to begin with. You should be lifting the other 3 to 4 days depending on your split. While you lift take short breaks between sets to ensure you keep your heart rate up. Watch the fat fall off.

MeanderingMammal

I'm currently doing spin class 3x a week and the elliptical and rowing (cardio, not the weight one) machines the other 2 days of the week.

Since I have SO much more weight to lose I'm wondering the best way to go about it. Should I continue do tons of cardio over the next few months to torch calories and help get my weight down and THEN start adding in a good weight routine a few days a week OR should I start doing BOTH now?

In principle you don't need to do any exercise to lose weight, although doing some gives you more flexibility over your food choices to remain within calorie goals. Exercise helps you remain healthy and helps you to optimise the weight loss.

CV work helps optimise your heart health and improves your endurance, some forms of CV work will also increase your capacity, increasing your VO2Max.

Resistance training helps you to maintain lean body mass, so biasing your weight loss towards fat, rather than spreading the loss across fat, muscle and organ tissue.

Subject to what your actual goals are your best results will come from a split of resistance training and CV work. Personally I'm more interested in sports performance, so I run 5 times per week, cycle once or twice and do two bodyweight resistance sessions. If you're just after general weight loss then probably 3 sessions of each per week should do the trick.

I know they say your body gets used to doing the same crap all the time and that starts to slow down your progress

The whole "do something different because your body gets bored" thing is nonsense, however your body does adapt so you do need to keep increasing the load on it. run/ cycle/ row for longer distances, or faster, or use interval sessions to challenge yourself, with resistance training increase the load, or is bodyweight training the complexity of the exercise.

fwiw the resistance training bores me to tears, but it's something that helps me to prevent injury when I'm running and improves my performance, so it has to be done.

Azdak

Lifting weights has health and weight loss benefits regardless of where you are at in your journey. You don't have to do a ton of lifting, but you should start doing a couple of days a week right away. It can be a simple program of 6-8 basic, large-muscle compound exercises.

1Cattychick

IMHO your doing it all wrong. I don't know why everyone insists on running to the cardio machines and carioing themselves to death. I think if your diet is on point you should only do cardio maybe twice a week to begin with. You should be lifting the other 3 to 4 days depending on your split. While you lift take short breaks between sets to ensure you keep your heart rate up. Watch the fat fall off.

You're probably right. I think one of the things that makes you lose perspective when you're losing weight & tracking everything is, you can SEE how MANY calories you're burning with cardio PLUS the scale moves. With weight training it's a mystery as far as "how many calories are burned" based on reps/weight. That is INCREDIBLY frustrating! Plus sometimes the weight gain that may come from lifting effs with your head when you get on the scale. Yeah, it's all psychological but it still sucks.

1Cattychick

I'm currently doing spin class 3x a week and the elliptical and rowing (cardio, not the weight one) machines the other 2 days of the week.

Since I have SO much more weight to lose I'm wondering the best way to go about it. Should I continue do tons of cardio over the next few months to torch calories and help get my weight down and THEN start adding in a good weight routine a few days a week OR should I start doing BOTH now?

In principle you don't need to do any exercise to lose weight, although doing some gives you more flexibility over your food choices to remain within calorie goals. Exercise helps you remain healthy and helps you to optimise the weight loss.

CV work helps optimise your heart health and improves your endurance, some forms of CV work will also increase your capacity, increasing your VO2Max.

Resistance training helps you to maintain lean body mass, so biasing your weight loss towards fat, rather than spreading the loss across fat, muscle and organ tissue.

Subject to what your actual goals are your best results will come from a split of resistance training and CV work. Personally I'm more interested in sports performance, so I run 5 times per week, cycle once or twice and do two bodyweight resistance sessions. If you're just after general weight loss then probably 3 sessions of each per week should do the trick.

