How much cardio to how much strength training?

My goal is to lose about 20 lbs and tone up - I know you need to do both cardio and strength training for the best results.

How much of each does everyone do?

What combo has worked the best?
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Replies

  • Hey I'm new to the whole board thing does anyone know how I can get a cardio workout in using a resistance band I'm in a wheelchair so I'm kind a limited on what I can and can't do I'm just hoping there some way I can do a cardio workout using the resistance bands
  • Jess830409
    Jess830409 Posts: 285 Member
    Not sure honestly :(


    BUMP
  • gemmaleigh1989
    gemmaleigh1989 Posts: 241 Member
    So you have two goals.....lose weight/fat and then build some muscle (toning up IS building muscle)

    The truth is, you can't accomplish these two goals at the same time.

    What I recommend is lose weight first and then when you are down to your goal weight, focus on building muscle. So I will talk about losing weight first and then biulding muscle.

    Losing weight: You need to be eating at a calorie deficit obviously, work out your BMR and then your TDEE and then subtract a few hundred calories from that (but never go below 1200 calories). With exercise, you should mainly be focusing on cardio, so I would do this about 5-6 times a week for 45 minutes to an hour. You should still strength train during this time, and do you know why? It is not to ultimately build muscle, because building muscle while on a calorie deficit is VERY hard to do (unless you're new to lifting, you will make small gains in the beginning), the purpose of weight lifting while on a calorie deficit and losing weight is to PRESERVE existing muscle. If you didn't do this, and just did cardio, you would be burning fat AND muscle....strength train and do cardio and you preserve muscle, meaning you burn fat and very little muscle (which means you burn more fat!!!) I would do 2 days of a full body weight lifting work out, or split them over the week so you hit each body part twice.

    Right so onto building muscle....Once you are down to your goal body fat percentage you can start focusing on building muscle. You need to up your calories so you are eating at a calorie surplus....scary I know. But you would need to aim for about 200 calories over your maintenance level. Then you focus heavily on weight lifting and reduce your cardio. I would do cardio about twice a week to keep fat off, and then weight lift most days of the week (making sure you get at least a fulls day rest between each muscle group). Make sure you lift heavy with low reps. I promise you won't get fat from the extra calories, because if you stick to your weight lifting program, these extra calories fuel muscle growth. If you ate these extra calories and didn't do weight training, then obviously your body would store it as fat. Your BF percentage may creep up a little during your muscle building phase, and I'm sorry but this is inevitable....

    then once you have your ideal body, you can go down to eating at maintenance level and an even amount of cardio and weight training :) OR you can go back to the cutting phase while preserving all the new muscles you have built and getting rid of any small BF % you put on during your muscle building phase...however you feel at the time! A lot of people just continue cycling the two phases, but I would personally hope to aim to get to a maintainence phase long term...

    Hope I didn't confuse you and let me know if you have any questions!
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    So you have two goals.....lose weight/fat and then build some muscle (toning up IS building muscle)

    The truth is, you can't accomplish these two goals at the same time.

    What I recommend is lose weight first and then when you are down to your goal weight, focus on building muscle. So I will talk about losing weight first and then biulding muscle.



    No - "toning" simply means to lose fat, so that the underlying muscle shows up better. And if you lose "weight" first, you'll lose LBM - meaning muscle. You absolutely don't want to do that.



    OP's best bet would be to do a 3x per week full-body strength routine, such as StrongLifts, Starting Strength, or New Rules of Lifting for Women. Do some additional cardio - about 1/2 hour - either after your lifting; or no more than an hour on your off days. Just make sure you have enough energy and time to recover fully from your lifting session so that you can lift the next day. Do this at a slight Caloric deficit - for 20 lbs, you may be able to go with a 1 lb per week (500 Cal) deficit, although I think 1/2 lb per week (250 Cal) deficit would be best. And be sure to eat back at least half of your exercise Cals, as you'll need the energy.


    edited for spelling
  • RunDoozer
    RunDoozer Posts: 1,699 Member
    So you have two goals.....lose weight/fat and then build some muscle (toning up IS building muscle)

    The truth is, you can't accomplish these two goals at the same time.

