300 lb work out plan?

_whatsherface

Wanting some opinions on some workouts I should be doing to maximize my results and be less bored in the gym. Right now I do 30 to 60 mins of hill intervals on the treadmill and 20 mins of weight machines. Arms or legs. I get mixed opinions. Some people tell me that I just need to focus on cardio for now. SW: 318 CW: 293. They say I don't need to work on any sort of weights until I weigh less because cardio is my best friend right now at this stage. Is this true? I work out 3x a week in a small gym. There isn't much room to do any activities outside of cardio or weight machines. They have some of those balls and some mats though. Any opinions or ideas?

KaterinaTerese

Doing weight training throughout your weight loss will help prevent muscle mass. Yes, cardio is great for weight loss, but the consensus around here is to combine the two. Keeping your NEAT - Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (walking to the post box, standing instead of sitting) - up will also help in general.

Best of luck!!

SaintGiff

90% of what you're doing with weights is probably still cardio, to be honest. And there's nothing wrong with using weights in that manner. I would drop the arm workout. You really only need to work biceps / triceps if you are either trying to build muscle on them, or trying to reshape them after you've lost all of the weight you want to lose. In any other case an arm workout is just a less effective cardio workout. Focus your weight work on the biggest muscle groups to maximize burn. Leg day. Back day. Throw some chest and arms in there for funsies if you want, but you'll get more benefit from working the back and legs.

KimWW

Don't give up on the weights. They help a lot. Possibly more than cardio, depending on your health status. If you have high blood pressure or other health concerns, cardio may NOT be your friend at all.

SYS15

I used to be over 300lbs.

DO NOT START WITH STRAIGHT CARDIO
You can seriously injure yourself. You are bouncing 300 lbs on your legs and ankles after what I assume would be a sedentary lifestyle.

Start out slow, ALL of my doctors (I had fitness weightloss and nutritionists) stated to start out with walking 30mins a day, and once you can get up to a good pace for an hour is when you should introduce light jogging.

Utilize a stationary bike if you want to keep your cardio up higher during this stage! Make sure to stay super hydrated.

cw106

swimming.

lunarlie

I used to be around 250 and when I was starting out I did a lot of calisthenics which helped a great deal. I was able to lose weight without feeling like I was dying like I did with cardio. Now that I'm out of the 200s I'm doing more cardio and not much calisthenics but only because I find cardio (Just Dance games) to be more fun and it's something I can do with my husband.

bajoyba

I would stick with doing both cardio and some sort of weight/resistance training if I were you. I started at 235 pounds and started right off the bat with some light cardio and progressive body weight/resistance training. I'm very glad I did. I improved my cardiovascular fitness that way, but I also got a lot stronger, and I think the weight training really helped with my body composition.

sympha01

90% of what you're doing with weights is probably still cardio, to be honest. And there's nothing wrong with using weights in that manner. I would drop the arm workout. You really only need to work biceps / triceps if you are either trying to build muscle on them, or trying to reshape them after you've lost all of the weight you want to lose. In any other case an arm workout is just a less effective cardio workout. Focus your weight work on the biggest muscle groups to maximize burn. Leg day. Back day. Throw some chest and arms in there for funsies if you want, but you'll get more benefit from working the back and legs.

This X1000. When people talk about "lifting" they really are referring to lifting heavy, which no, you don't really benefit from a lot when you first need to shed a lot of fat mass. But it's a great idea to make sure that your cardio program has a resistance component: for instance, working with lighter weights (which I arbitrarily tend to think of as dumbbells up to 20 lbs each), ideally I think in a circuit-training type format with only very very short rests in between sets.

I started my exercise program in the low 300s too. The important thing for me for a long time was really to establish a solid exercise habit, burn calories, and develop some endurance. I used (and still use!) FitnessBlender.com for ideas. Lots of great stuff there. At a larger size I still stay away from any of their HIIT as well as anything else that looks high-impact and might stress my knees. But they have lots of low-impact videos that are a mix of cardio and resistance training in essentially a circuit training format. They'll raise your heart rate, give you a good burn and help you preserve that lean mass.

_whatsherface

All good points. I'm no beginner. I've been doing this off and on for years and am extremely healthy. Doctors think I'm some sort of freak because science and genetics are against me. I'm pretty active as well but do enjoy sitting on my butt when I can and not moving from the couch lol. But I'll just keep doing what I'm doing then!