I know they say your body gets used to doing the same crap all the time and that starts to slow down your progress

The whole "do something different because your body gets bored" thing is nonsense, however your body does adapt so you do need to keep increasing the load on it. run/ cycle/ row for longer distances, or faster, or use interval sessions to challenge yourself, with resistance training increase the load, or is bodyweight training the complexity of the exercise.

fwiw the resistance training bores me to tears, but it's something that helps me to prevent injury when I'm running and improves my performance, so it has to be done.

I find weights boring & sucky too. In the past I did a lot of squats and barbell stuff for biceps & triceps but that was it. The woman who runs the gym I used to belong to was very focused on rowing as cardio AND resistance because it does a combo of both. Her opinion was that the pulling that happens when you row IS a form of good resistance exercise. She felt pretty strongly that was very underrated as an exercise- gets your heart rate up and works your entire body: thighs, hamstrings, calves, quads, biceps, chest, back, etc.

This is why I didn't do much weight lifting but perhaps I should incorporate it at this point.

MeanderingMammal

I find weights boring & sucky too. In the past I did a lot of squats and barbell stuff for biceps & triceps but that was it. The woman who runs the gym I used to belong to was very focused on rowing as cardio AND resistance because it does a combo of both. Her opinion was that the pulling that happens when you row IS a form of good resistance exercise. She felt pretty strongly that was very underrated as an exercise- gets your heart rate up and works your entire body: thighs, hamstrings, calves, quads, biceps, chest, back, etc.

All exercises offer a combination of CV and resistance training, although clearly even if your doing weights fast you're still not getting your HR up into range either very far or for very long, and on an elliptical you're not really getting a significant amount of resistance.

Rowing is a very good whole body exercise, and as long as you keep the resistance on the machine quite high you're going to get a solid effect, albeit still less than actually doing focused resistance training of some kind. That said, it's not very balanced, you're getting a significant effect when you pull but as you release the counter effect isn't there. With resistance training you're getting a reasonably balanced effect in both directions, so you are generating a different outcome.

Have to say, after 10km or an hour on my machine I'm toast, very thorough session.

Leadfoot_Lewis

Just responded to a thread like this - that response was that I absolutely don't understand why anyone would put off something as extremely beneficial as weight lifting. Makes zero sense to me...

1Cattychick

I find weights boring & sucky too. In the past I did a lot of squats and barbell stuff for biceps & triceps but that was it. The woman who runs the gym I used to belong to was very focused on rowing as cardio AND resistance because it does a combo of both. Her opinion was that the pulling that happens when you row IS a form of good resistance exercise. She felt pretty strongly that was very underrated as an exercise- gets your heart rate up and works your entire body: thighs, hamstrings, calves, quads, biceps, chest, back, etc.

All exercises offer a combination of CV and resistance training, although clearly even if your doing weights fast you're still not getting your HR up into range either very far or for very long, and on an elliptical you're not really getting a significant amount of resistance.

Rowing is a very good whole body exercise, and as long as you keep the resistance on the machine quite high you're going to get a solid effect, albeit still less than actually doing focused resistance training of some kind. That said, it's not very balanced, you're getting a significant effect when you pull but as you release the counter effect isn't there. With resistance training you're getting a reasonably balanced effect in both directions, so you are generating a different outcome.

Have to say, after 10km or an hour on my machine I'm toast, very thorough session.

That sounds very logical. I have my 1st "Body Works" class at my gym today...I think it's an hour of free weights & ab exercises. I'll be doing it three times a week & cutting down on cardio. These responses have been a lot of help!!

1Cattychick

Just responded to a thread like this - that response was that I absolutely don't understand why anyone would put off something as extremely beneficial as weight lifting. Makes zero sense to me...

You just responded to a thread like this? Well hopefully you were more helpful there than you were here!

Eric_DeCastro

I'm a runner, I walk about 20 miles a week and run a over 17miles per week and it doesn't help me lose weight. dieting does that. I think you can lose weight and tone up with weight lifting. sure you will eventually lose weight running but starting off running won't make you lose weight. that is just my opinion. running is more for your heart and lungs and overall health.

