Question about weights and cardio.

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  • AntWrig
    AntWrig Posts: 2,273 Member
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    The benefits of walking outweigh any form of intense cardio. With walking you release the fat burning hormones (sensitive lipase and catecholamines).

    I think you are a little off on this one. For starters, fat burning will happen no matter what, but lower hear rate exercises do burn I higher percentage of fat burning. Problem is that you have to spend MORE time to burn the same amount of fat as you would doing high intensity cardio.

    Second, you do nothing for your athleticism if you are just walking. My wife is a walker, I do interval cardio. She gets tired easy, I don't.
    From a pure perfomance standpoint sure high intensity cardio is good. However, are you training for a sport? Is she? No.

    As I stated before, for body composition purposes cardio (treadmill, elleptical) etc is not needed. People doing HIIT sessions 3-6 times a week coupled with weight training, actually believe they are doing their bodies good.
    Second, you do nothing for your athleticism if you are just walking. My wife is a walker, I do interval cardio. She gets tired easy, I don't.
    Well duh, do you know what anaerobic means? Interval cardio is not an AEROBIC exercise. Interval cardio improves your VO2 max. Once again something that is not important for body composition.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    That said, I have been at this for a month and haven't lost a single pound. I was frustrated at first, but noticed that my pants are looser and figured out that I was replacing fat with muscle and dropping inches. I'm still holding out hope that next month I'll see some actual poundage loss.

    Congratulations on your great _FAT_ loss.

    If you are feeding your workouts, and your muscle can really grow bigger, there is no doubt the increased metabolism will aid greatly in even further fat loss during all your non-exercise daily activities.

    Hide the scale!
  • Katie3784
    Katie3784 Posts: 543
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    I definitely spend more time on lifting than on cardio. I also do 30-50 minutes of mat pilates every morning. I lift weights 4 days a week, and I do circuits, meaning I move from one exercise to another without resting. Once I'm done with all exercises I take about a two minute break, then I repeat two more times. This ends up taking between 30 and 40 minutes. After that I do 12-18 minutes of HIIT or tabata on my elliptical. I hate cardio so I like to make it as short as I can. I do cardio 5 to 6 days a week. I have just started lifting heavier weights, so I can only do between 8 and 12 reps. I think it' working. I used to do lighter weights, which has given great tone and definition, but I kinda just wanted to step it up a bit and challenge myself. We'll see how it goes.
  • SteveHunt113
    SteveHunt113 Posts: 648 Member
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    I definitely spend more time on lifting than on cardio. I also do 30-50 minutes of mat pilates every morning. I lift weights 4 days a week, and I do circuits, meaning I move from one exercise to another without resting. Once I'm done with all exercises I take about a two minute break, then I repeat two more times. This ends up taking between 30 and 40 minutes. After that I do 12-18 minutes of HIIT or tabata on my elliptical. I hate cardio so I like to make it as short as I can. I do cardio 5 to 6 days a week. I have just started lifting heavier weights, so I can only do between 8 and 12 reps. I think it' working. I used to do lighter weights, which has given great tone and definition, but I kinda just wanted to step it up a bit and challenge myself. We'll see how it goes.
    Sounds like a great workout!
  • yesthistime
    yesthistime Posts: 2,051 Member
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    Bump
  • rockerbabyy
    rockerbabyy Posts: 2,258 Member
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    i do three days of lifting, and two days of cardio.. according to my plan im supposed to lift (takes 20-30 minutes) and do 20 minutes of cardio on lifting days, and 40 minute sessions on cardio days. i usually just end up doing lifting, and then 60 minute cardio sessions, but im trying to change that.
  • mskari77
    mskari77 Posts: 142
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    The problem is that people use cardio as a means of creating a calorie deficit. Nutrition should be the first choice in creating a deficit. For improving body composition, intense and heavy weight training is the way to go. Another benefit is that weight training provides cardio benefits.

    So let's recap:
    1. Calorie deficit through diet.
    2. Train heavy.
    3. Don't use cardio as a means of creating a deficit. If you have to do so, I suggest you check your diet again.

    The benefits of walking outweigh any form of intense cardio. With walking you release the fat burning hormones (sensitive lipase and catecholamines).

    Now, before anyone says anything. HIIT is not cardio, it's actually ALMOST a weight training session, because it'a an Anaerobic and not an Aerobic exercise.

    Thank you for this! Gives me a new way to look at it. I do enjoy a good 45-60 min walk on the treadmill.....it is kind of my way of decompressing for the day.
  • MummaAimz
    MummaAimz Posts: 81 Member
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    I do 30 minutes of cardio and switch on and off between upper body and lower body for my strength. I do a 20 minute cardio warm up, 30 minutes of weights for whatever muscle group I'm doing that day, and then 10 minutes of cardio to end my work out to get my heart rate pumping again. I live heavy and its SOOOO worth it. Cuts your arms and legs down so much faster and efficently. I've lost 30 pounds since october, the majority of which when I started lifting. I don't mind being a little bulky though, I've always been muscular dealing with horses on a daily basis so I'm not sure if heavy is the way to go if you want to be lean. Might work, might not. GOOD LUCK!!!
  • sweetnspiccy
    sweetnspiccy Posts: 6
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    I really enjoyed reading this some good info and good ideas for me to try.
    Thanks
  • suejonestx
    suejonestx Posts: 256 Member
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    Why not split your time between cardio and weights? Cardio to burn fat, weights to strengthen and build fat-burning muscle. You can be muscular and still have fat. In my opinion, cardio and diet is what actually burns the fat.
  • jennbriere
    jennbriere Posts: 63 Member
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    bump
  • Ashleysh22
    Ashleysh22 Posts: 209
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    definately don't cut out cardio. Muscle is good because muscle burns more calories than fat - and in essence helps you burn your fat. It also looks nice of course. but that being said - cardio is really good for you too! It is good for keeping your heart healthy as well as necessary for weight loss.

    That being said, there are weight lift programs and classes that will keep your heart rate up WHILE building muscle. I just started a Body Pump class which is essentially 1 hour of some kind of weight lifting - it keeps my heart rate up and I burn between 350 and 425 calories depending on who is teaching it that day (at the gym). But this overall muscle developement can only be done every other day - so on the other days, I do 40 minute Insanity Cardio videos, or I go for a run (depending on the weather - dang living somewhere cold!)

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