Starting SL + cardio for rapid fat loss?

twostepsforward

If i am starting SL5x5 today and want to shed fat as fast as possible (got a big hen do in two months exactly), would I be best to supplement with some cardio? What type would you suggest? Tabatas, HIIT, or a bit of old fashioned steady state?

I have overall about 50lbs to lose, and am eating at a 20% cut from TDEE. Just want to get shut of what I can reasonably sensibly.

Thanks!

xidia

Anything that keeps you moving and not bored out of your brain long enough to burn the calories. If you're trying to lose fat, the cells don't care what exercise you're doing, they just care that they have to give up their stores to fuel what you're doing.

So physiologically it doesn't matter. In terms of time, how much time do you have? And psychologically, what can you stand to do for the length of time that you have?

tameko2

Mostly what xidia said - but since you're eating 20% under your TDEE all you need to do is whatever you said you did when you calculated your TDEE (because that should have taken into account whatever amount of exercise you said you did).

Tabatas/HIIT aren't usually recommended for someone who is really out of shape, simply because you usually can't actually DO them properly when you're really out of shape. I'd probably stick with steady state for now.

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

I would also like to add that I think it's important to get your lifts done and focus on your form and performance there first and foremost.....priority should look like this:

1) Nutrition/Diet
2) Weight training
3) Cardio

Don't sacrifice your lifts for your cardio! I do agree with Tameko though that if you are just starting out focus on steady state....don't go too far too fast!

Good luck!

chocolatecroissant

I'm a newbie to 5x5 too and don't want to lose my cardio fitness. I tend to do cardio either before or on separate days to weights. However I know that some people suggest dropping cardio when starting out on doing 5x5. What do you do?

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

When I first started I actually just took out the cardio completely as the program doesn't actually call for any and I really wanted to focus on my form and my lifting. Once I got a couple weeks out of the way I started to incorporate it back in, on non-lifting days, and then I made sure to make sure it wasn't anything crazy that would affect how my legs could perform the next day. So for example, I would just do 30 min on the treadmill doing intervals or steady state. Now I do a tabata finisher on the end of each weight session and then I do a cross between tabata and hiit on non-lifting days. My advice is not to eliminate the cardio but just listen to your body, especially as you are getting used to lifting heavy stuff! As I mentioned before, in my opinion the ranking looks like this:

1. Diet
2. Weights.
3. Cardio.....don't let your cardio affect your ability to lift!

You should join the StrongLifts 5x5 for Women group

chocolatecroissant

That is really helpful advice. Many thanks. How do I join the group?

Will_Thrust_For_Candy

Just search the group in the "group" tab at the top of the page

chocolatecroissant

Just discovered I'm already a member! :-)