Weights vs. Cardio for fat loss...

groversa
groversa Posts: 450 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So I have a simple question, in your experience, which works better?
Cardio, weight training, or something else?

Just tell me your experience :) That would be wonderful! Thanks in advance!
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Replies

  • ericadawn92
    ericadawn92 Posts: 346 Member
    if you end up losing fat, looking thinner/fitter, but gain weight from muscle, why would gaining weight matter? just wondering.

    for me, all the weight I've lost has been from doing cardio literally almost every day since the beginning of october (in addition to eating much, much healthier). however, one of my new years resolutions was to add weight/strength training as well because I want to be strong...not just thin.
  • groversa
    groversa Posts: 450 Member
    But should I start weights in the beginning to gain muscle when I still need to lose the fat? I feel like I should start to lose first then add in weights. Idk though, I am kind of new to this and just wondering.
  • paijing
    paijing Posts: 184 Member
    At minimum, lift weights and eat at a deficit. No cardio necessary. Lifting weights ensures that you'll retain your muscle mass while you're losing weight.

    It's unlikely that you'll actually gain any muscle while eating at a calorie deficit, because your body needs a calorie surplus to do that, but your muscles will start to look more defined as you lose weight and the fat peels off. However, sometimes, because of voodoo magic, you can get what we call "newbie gains," i.e. you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Sadly, that doesn't last very long.

    If you're into cardio, then go ahead. It burns some calories and can be good for your heart. It's not a necessary part of the fat loss equation, however! Don't feel you have to do it.

    I got in shape eating at a deficit and doing a full-body weight lifting routine 3x/week. I occasionally use the treadmill to do some sprints, but that's about it.
  • meshashesha2012
    meshashesha2012 Posts: 8,329 Member
    why does it have to be either or?

    for fat loss i'd say focus more on weight training. i've had great results from weight training (strong lifts) where i've only lost 21 pounds, but since most of that has been fat that's translated into 5 pant sizes. that' pretty good considering i've had more crazy eating days where i ate well over maintenance than days when i was below

    for fitness do a combination of both because cardio health is also important. looking ripped is great and all but it loses it's coolness if you can't run a mile
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    Calorie deficit for fat loss.

    Weights for muscle retention. (We lose muscle when when diet. This is sad.)

    Cardio for cardio fitness, and to help maintain calorie deficit while eating more.
  • gwenkathleen
    gwenkathleen Posts: 6
    The huge truth of the matter is- if you have more muscle, you will burn more fat while you're NOT working out! So it's important to do both. You'd have to work super super hard to look 'muscley', so don't worry about that. I think for a woman, cardio at least 3x a week and strength training 3x a week (20-30min at a time) is recommended, from what I can remember.

    The more muscle you have, the more you burn throughout each day!
  • AussieTrainer
    AussieTrainer Posts: 171
    did cardio, lost some weight, was tough to keep up, plateaued a lot, started lifting weights and the rest came off plus now I can eat more.
  • groversa
    groversa Posts: 450 Member


    for fitness do a combination of both because cardio health is also important. looking ripped is great and all but it loses it's coolness if you can't run a mile

    Great point! haha
  • groversa
    groversa Posts: 450 Member
    did cardio, lost some weight, was tough to keep up, plateaued a lot, started lifting weights and the rest came off plus now I can eat more.

    What do you mean plus you can eat more because you're doing weights?
  • AussieTrainer
    AussieTrainer Posts: 171
    did cardio, lost some weight, was tough to keep up, plateaued a lot, started lifting weights and the rest came off plus now I can eat more.

    What do you mean plus you can eat more because you're doing weights?

    I seem to burn way more now because I have lean muscle mass that requires calories even when I'm not exercising. plus I just feel strong, so I enjoy working out more than I used to, so I do more of it including aerobic stuff.
  • groversa
    groversa Posts: 450 Member

    I seem to burn way more now because I have lean muscle mass that requires calories even when I'm not exercising. plus I just feel strong, so I enjoy working out more than I used to, so I do more of it including aerobic stuff.

    Okay, so what type of things (weight training) do you do? I live in an apartment and in our workout room we have a weight machine that I use. I only know how to do about 5 or 6 things on it though. What type of things do you do?
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
    Moderate calorie deficit for weight loss.