    What I recommend is lose weight first and then when you are down to your goal weight, focus on building muscle. So I will talk about losing weight first and then biulding muscle.

    Losing weight: You need to be eating at a calorie deficit obviously, work out your BMR and then your TDEE and then subtract a few hundred calories from that (but never go below 1200 calories). With exercise, you should mainly be focusing on cardio, so I would do this about 5-6 times a week for 45 minutes to an hour. You should still strength train during this time, and do you know why? It is not to ultimately build muscle, because building muscle while on a calorie deficit is VERY hard to do (unless you're new to lifting, you will make small gains in the beginning), the purpose of weight lifting while on a calorie deficit and losing weight is to PRESERVE existing muscle. If you didn't do this, and just did cardio, you would be burning fat AND muscle....strength train and do cardio and you preserve muscle, meaning you burn fat and very little muscle (which means you burn more fat!!!) I would do 2 days of a full body weight lifting work out, or split them over the week so you hit each body part twice.

    Right so onto building muscle....Once you are down to your goal body fat percentage you can start focusing on building muscle. You need to up your calories so you are eating at a calorie surplus....scary I know. But you would need to aim for about 200 calories over your maintenance level. Then you focus heavily on weight lifting and reduce your cardio. I would do cardio about twice a week to keep fat off, and then weight lift most days of the week (making sure you get at least a fulls day rest between each muscle group). Make sure you lift heavy with low reps. I promise you won't get fat from the extra calories, because if you stick to your weight lifting program, these extra calories fuel muscle growth. If you ate these extra calories and didn't do weight training, then obviously your body would store it as fat. Your BF percentage may creep up a little during your muscle building phase, and I'm sorry but this is inevitable....

    then once you have your ideal body, you can go down to eating at maintenance level and an even amount of cardio and weight training :) OR you can go back to the cutting phase while preserving all the new muscles you have built and getting rid of any small BF % you put on during your muscle building phase...however you feel at the time! A lot of people just continue cycling the two phases, but I would personally hope to aim to get to a maintainence phase long term...

    Hope I didn't confuse you and let me know if you have any questions!

    Sorry, but no.
    No - "toning" simply means to lose fat, so that the underlying muscle shows up better. And if you lose "weight" first, you'll lose LBM - meaning muscle. You absolutely don't want to do that.



    OP's best bet would be to do a 3x per week full-body strength routine, such as StrongLifts, Starting Strength, or New Rules of Lifting for Women. Do some additional cardio - about 1/2 hour - either after your lifting; or no more than an hour on your off days. Just make sure you have enough energy and time to recover fully from your lifting session so that you can lift the next day. Do this at a slight Caloric deficit - for 20 lbs, you may be able to go with a 1 lb per week (500 Cal) deficit, although I think 1/2 lb per week (250 Cal) deficit would be best. And be sure to eat back at least half of your exercise Cals, as you'll need the energy.

    Exactly this. You can lose weight and retain most of your LBM by lifting. There will be some loss but a lot less than if you do cardio without strength training. You will end up looking much better in the end too.

    <3 Stronglifts
  • Jess830409
    Jess830409 Posts: 285 Member
    Thanks for the responses - see, this is the sort of feedback I need....totally clueless on this part of it all
  • sarahlouise7
    sarahlouise7 Posts: 198 Member
    Iv done alot of research into this, both here, online and people i know who have knowledge. Every one has said the same thing to me.....to lift at a calorie deficit and add a couple of cardio sessions in. This will enable me to lose body fat whilst retaining as much lean body mass as possible. I start strong lifts in April and will be following this advice.

    Lift - Mon Wed and Fri - I will follow Strong lifts 5x5 programme
    Cardio - Tue and Thurs - 30-45 min - I will swim, run, cycle and row to keep it varied, prob HIIT if I can.

