Cardio vs weights??!! Which do you do & WHY?

I do both. Strength 2x to 3x per week. Same with cardio. Just makes sense for overall health and well being. The OP blog post was filled with misinformatio and broscience as other have pointed out.

I agree that weights are better than straight cardio - though a combo of both is good.

One thing though - I'm totally NOT opposed to a cheat day. Actually, not opposed to having them a couple times a week. it's all relative. All about how fast you want to lose - or how slow. the amount of calories you consume in say a week, is relative to how much you lose. Who cares if you eat 1400 today, and 2000 or 3000 tomorrow? even if you ate 3000 2 days in a week, if you burn an average of 2200, that's an extra 1600 in a week.

That's not even a pound. If you workout 5 days a week and eat at a deficit of 800-1000/day, guess what - you dropped 5000 and ate an extra 1600 --- AND... you're just about at a pound loss for the week.

So yeah, I don't do cheat meals, I don't necessarily do cheat days. I just monitor my calories, and if I know I have a special day - or even a really stress-filled over the top day, I know that I can eat an extra 500, or 1000 or even 2000 calories in a day, and the world won't end. my weight loss won't come to a crashing halt.

As long as I maintain a deficit for the week, I will lose. As long as I maintain an equal balance between calories in = calories out, I won't gain. So I don't follow some predefined schedule. Some months I lose 2 lbs, some months I lose 10 or 14. I'm not in a race, and I'm not gaining back my weight. I'm also not living my life totally by the numbers. I'm just LIVING. AND I love this freedom to be my own boss on my weight loss - my own success is directly measured by how much of a deficit I maintain for a period of time. My rules, my body, my success and I'm happy :flowerforyou:

Cardio eats muscles???

C'mon now, this myth been dead and buried for a long time...

Read any clinical studies lately?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10204826

Here's an excerpt (emphasis on the bolded portion):

RESULTS:

Maximum oxygen consumption (Max VO2) increased significantly (p<0.05) but equally in both groups. Body weight decreased significantly more (p<0.01) in C+D than R+D. The C+D group lost a significant (p<0.05) amount of LBW (51 to 47 kg). No decrease in LBW was observed in R+D. In addition, R+D had an increase (p<0.05) in RMR O2 ml/kg/min (2.6 to 3.1). The 24 hour RMR decreased (p<0.05) in the C+D group.
CONCLUSION:

The addition of an intensive, high volume resistance training program resulted in preservation of LBW and RMR during weight loss with a VLCD.

But this study was of people on a very low calorie diet (800 cals a day). You can't just generalize this one study to all situations. Is there any research that covers people who are doing a more modest calorie deficit? The reason I'm poking at this is it's counter to my own experience. In about 3 months, I did pretty much only an elliptical with intervals, lost about 20 lbs, and gained a pound of LBM (as measured by a BodPod) while dropping 5.1% of body fat.

So it all depends, right? It depends on what kind of cardio you're doing, how hard you push it, what your diet actually is, etc., etc. Is it possible to lose LBM doing only cardio? Sure, I believe that. Do I believe it to necessarily be the case? No...

Cardio = can help lower high blood pressure, increase good cholesterol, improves your body's ability to move nutrients and oxygen to tissues and to dispose of waste products, will improve heart function, and of course it is a great way to lose weight with the right diet plan. This said I lift heavy 5 days a week and am not trying to lose weight, I am currently trying to gain some muscle mass so I have been limiting my cardio but will NEVER stop doing it!

Exactly! Both are important. Weight training is extrememly important, as is flexibility training AND cardio which is also strenght training for that all-important muscle...the heart.

I do both, and have been doing both for the last 25 years. I've also been a certified personal trainer since 2001 and make sure my clients include strength training, cardio, flexibility training and balance training.

BUMP

I do both.
Cardio is like weight lifting for your heart and lungs.
Weight lifting is like weight lifting for your muscles.
The more muscle you pack on your body, the more calories your body burns every day.

truth.

I'm one that does both. I really don't love lifting though. In fact, part of me hates it- it is uncomfortable, boring, and often leaves me hobbling around like an old lady. I'm working on my negative attitude and having a great community at my gym really helps keep me doing it. It never hurts to be stronger and lifting gives my body shape that I otherwise would not have. BUT cardio does so much more for me- most importantly, it clears my head, helps relieve stress and makes me a happier person. How it makes my body look isn't even a part of it.

I get how you feel. I'm completely opposite. Cardio is so boring to me, unless I'm on a bike ride in a fun trail or running somewhere where the run is fun and the scenery is changing. But lifting is different in that it's different stuff most of the time. Different routines, different auxilliaries, mulitple exercises. Always something to change before it get's stale. When I'm on the elliptical or the treadmill, I'm just waiting to be done.

Here's what I don't get. Evolutionarily, why would it make sense that weight lifting would be important to overall health? What did our early ancestors do that would resemble this kind of training? What do other animals do that resemble this kind of training? Running or walking just seems so much more natural...obviously the body would need to be able to do that, for survival's sake. But why lifting enormous amounts of weight over your head 5 times? It seems so strange and unnatural.

That isn't to say that I'm against weight training. i believe the science and I dutifully do my lifting twice a week (heavy). I'm just wondering about the why.

I can't lift weights due to a back injury. So I stick to Cycling and walking. Keeps me happy, self paced and It isn't an effort to do.

I Do Both.

Run a mile for warm up, Do my weight routine and then stationary bike for 15mins as a cooldown.

interesting post

Didn't read, but I am sure there are about 90 people saying DO BOTH and I agree.