Should I just focus on cardio?

jennismagic

Allow me to preface this by saying that I know strength training is critical to building a healthier body, but my main goal is to drop pounds, and just about everything I've read about getting serious about weight loss seems to favor cardio over strength. I know that women can't bulk up with basic strength exercises, but I am worried that adding strength at this point will impede my weight loss, if that makes sense. Is it okay to just forgo strength until I reach a point where I'm comfortable doing strength exercises?

Venturin

Absolutely. Do things you love and get your heart pumping some and you will be fine

norabeth

Bump

BeautyFromPain

Well it depends... do you care more about the number on the scale or the way you look?

GAsoulstar

I recommend you lose the amount of weight you have set as a goal and then slowly start you strength training. I feel the same way you feel about strength training.

chattipatty2

bump!

LiveforChange

I think you should at first its great make you sweat alot and it helps trust me . I would also tell that zumba helped me alot in many different ways

katemme

Well it depends... do you care more about the number on the scale or the way you look?

If you focus on running, your body can learn to tap into fat storage.

Charlayray

From what I learned, you should probably do some cardio for about 2 months. Once you drop a few pounds ( I don't know your over all weight loss goal) then get into some strength. Now people usually think that when doing strength, you have to do super heay weights. You don't have to. You can do low weight, higher reps. That burns many calories and can really help burn the fat. So when you are ready, do that, that way you won't bulk up.

domgirl85

I found strength workouts that are fast paced. I'm always moving so it's like cardio. I lost weight about 6 years ago and I didn't at strength for a longtime. The downfall was that I wasn't toned. Depending on how much weight you want to lose, you could end up with saggy skin. I'd try to find fun/"moving" strength routines. I use Fitness Magazine but workout DVDs are helpful too

fiveohmike

Well it depends... do you care more about the number on the scale or the way you look?

If you focus on running, your body can learn to tap into fat storage.

Huh?

If you focus on burning more calories than you body takes in, regardless of the type of exercise, at a healthy calorie deficit your body will tap into fat storage. Running is pretty harsh on heavier people as well. You will burn roughly the same calories over 1 mile walking vs running. Running just gets you done faster.

aspen_matthews

Strength training increases your metabolism to help you burn more and keep weight off in the long run. Plus, it helps shape that body as the fat falls off :-)

getthin4life

Excellent point. Gave me something to think about.

frootcat

I am worried that adding strength at this point will impede my weight loss, if that makes sense. Is is it okay to just forgo strength until I reach a point where I'm comfortable doing strength exercises?

It may impede *weight* loss, but it wouldn't impede *fat* loss, which is what most of us are really more interested in.

That being said, I think you should do whatever you want, whatever will make you enjoy moving your body and moving toward your goal. When you're bored with that or ready to move on, you will

BEMND

I started a training program for a 5k & using this site 3wks ago. Right now I'm interval "running" 3x a week & staying @ 1200 calories & that seems to be working (so far). I think (when just starting out) any exercise that you enjoy & can stick with is great. I have always thought i hated cardio, but I actually kind of like running. Hope you find what works for you!

BeautyFromPain

Let me just say here.,,

weights/more muscle mass increases our BMR significantly.

plus would you rather be skinny fat would you?

Awkward30

So it depends. Lean mass is hard to build, but when a person gets fat they build some extra lean mass to help lugging around the extra weight. If you dot strength train, you'll probably lose most of that, and maybe more. If you feel you have a large frame and extra mass, you could neglect strength training and lose some, but the problem is that once you lose it, it will take a lot to build it back up. I would probably strength train 2x a week until I was aroun 25% bodyfat and then make an educated decision about what size I want to be and how much muscle I want to keep.

I lost almost 1 lb of muscle for every 3 lb of fat when I was just running, training for a half marathon. I feel that if I had been lifting then and limited muscle loss more, I'd probably be at my goal body fat percent at my current weight. Yes, keeping more muscle will make you look leaner at higher weights. Oh well, less than 10 lb left to go!

scribb

I would suggest weights and cardio. If you just do the cardio until you gat to the weight you want, you will start gaining once you start lifting. I think it is better to lift while losing. You may not lose as fast as you want, but you will lose inches.

You can also do a little cardio (20 mions) after the wights which burns a lot.

Good luck.

jennismagic

Well it depends... do you care more about the number on the scale or the way you look?

Both, but I think I'm more concerned about my weight than how I look, although they go hand in hand. I'm pretty muscular already, or so said the consultant I met at Medifast. I don't look like I weigh what I weigh, and I think that could work in my favor.

2Bgoddess

i see by your ticker that you have a significant amount to lose. I have been there. my advice is to focus on cardio for now and when you are more comfortable add weights/strength training. I can tell you from experience that attempting things like push ups, crunches, weights, etc. can be very intimidating as well as discouraging. because we already have extra weight that we are carrying around, our muscles and joints are under more strain to begin with. Again, this is just my opinion, as someone who was more than 100 pounds over weight, i struggled and struggled with this. finally i decided to focus on just cardio until I had dropped about 50 pounds. things got a whole lot easier then. Then I started with the sit ups, push ups(from the knee) and crunches, leg lifts, etc.