    This leave wknd free for me as thats when my time is limited, so do days that suit you best but dont forget to not lift using same muscle groups on consecutive days, they need rest as im sure you probably know. There are some ladies on here who have had some great results doing this :) Good luck.
  • zooles
    zooles Posts: 93 Member
    Hey I'm new to the whole board thing does anyone know how I can get a cardio workout in using a resistance band I'm in a wheelchair so I'm kind a limited on what I can and can't do I'm just hoping there some way I can do a cardio workout using the resistance bands

    My BIL is a quad and has a stationery bike mounted on a table that his hands slip into. I was wondering if you could wrap your bands around something and maybe use them in a similar fashion.

    Did your bands come with a video? Maybe they have something you can utilize/modify from there.
  • loriband
    loriband Posts: 54 Member
    Bump
  • _DaniD_
    _DaniD_ Posts: 2,186 Member
    I did 6 days a week cardio with no lifting when losing weight (25 lbs). I didn't become skinny fat or look horrible naked contrary to all the horror stories I heard.

    I'm now lifting and doing cardio. Cardio 5 - 6 days a week and lifting 2 - 3 days a week.
  • _Witsy_
    _Witsy_ Posts: 609 Member
    My aim is to do full body weights 3 days, cardio 3-5
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
    You don't need any cardio for this goal - only calorie deficit, good macros, and strength training. However cardio is good for your cardiovascular system, so it's well worth doing 2-3x/week.
  • gemmaleigh1989
    gemmaleigh1989 Posts: 241 Member
    So you have two goals.....lose weight/fat and then build some muscle (toning up IS building muscle)

    The truth is, you can't accomplish these two goals at the same time.

    What I recommend is lose weight first and then when you are down to your goal weight, focus on building muscle. So I will talk about losing weight first and then biulding muscle.



    No - "toning" simply means to lose fat, so that the underlying muscle shows up better. And if you lose "weight" first, you'll lose LBM - meaning muscle. You absolutely don't want to do that.



    OP's best bet would be to do a 3x per week full-body strength routine, such as StrongLifts, Starting Strength, or New Rules of Lifting for Women. Do some additional cardio - about 1/2 hour - either after your lifting; or no more than an hour on your off days. Just make sure you have enough energy and time to recover fully from your lifting session so that you can lift the next day. Do this at a slight Caloric deficit - for 20 lbs, you may be able to go with a 1 lb per week (500 Cal) deficit, although I think 1/2 lb per week (250 Cal) deficit would be best. And be sure to eat back at least half of your exercise Cals, as you'll need the energy.


    edited for spelling

    Which is why I said to lift while on a calorie deficit.... To preserve muscle mass.

    "toning" is a bs word the fitness industry has created for women scared of lifting
    What If the op has very little muscle mass in the first place? She burns all the fat and all she is going to look is skinny... Not fit or athletic... Hence heave lifting to BUILD muscle. "toning" is a stupid concept.. You either build muscle or you don't... You either burn fat to show muscle or you don't...
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
    i agree with the above posters. you need about 2-3 days of cardio a week, and 2-3 days of strength training a week.

    OP, are you looking to run, bike, swim? are you planning on taking classes at a gym, or sticking to barbells and other free weights?
  • gemmaleigh1989
    gemmaleigh1989 Posts: 241 Member
    So you have two goals.....lose weight/fat and then build some muscle (toning up IS building muscle)

    The truth is, you can't accomplish these two goals at the same time.

    What I recommend is lose weight first and then when you are down to your goal weight, focus on building muscle. So I will talk about losing weight first and then biulding muscle.

    Losing weight: You need to be eating at a calorie deficit obviously, work out your BMR and then your TDEE and then subtract a few hundred calories from that (but never go below 1200 calories). With exercise, you should mainly be focusing on cardio, so I would do this about 5-6 times a week for 45 minutes to an hour. You should still strength train during this time, and do you know why? It is not to ultimately build muscle, because building muscle while on a calorie deficit is VERY hard to do (unless you're new to lifting, you will make small gains in the beginning), the purpose of weight lifting while on a calorie deficit and losing weight is to PRESERVE existing muscle. If you didn't do this, and just did cardio, you would be burning fat AND muscle....strength train and do cardio and you preserve muscle, meaning you burn fat and very little muscle (which means you burn more fat!!!) I would do 2 days of a full body weight lifting work out, or split them over the week so you hit each body part twice.

