More cardio or strength training?

hiyomi

So I posted earlier I was going to increase my cardio session from 50 minutes to an hour and a half but most people told me to do strength training instead because too much cardio burns muscle. I do not mind doing that, but I wanted to know, if you have alot of fat to burn, does doing too much cardio still burn muscle? I weigh 268 right now and am looking to get to 200 pounds and then 180. I am currently doing 50 minutes cardio and about 20-30 min weight lifting. Is adding more cardio bad for me if I want to lose alot of fat?

sunsnstatheart

So I posted earlier I was going to increase my cardio session from 50 minutes to an hour and a half but most people told me to do strength training instead because too much cardio burns muscle. I do not mind doing that, but I wanted to know, if you have alot of fat to burn, does doing too much cardio still burn muscle? I weigh 268 right now and am looking to get to 200 pounds and then 180. I am currently doing 50 minutes cardio and about 20-30 min weight lifting. Is adding more cardio bad for me if I want to lose alot of fat?

The fat loss comes from a calorie deficit regardless of what combination of less food, more exercise you use.

If you're getting sufficient protein and doing strength training then that should help you maintain muscle mass as you lose fat, but you are going to lose some muscle mass regardless.

IMO, if you are 268 now then your focus needs to be on weight loss and more cardio is better. Once you lose all the weight, then you can focus on gaining muscle, but one thing at a time. When I was losing I ran longer distances and trained for 60+ mile hikes, it helped. Now that I'm working on gaining, I've cut back on my running and hiking as I can't eat sufficient calories to cover it and gain. Again, this is just my opinion.

And seriously well done on your workouts!

CrisAlex

Are you doing 50 minutes cardio followed by 20-30 minutes of weightlifting? Are these weightlifting sessions full-body or split routines? If you like full-body and can do 40-50 minutes 2-3 times a week, you might want to check out "The New Rules of Lifting for Women".

You can still do great things with your cardio if you change things up - I'm not sure what cardio you do, but if you can put in some intervals one day and do a shorter cardio session of HIIT, you won't need to increase cardio to an hour and a half.

Lastly, but very importantly, is your diet in check? The book I mentioned above has a chapter on nutrition and includes some great recipes.

Best of luck!

hiyomi

Right now my routine is 1200-1800 calories a day, most days around 1700 calories. I do cardio sessions on a stationary bike for 50 minutes Monday-Friday followed by weightlifting for 20-30 minutes. Most of the weightlifting is split body routine, maybe a little more focus on my arms.

hiyomi

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