Can I also tell you, don't leave it TOO long. I just this week, after being stuck at an 88 pound loss, started with a trainer at the gym (my good friend) and discovered that what they say is true, quick weight loss can lead to lost lean muscle mass. my legs are strong from years of carrying the weight, but my arms are like wet noodles and I can barely do 12 reps of bicep curl s with 10 pound weights in each hand. :-( I wanted to go heavier, but instead have to use the barbie weights.

GOOD LUCK!

Healthymom207

I wouldn't just focus on cardio, reason being that you could burn more calories if you built more muscle. You would be burning more calories even when your resting if you incorporate some weight training into your workouts. You don't have to go overboard, just 15 minutes while your watching your favorite TV show....grab some weights and do some bicep curls, tricep curls, squats....stuff like that but do a few sets of them. I did that the other night and my biceps and triceps are sore now. Your body looks better with tone to it too. Hope this helps.

Awkward30

Let me just say here.,,

weights/more muscle mass increases our BMR significantly.

plus would you rather be skinny fat would you?

That's not really fair. A pound of muscle burns about 6-32 cal per day (science can't reach a consensus) pick something in the middle like 20. A lb of fat burns about 6 cals a day by comparison. So yeah it does effect BMR, but any loss effects BMR.

rapt1

No. Learn to lift correctly and learn to lift heavy. Start light. Doing that will help you more than cardio. Adding cardio Will help tremendously. Go follow a program like starting strength, Focus on learning to do the lifts correctly, that means squatting below parallel.
Oh don't make the the mistake of thinking women shouldn't lift like a male. Muscle is muscle, women lack the testosterone to get the size a male does but will benefit positively all the same.

StarvingDiva

Do what you are comfortable doing, however MFP had me at 1200 calories and I didn't start consistently losing 2 lbs a week until I upped my calories and added in strength training.

mfpcopine

Allow me to preface this by saying that I know strength training is critical to building a healthier body, but my main goal is to drop pounds, and just about everything I've read about getting serious about weight loss seems to favor cardio over strength. I know that women can't bulk up with basic strength exercises, but I am worried that adding strength at this point will impede my weight loss, if that makes sense. Is it okay to just forgo strength until I reach a point where I'm comfortable doing strength exercises?

Sure, it's fine. Two things:

1) Strength training shouldn't impede your weight loss progress.

2) If you have areas where you carry your weight disproportionately no matter how thin you become, you might want to be careful about using direct weight training on those areas because you could end up looking bigger. You can think about that later when you begin to incorporate strength training.

fiveohmike

I would suggest doing weight training on top of the cardio. You will notice great changes in your body composition this way. Lean muscle mass absolutely shreds body fat.

sk2775

I would suggest doing a combination of both. Do more cardio then strength training, but do try to do some strength training from time to time. I wish I knew that when I started on this healthy journey 14 months ago. Some of the best programs to do are those that combine strength with cardio. Jillian Michaels has some great workouts. 30DS (not my favorite, but it combines both) and JM no more trouble zone. You burn some nice calories and you get in some nice cardio and strength training at the same time. Win win situation. Good luck on your journey :-)

amminarose

I say if you're not feeling the cardio now, you're not going to feel it later. So take baby steps. If it's hard to do push ups, then strength training is definitely a necessity. Build your strength and tone while burning those calories.

wild_wild_life

I think the most important thing is that you are doing something that you enjoy. That said, using weights in addition to cardio will help preserve your muscle mass so you will lose more fat than muscle. Lifting weights lets your body know that muscle is important and necessary and that it should stick around. It doesn't even have to be a big deal, in my opinion. I had a 5lb dumbbell at first and didn't really know what kind of exercises to do so just kind of lifted it in different ways and when that got too easy, got a larger dumbbell, etc. It might not be perfect but I think it is still beneficial and will not hinder your weight loss, in my opinion.

mfpcopine

Let me just say here.,,

weights/more muscle mass increases our BMR significantly.

plus would you rather be skinny fat would you?

That's a myth. Muscle increases the metabolism only by a modest amount and the effect is short-lasting.

HeidiMightyRawr

Do what you enjoy because ultimately, that is what you will stick to and have the greatest results with.

Although, I know you said you are mostly focused on weight at the moment, but strength training can change the body in a much more dramatic way than just cardio. I'm not talking about just being more muscular, but fat loss, inches lost, dress sizes dropping, less muscle lost (everyone loses "some" muscle when they lose weight)
6lbs into my own weight loss and with heavy lifting I've gone from barely being able to do up the button on my jeans, to them being so loose they fall down when I run, and I can pull them down without undoing the button! Even though I'm obviously slightly bigger, my stomach is flatter than it was at 12lbs lighter. (profile pic, left: 132lbs, right: 144lbs) My body fat was also 27% at 150lbs when I first started lifting, about a year on from that, I was the same weight but 22% body fat.

Also, while it may slow down weight loss, if you have quite a bit to lose, you will still lose weight. The rate at which a person may build muscle, and the amount of water they may possibly retain by lifting heavy, is not going to be above that of fat loss (in a person who has quite a bit they want to lose) so there's really no need to worry about your loss stalling completely.