    Right so onto building muscle....Once you are down to your goal body fat percentage you can start focusing on building muscle. You need to up your calories so you are eating at a calorie surplus....scary I know. But you would need to aim for about 200 calories over your maintenance level. Then you focus heavily on weight lifting and reduce your cardio. I would do cardio about twice a week to keep fat off, and then weight lift most days of the week (making sure you get at least a fulls day rest between each muscle group). Make sure you lift heavy with low reps. I promise you won't get fat from the extra calories, because if you stick to your weight lifting program, these extra calories fuel muscle growth. If you ate these extra calories and didn't do weight training, then obviously your body would store it as fat. Your BF percentage may creep up a little during your muscle building phase, and I'm sorry but this is inevitable....

    then once you have your ideal body, you can go down to eating at maintenance level and an even amount of cardio and weight training :) OR you can go back to the cutting phase while preserving all the new muscles you have built and getting rid of any small BF % you put on during your muscle building phase...however you feel at the time! A lot of people just continue cycling the two phases, but I would personally hope to aim to get to a maintainence phase long term...

    Hope I didn't confuse you and let me know if you have any questions!

    Sorry, but no.
    No - "toning" simply means to lose fat, so that the underlying muscle shows up better. And if you lose "weight" first, you'll lose LBM - meaning muscle. You absolutely don't want to do that.



    OP's best bet would be to do a 3x per week full-body strength routine, such as StrongLifts, Starting Strength, or New Rules of Lifting for Women. Do some additional cardio - about 1/2 hour - either after your lifting; or no more than an hour on your off days. Just make sure you have enough energy and time to recover fully from your lifting session so that you can lift the next day. Do this at a slight Caloric deficit - for 20 lbs, you may be able to go with a 1 lb per week (500 Cal) deficit, although I think 1/2 lb per week (250 Cal) deficit would be best. And be sure to eat back at least half of your exercise Cals, as you'll need the energy.

    Exactly this. You can lose weight and retain most of your LBM by lifting. There will be some loss but a lot less than if you do cardio without strength training. You will end up looking much better in the end too.

    <3 Stronglifts

    While I respect others opinions, you can't just say "no" and not back it up with any points. And then what you went on to say was practically in line with half of what I said anyway... Lol
  • _noob_
    _noob_ Posts: 3,306 Member
    it's all about your goals.

    no one here can answer this.

    I personally care more about looks, as health benefits come from either, so I do all lifting. Every now and then I do cardio just to make sure I still can (like I ran 2.2 miles the other day in 17 mins just to make sure I could still run a good time).
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    You do not *need* to do cardio. You should do cardio if you want to do it. All you need is a caloric deficit to lose weight. You should do some strength training (and get enough protein) to make sure you maintain LBM.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Hey I'm new to the whole board thing does anyone know how I can get a cardio workout in using a resistance band I'm in a wheelchair so I'm kind a limited on what I can and can't do I'm just hoping there some way I can do a cardio workout using the resistance bands

    There are upper workouts you can do with them. If you have a low enough resistance you can do 'endurance' type strength training which is more like cardio.

    If you can secure them to somewhere stable enough (and make sure your wheelchair is also stable enough so it does not slide) you can do things like chest press, back flys, overhead presses.

    ETA: found this:
    http://www.disaboom.com/adaptive-fitness/resistance-band-workout-for-wheelchair-users

    The more reps you do, the more endurance it builds
  • SJackson50
    SJackson50 Posts: 282 Member
    it's all about your goals.

    no one here can answer this.

    ^This. and this:
    You do not *need* to do cardio. You should do cardio if you want to do it. All you need is a caloric deficit to lose weight. You should do some strength training (and get enough protein) to make sure you maintain LBM.