BlueBombers

Cardio AND weight lifting

missjmariam

I'm opposite. Cardio has allowed me to drop 9 lbs thus far. The elliptical and treadmill have been my best friends. I lost inches everywhere also! Now i'm starting to incorporate weight training into my exercise routine since i only have 10 lbs left to go. If you haven't exercised in a long while then cardio is good to start with then build up to other forms of exercise.

No_Finish_Line

I'm a runner, I walk about 20 miles a week and run a over 17miles per week and it doesn't help me lose weight. dieting does that. I think you can lose weight and tone up with weight lifting. sure you will eventually lose weight running but starting off running won't make you lose weight. that is just my opinion. running is more for your heart and lungs and overall health.

i agree with this... weight lose is really more about nutrition then exercise.

exercise is really more about being healthy or looking a certain way.

both will burn calories, only resistance train is going to stimulate your muscles and give you a greater chance of holding onto what lean mass you have (and therefore excelerating weight loss to some degree).

bottom line, if you don't care about health (which is crazy) or how much muscle you have (also crazy to me lol) then exercise isn't as important just making a defecit. in this case, do your cardio if you can't stand weights, do your weights if you can't stand cardio, or skip it all together if you are so inclinced. the fat lose will defeintly get more difficult as you approach goal weight without exercise tho

No_Finish_Line

lol, but to more directly answer your question, IMO a reasonable exercise routine would always include a resistance component

LoseYouself

Just responded to a thread like this - that response was that I absolutely don't understand why anyone would put off something as extremely beneficial as weight lifting. Makes zero sense to me...

+1

JoRocka

I'm currently doing spin class 3x a week and the elliptical and rowing (cardio, not the weight one) machines the other 2 days of the week.

Since I have SO much more weight to lose I'm wondering the best way to go about it. Should I continue do tons of cardio over the next few months to torch calories and help get my weight down and THEN start adding in a good weight routine a few days a week OR should I start doing BOTH now?

In principle you don't need to do any exercise to lose weight, although doing some gives you more flexibility over your food choices to remain within calorie goals. Exercise helps you remain healthy and helps you to optimise the weight loss.

CV work helps optimise your heart health and improves your endurance, some forms of CV work will also increase your capacity, increasing your VO2Max.

Resistance training helps you to maintain lean body mass, so biasing your weight loss towards fat, rather than spreading the loss across fat, muscle and organ tissue.

Subject to what your actual goals are your best results will come from a split of resistance training and CV work. Personally I'm more interested in sports performance, so I run 5 times per week, cycle once or twice and do two bodyweight resistance sessions. If you're just after general weight loss then probably 3 sessions of each per week should do the trick.

I know they say your body gets used to doing the same crap all the time and that starts to slow down your progress

The whole "do something different because your body gets bored" thing is nonsense, however your body does adapt so you do need to keep increasing the load on it. run/ cycle/ row for longer distances, or faster, or use interval sessions to challenge yourself, with resistance training increase the load, or is bodyweight training the complexity of the exercise.

fwiw the resistance training bores me to tears, but it's something that helps me to prevent injury when I'm running and improves my performance, so it has to be done.

I find weights boring & sucky too. In the past I did a lot of squats and barbell stuff for biceps & triceps but that was it. The woman who runs the gym I used to belong to was very focused on rowing as cardio AND resistance because it does a combo of both. Her opinion was that the pulling that happens when you row IS a form of good resistance exercise. She felt pretty strongly that was very underrated as an exercise- gets your heart rate up and works your entire body: thighs, hamstrings, calves, quads, biceps, chest, back, etc.

This is why I didn't do much weight lifting but perhaps I should incorporate it at this point.

wait wait wait... hold up.

You spend HOURS mindlessly doing hours of indoor cardio- but weights are boring and sucky?

You have been doing it all wrong then my dear.


And there is no reason what so ever to wait for your resistance training. If you don't like free weights- try body weights- or TRX- progressive loading is the key- how ever you do that is up to you- but some form of resistance training that you can progressively load is key to 'heavy lifting'.

