Just want to know

AnumSattar

Does weight training help in losing weight? I am in dilemma to join or not to join gym... I am doing cardio right now.

_KitKat_

Not in the way cardio does but better. Lifting can help retain lean body mass (muscles are part of this), the more LBM you have the better you look and the more calories you burn even just sitting on your butt. A lifting session may not burn as much as a cardio session but as a cardio session quits burning when the session is over, a lifting session continues to burn for the next day or so and the body repairs your muscles. Cardio is great if you need more calories to eat for the day, lifting is better for body composition and looking better naked. Using MFP, neither should help with weight loss. You are suppose to eat exercise calories back, so cardio for heart and more to eat, lifting for retaining LBM and then burning more everyday and body composition.

darkguardian419

Short answer, absolutely... if done correctly.

Just cardio often leads to "skinny-fat"

lifting, like kpost323 stated helps you look better and lose weight. Also, so many people worry about the last 5-10lbs... if you're lifting and develop your body nicely, that last 5 or 10 won't be nearly as noticable.

Personally, I FEEL better when lifting, I feel built up, where cardio just tears me down. It's my preferred "exercise", and it's what keeps me going.

chaemd

KPost323 is correct. I find that posting my strength training is a little discouraging in MFP because you don't get calorie credit for the exercises when you do it. All your credit comes from the cardio portion. In any event, how I combat that is I do interval training on my three strength training days. I have joined a gym. I warm up on a cardio machine for ten minutes. Then I decide on three strength training exercises. I do fifteen reps of each - moving from one machine to the next. When that is done, I go to a different cardio machine from my warm-up and do 3 minutes 20 seconds on it. Then back to those three strength training exercises and repeat the reps and back to the same (if available) cardio machine for another 3 minutes and 20 seconds. I repeat that sequence a third time. Now I have completed 10 additional minutes of cardio. This keeps my heart rate up and ensures that I get all of my weights in without getting bored and without stopping. I find three other strength training exercises - usually the same body parts. If this is "Arms and Back" day, I stick with that. "Legs and Back" or "Abs" are my other days. I find a different cardio machine from the first two for the second round. I finish by completing ten straight minutes on a fourth cardio machine. When I am done I have completed 40 minutes of cardio. You don't have to join a gym to get this done, if you have weights at the house or can do squats or lunges or pull-ups, etc. you accomplish the same goal. Also, if you want to do more rounds of strength training, you can. Just make them intervals and you get both done. This has been very effective for me. My other three days of exercise are straight cardio. Good luck!

albayin

many have said for many times guess I will just repeat them: strength/heavy weight training helps body recomposition hence look better; caloric deficit helps weight loss, a better reading on the scale.

Having said that, in my own experience, combining everything doesn't necessarily get the max result in every department...you just have to pick you battle....focus one thing at a time

_KitKat_

KPost323 is correct. I find that posting my strength training is a little discouraging in MFP because you don't get calorie credit for the exercises when you do it. All your credit comes from the cardio portion. In any event, how I combat that is I do interval training on my three strength training days. I have joined a gym. I warm up on a cardio machine for ten minutes. Then I decide on three strength training exercises. I do fifteen reps of each - moving from one machine to the next. When that is done, I go to a different cardio machine from my warm-up and do 3 minutes 20 seconds on it. Then back to those three strength training exercises and repeat the reps and back to the same (if available) cardio machine for another 3 minutes and 20 seconds. I repeat that sequence a third time. Now I have completed 10 additional minutes of cardio. This keeps my heart rate up and ensures that I get all of my weights in without getting bored and without stopping. I find three other strength training exercises - usually the same body parts. If this is "Arms and Back" day, I stick with that. "Legs and Back" or "Abs" are my other days. I find a different cardio machine from the first two for the second round. I finish by completing ten straight minutes on a fourth cardio machine. When I am done I have completed 40 minutes of cardio. You don't have to join a gym to get this done, if you have weights at the house or can do squats or lunges or pull-ups, etc. you accomplish the same goal. Also, if you want to do more rounds of strength training, you can. Just make them intervals and you get both done. This has been very effective for me. My other three days of exercise are straight cardio. Good luck!

Not criticizing but the interval training or I call it circuit training, while great....isn't it always just considered cardio. I ask because that is what I do for my cardio days. For lifting, I prefer to lift heavy and do full body 3 times per week. Compound lifts for 4- 6 reps/6sets and isolation exercises for 6-10 reps sets vary on rep number (aim for 30 something total). I am asking out of curiosity... Do you see strength gains (upping your workout weights) from this, and if using a weight that causes fatigue at the end of your set, do you take a rest to go to the next? When I do circuit I lower all my weights and raise my reps. During normal lifting days, I do jump from 2-3 isolation exercises at once, as long as each is a different muscle...the muscle gets a rest and I am done sooner. Do you do any compound lifts...squats, bench, deadlift with your strength training? I am curious because I think it would kill me to squat then jump on a treadmill then squat again. What are the main results this has given you?

Really no insult or judgment, just trying to learn what others do and the benefits of the ways they do things. I think your workout would probably kill me :flowerforyou: and dead I wouldn't get to enjoy my hard work :drinker:

BusyRaeNOTBusty

KPost323 is correct. I find that posting my strength training is a little discouraging in MFP because you don't get calorie credit for the exercises when you do it.

There's an entry for strength training under cardio that will give you calories burned.