    I lost fifty pounds and did not spend an hour doing cardio, nor 5 days doing it. I did it all with circuit training and a calorie deficit.
    Good luck with your goals.
  • Lt_Starbuck
    Lt_Starbuck Posts: 576 Member
    should be 30/30/30 but I do 60% weights 25% cardio and 15% flex
  • lwagnitz
    lwagnitz Posts: 1,321 Member
    Pretty much agree with what others have said, but here are a couple webistes for work outs that might help you get started:

    bodybuilding.com
    muscleandstrength.com
  • deanadimples
    deanadimples Posts: 419 Member
    Weights 3 x per week (Body Pump)
    Cardio 3 x per week - usually intervals on the treadmill (30 mins on average, sometimes more)

    The cardio is mainly to keep a routine of "making" time for working out every day and to build cardiovascular endurance.
    Plus the extra calories burned helps with my deficit.
  • jneihardt
    jneihardt Posts: 8 Member
    bump
  • Summer5555
    Summer5555 Posts: 104 Member
    Weights 3 x per week (Body Pump)
    Cardio 3 x per week - usually intervals on the treadmill (30 mins on average, sometimes more)

    The cardio is mainly to keep a routine of "making" time for working out every day and to build cardiovascular endurance.
    Plus the extra calories burned helps with my deficit.

    ^ This as well, doing strong lifts for weight. 50-60 minutes of cardio. Also pilates 1 x per week.
  • RunDoozer
    RunDoozer Posts: 1,699 Member
    So you have two goals.....lose weight/fat and then build some muscle (toning up IS building muscle)

    The truth is, you can't accomplish these two goals at the same time.

    What I recommend is lose weight first and then when you are down to your goal weight, focus on building muscle. So I will talk about losing weight first and then biulding muscle.

    Losing weight: You need to be eating at a calorie deficit obviously, work out your BMR and then your TDEE and then subtract a few hundred calories from that (but never go below 1200 calories). With exercise, you should mainly be focusing on cardio, so I would do this about 5-6 times a week for 45 minutes to an hour. You should still strength train during this time, and do you know why? It is not to ultimately build muscle, because building muscle while on a calorie deficit is VERY hard to do (unless you're new to lifting, you will make small gains in the beginning), the purpose of weight lifting while on a calorie deficit and losing weight is to PRESERVE existing muscle. If you didn't do this, and just did cardio, you would be burning fat AND muscle....strength train and do cardio and you preserve muscle, meaning you burn fat and very little muscle (which means you burn more fat!!!) I would do 2 days of a full body weight lifting work out, or split them over the week so you hit each body part twice.

    Right so onto building muscle....Once you are down to your goal body fat percentage you can start focusing on building muscle. You need to up your calories so you are eating at a calorie surplus....scary I know. But you would need to aim for about 200 calories over your maintenance level. Then you focus heavily on weight lifting and reduce your cardio. I would do cardio about twice a week to keep fat off, and then weight lift most days of the week (making sure you get at least a fulls day rest between each muscle group). Make sure you lift heavy with low reps. I promise you won't get fat from the extra calories, because if you stick to your weight lifting program, these extra calories fuel muscle growth. If you ate these extra calories and didn't do weight training, then obviously your body would store it as fat. Your BF percentage may creep up a little during your muscle building phase, and I'm sorry but this is inevitable....

    then once you have your ideal body, you can go down to eating at maintenance level and an even amount of cardio and weight training :) OR you can go back to the cutting phase while preserving all the new muscles you have built and getting rid of any small BF % you put on during your muscle building phase...however you feel at the time! A lot of people just continue cycling the two phases, but I would personally hope to aim to get to a maintainence phase long term...

    Hope I didn't confuse you and let me know if you have any questions!

    Sorry, but no.
    No - "toning" simply means to lose fat, so that the underlying muscle shows up better. And if you lose "weight" first, you'll lose LBM - meaning muscle. You absolutely don't want to do that.