That being said- if you already knew the answer why did you ask the question? If you don't like doing weights and you think there is a sufficient answer in rowing (it's not) then why did you ask?

earnest question- not being snarky.

1Cattychick

I'm currently doing spin class 3x a week and the elliptical and rowing (cardio, not the weight one) machines the other 2 days of the week.

Since I have SO much more weight to lose I'm wondering the best way to go about it. Should I continue do tons of cardio over the next few months to torch calories and help get my weight down and THEN start adding in a good weight routine a few days a week OR should I start doing BOTH now?

In principle you don't need to do any exercise to lose weight, although doing some gives you more flexibility over your food choices to remain within calorie goals. Exercise helps you remain healthy and helps you to optimise the weight loss.

CV work helps optimise your heart health and improves your endurance, some forms of CV work will also increase your capacity, increasing your VO2Max.

Resistance training helps you to maintain lean body mass, so biasing your weight loss towards fat, rather than spreading the loss across fat, muscle and organ tissue.

Subject to what your actual goals are your best results will come from a split of resistance training and CV work. Personally I'm more interested in sports performance, so I run 5 times per week, cycle once or twice and do two bodyweight resistance sessions. If you're just after general weight loss then probably 3 sessions of each per week should do the trick.

I know they say your body gets used to doing the same crap all the time and that starts to slow down your progress

The whole "do something different because your body gets bored" thing is nonsense, however your body does adapt so you do need to keep increasing the load on it. run/ cycle/ row for longer distances, or faster, or use interval sessions to challenge yourself, with resistance training increase the load, or is bodyweight training the complexity of the exercise.

fwiw the resistance training bores me to tears, but it's something that helps me to prevent injury when I'm running and improves my performance, so it has to be done.

I find weights boring & sucky too. In the past I did a lot of squats and barbell stuff for biceps & triceps but that was it. The woman who runs the gym I used to belong to was very focused on rowing as cardio AND resistance because it does a combo of both. Her opinion was that the pulling that happens when you row IS a form of good resistance exercise. She felt pretty strongly that was very underrated as an exercise- gets your heart rate up and works your entire body: thighs, hamstrings, calves, quads, biceps, chest, back, etc.

This is why I didn't do much weight lifting but perhaps I should incorporate it at this point.

wait wait wait... hold up.

You spend HOURS mindlessly doing hours of indoor cardio- but weights are boring and sucky?

You have been doing it all wrong then my dear.


And there is no reason what so ever to wait for your resistance training. If you don't like free weights- try body weights- or TRX- progressive loading is the key- how ever you do that is up to you- but some form of resistance training that you can progressively load is key to 'heavy lifting'.

That being said- if you already knew the answer why did you ask the question? If you don't like doing weights and you think there is a sufficient answer in rowing (it's not) then why did you ask?

earnest question- not being snarky.

You should read my question again.

I wanted to know if I could get most of my weight loss off with simply cardio and THEN use weights to tone up AFTER the weight loss.

It's silly to me how instead of trying to give advice to people earnestly seeking opinions and trying to do better, people give flippant, condescending responses. Like it's SO taxing and we're suuuuch a bother. Ha!

Look, We can't all be well-versed in the art of weight training. If it's such a chore to respond to the less knowledgeable and you're going to be a douche, why waste energy doing it? You could be weightlifting after all! Wouldn't your time be better spent that way? ;-)

I'm new at my gym. My previous gym was a rowing, boot camp, cardio focused gym. It was very small and there weren't ANY weights. My new gym is 10,00 feet of endless equipment. I starting talking to some of the trainers yesterday, (after posting this Saturday) and their advice COUPLED with some of the kinder, more patient people responding this thread was that weight training (including rowing, but not limited to) should be done immediately and in conjunction with cardio, when you're trying to lose weight.

I like to bouncy action of cardio and moving to my music. I can't do that with weights which is why they seem so boring and sucky.

However, my first weight training class is tonight and the instructor is a woman, I def think I'll be less bored in a class setting. I'm excited!!