    Relatively heavy resistance training for retention of lean body mass. Most of the muscle gains people think they see in a calorie deficit is really some swelling and water retention as the muscles repair but is not real muscle gain....outside of the newbie gains mentioned above.

    Cardio for additional heart and lung health, endurance training, and/or being able to eat more. This is optional but recommended by most everyone. It does not have to be long boring low intensity either. 10-30 minutes of HIIT can give you most of the benefits you are looking for from cardio.

    Weightlifting provides some good heart and lung benefits by itself. Sometimes people seem to forget that.


    .
  • Laces_0ut
    Laces_0ut Posts: 3,750 Member
    you will look much better if you chose weights over cardio. but like others have said doing both is ideal.

    but for weights do real weights. not body pump or other things like it....im talking real weight lifting with heavy weights.
  • AussieTrainer
    AussieTrainer Posts: 171


    Okay, so what type of things (weight training) do you do? I live in an apartment and in our workout room we have a weight machine that I use. I only know how to do about 5 or 6 things on it though. What type of things do you do?

    after lots of procrastination and excuses and trying things on my own, I joined a gym. I really didn't know what I was doing, trying to use free weights at home. I take a group weight lifting class and honestly its the best thing ever. I was taught the lifts, form, safety, warm up, and doing it with other people makes it so much better...we can all struggle together haha... yeah, I hated the idea of gyms until I joined one.

    compound moves: squats, deadlifts. presses. pushups. more squats. squat as much as possible. lol.
  • groversa
    groversa Posts: 450 Member
    you will look much better if you chose weights over cardio. but like others have said doing both is ideal.

    but for weights do real weights. not body pump or other things like it....im talking real weight lifting with heavy weights.

    So if I'm lifting heavy weights, (which will be a lot for me because I'm not used to it) how long should I do it for per workout session? I'm used to doing moderate weights at a constant pace for about 15 minutes, but I'm pretty sure if I go heavy for that long my arms will rip off. lol
  • paijing
    paijing Posts: 184 Member

    Okay, so what type of things (weight training) do you do? I live in an apartment and in our workout room we have a weight machine that I use. I only know how to do about 5 or 6 things on it though. What type of things do you do?

    Deadlift, squats, overhead pres, bench press, row, and lat pull down. Pullups and pushups.
  • groversa
    groversa Posts: 450 Member
    Okay so the weight trainer in my apt is sort of like a bowflex. So I don't think I can do bench press and squats and stuff.. but I can do pushups and sit ups and stuff on the machine?? haha
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,989 Member
    Calorie deficit for fat loss.

    Weights for muscle retention. (We lose muscle when when diet. This is sad.)

    Cardio for cardio fitness, and to help maintain calorie deficit while eating more.
    THIS.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • carenscuisine
    carenscuisine Posts: 15
    weights! Hands down! If you are doing them right, your heartrate will be up higher and longer than if you do cardio and you will be continuing to burn calories for hours after you stop working out. just regular cardio only burns calories while you are actually doing the cardio, ie, running, elliptical etc.. You want to do some searches for Anaerobic vs. aerobic and it will explain this process to you. Don't do heavier weights just longer and slower smaller weights. Try said excercises for 30 seconds at a time and then work up to 1 minutes of each excercise and see if you don't get a larger heart rate happening. You really don't need weights actually, your body weight is weight enough, try push ups, try pushup with one leg lifted, then the other, its enough weight. Do arm circles for two minutes....it burns...no extra weights. Squats both legs, one leg, front and back one leg....do that for one minute and you will feel the burn. search bodyweight workouts, this should get you started and good luck. I used to be a runner and all I did was hurt my body, now I do weights, and minicircuits and am so much stronger and leaner than I was as a runner. Here is a start for you http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sampleworkouts/tp/Best-Bodyweight-Exercises.htm. There is also the skinny fat theory of just doing cardio to lost weight. There are a lot of people who are thin who have a large body fat percentage or no muscle mass.....a lot of these people are avid runners but do not do any weights....this is not healthy! Get strong, be focused on it so you keep your bones strong at the very least! Us women need that for sure to live painfree into our older years.
    good luck!
  • groversa
    groversa Posts: 450 Member
    weights! Hands down! If you are doing them right, your heartrate will be up higher and longer than if you do cardio and you will be continuing to burn calories for hours after you stop working out. just regular cardio only burns calories while you are actually doing the cardio, ie, running, elliptical etc.. You want to do some searches for Anaerobic vs. aerobic and it will explain this process to you. Don't do heavier weights just longer and slower smaller weights. Try said excercises for 30 seconds at a time and then work up to 1 minutes of each excercise and see if you don't get a larger heart rate happening. You really don't need weights actually, your body weight is weight enough, try push ups, try pushup with one leg lifted, then the other, its enough weight. Do arm circles for two minutes....it burns...no extra weights. Squats both legs, one leg, front and back one leg....do that for one minute and you will feel the burn. search bodyweight workouts, this should get you started and good luck. I used to be a runner and all I did was hurt my body, now I do weights, and minicircuits and am so much stronger and leaner than I was as a runner. Here is a start for you http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sampleworkouts/tp/Best-Bodyweight-Exercises.htm
    good luck!