    OP's best bet would be to do a 3x per week full-body strength routine, such as StrongLifts, Starting Strength, or New Rules of Lifting for Women. Do some additional cardio - about 1/2 hour - either after your lifting; or no more than an hour on your off days. Just make sure you have enough energy and time to recover fully from your lifting session so that you can lift the next day. Do this at a slight Caloric deficit - for 20 lbs, you may be able to go with a 1 lb per week (500 Cal) deficit, although I think 1/2 lb per week (250 Cal) deficit would be best. And be sure to eat back at least half of your exercise Cals, as you'll need the energy.

    Exactly this. You can lose weight and retain most of your LBM by lifting. There will be some loss but a lot less than if you do cardio without strength training. You will end up looking much better in the end too.

    <3 Stronglifts

    While I respect others opinions, you can't just say "no" and not back it up with any points. And then what you went on to say was practically in line with half of what I said anyway... Lol

    I can and I did. So still no.
  • NikoM5
    NikoM5 Posts: 488 Member
    I can't believe I'm about to say this but, "good advice has been given in this thread!" Lol.

    Your diet is where 90% of your weight loss will come from. The other 10% can be cardio. Rough numbers but you get the idea. (diet > cardio) when it comes to weight loss. Weight lifting will help with the muscle building, or muscle retention in your case of a calorie deficit

    I have a desk job and I don't do a lick of traditional cardio. I'm not a nutrition Nazi either. I eat plenty of protein and keep my overall cals within reason. I lift intensely and I know my energy expenditure levels fairly well so I'm able to keep fat under control without cardio or crazy diets.
  • NikoM5
    NikoM5 Posts: 488 Member
    So you have two goals.....lose weight/fat and then build some muscle (toning up IS building muscle)

    The truth is, you can't accomplish these two goals at the same time.

    What I recommend is lose weight first and then when you are down to your goal weight, focus on building muscle. So I will talk about losing weight first and then biulding muscle.



    No - "toning" simply means to lose fat, so that the underlying muscle shows up better. And if you lose "weight" first, you'll lose LBM - meaning muscle. You absolutely don't want to do that.



    OP's best bet would be to do a 3x per week full-body strength routine, such as StrongLifts, Starting Strength, or New Rules of Lifting for Women. Do some additional cardio - about 1/2 hour - either after your lifting; or no more than an hour on your off days. Just make sure you have enough energy and time to recover fully from your lifting session so that you can lift the next day. Do this at a slight Caloric deficit - for 20 lbs, you may be able to go with a 1 lb per week (500 Cal) deficit, although I think 1/2 lb per week (250 Cal) deficit would be best. And be sure to eat back at least half of your exercise Cals, as you'll need the energy.


    edited for spelling

    Both right... and wrong.

    You can build muscle and lose fat at the same time. It's not efficient and it requires a lot attention to detail but it can be done

    "Toning" is BOTH losing fat and gaining muscle. There's no official definition but based on visuals of what most people would consider a toned body, this is accurate.

    The most efficient way to achieve your goal is by losing weight first, building muscle second. There's no reason you can't lift weights during the weight loss phase in order to avoid muscle loss.
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,021 Member
    You don't need cardio at all for fat loss. You need heavy lifting, a proper diet, and plenty of sleep.

    You may choose to do cardio for other reasons, but it is not necessary for fat loss.
  • Jess830409
    Jess830409 Posts: 285 Member
    i agree with the above posters. you need about 2-3 days of cardio a week, and 2-3 days of strength training a week.

    OP, are you looking to run, bike, swim? are you planning on taking classes at a gym, or sticking to barbells and other free weights?

    I like Turbo Fire, Zumba, etc for cardio and probably free weights for the strength. Kinda of a newbie on this so I am learning as I go :)
  • Jess830409
    Jess830409 Posts: 285 Member
    Some really good info here guys...thank you so much. I do want to incorporate some cardio for health reasons and benefits but I know that strength training is a must for maintaing and building muscle....really appreciate the help!!