    Thanks! I have done pushups and arm circles and squats and all, I didn't know if they would actually help. I'll start doing those more :) What would I log it under for MFP (while logging my exercise)?
  • sm1zzle
    sm1zzle Posts: 920 Member
    Do both. You will burn fat and strengthen your muscles.
  • katy_trail
    katy_trail Posts: 1,992 Member
    heavy weights and plyo!
  • groversa
    groversa Posts: 450 Member
    heavy weights and plyo!

    plyo?
  • Dawn7664
    Dawn7664 Posts: 30 Member
    A pound of fat and a pound of muscle weight the same, a pound! A pound of fat is larger than a pound of muscle!

    I need to loose weight and strengthen my muscles so I use weight machines. My weight loss, in pounds has slowed since I began. I use to loose 2-3 pounds per week and now I loose 1-2 BUT I look better and inches are going more quickly. So if each week i am loosing 3 pounds of fat but gaining a pound in mucsle thats so my net loss is less i dont care!

    I have a lot of weight to lose so I do some cardio too to help burn calories and help my heart gain stamina. The old saying of - don't use the scale to determine how you look, use the mirror is very true.
  • LJCannon
    LJCannon Posts: 3,636 Member
    :drinker: DEFINITELY Weights + Cardio!! I believe they are Equally Important! I don't believe that I would have been anywhere nearly as Successful if I hadn't been doing Strength/Resistance Training right from Day One.

    But ~ That Is Just My Opinion!

    Plus, I want to be Strong, just as much as I want to be "Thin".
  • Lady_Bane
    Lady_Bane Posts: 720 Member
    Both.
  • Psalm17v22
    Psalm17v22 Posts: 168 Member
    Both

    God bless,
    Karen
  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
    It is actually been proven that both together work the best. Lifting weights and then doing a nice walk on the treadmill or a turn on an elliptical burns more calories in all than either or alone. Just, if you are going to do both along side, do softer walks on your lifting days. And then on days where you aren't lifting weights go for longer walks.

    When it comes to weight lifting, I have always been told that for weight loss lower weight higher rep. You should not be going over 12-15 reps per set. 8-10 is higher weight for more muscles. 12-15 is lower weigh for toning (i.e. weight loss). The last 2 or 3 should be tough, but not impossible.
  • hmadrone
    hmadrone Posts: 129 Member
    Cardio is better for fat loss:

    http://jap.physiology.org/content/early/2012/09/26/japplphysiol.01370.2011.full.pdf+html

    But you need strength training to hold onto your lean body mass.
  • brittg7
    brittg7 Posts: 146 Member
    get the New Rules of Lifting for Women book it will help you learn about lifting weights. i will say free wights are MUCH better than any machine you can use. and by lifting heavy you work up to real heavy. Start by lifting a wight for 8-10 reps with the last two being a bit of a struggle without losing form. you want to push yourself. lift for about 30-45 minutes and do some HIIT cardio. the combo along with diet will help with fat loss and muscle tone

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