cardio or weights?

Not trying to sound mean, but try putting this in the search function.

We have about 7000 threads going on this topic, and it opens a can of worms you really don't want to.

Most agree it's a mix, and you can't spot reduce a certain area of your body.

Both both both. I'll say again -- both. Cardio burns straight calories. Strength training helps build muscle which burns fat most effectively -- why do you think men lose weight so much more quickly than women? Besides, when you shed the weight, you want a gorgeous body to reveal itself. You don't want to be "skinny fat".

Both.

Both, weight more towards weights. Weights 4-5x a week, cardio 3-4x a week. Use diet to create a deficit and cardio to chizzle a little more into that deficit, nothing too great. No point and very little gain for hours and hours of cardio IF body reshaping is the goal.

If you are currently exercising and you are finding that you are not losing weight anymore, you should add strength training. Increasing muscle mass will increase your resting metabolic rate, and you will burn more calories than you do currently.

If you are new to exercise, I always recommend that my weight loss clients start out with cardio just to get that large caloric defecit. You will burn more calories during a cardio bout than during a strength training bout, but you will gain the ability to burn more all of the time once you incorporate strength training.

The answer...we need to do BOTH to lose weight. :-) Try circuit training...strength training set up to include cardio.

Sorry, I didnt realize. I guess I should have said more, I have only 40 min at the gym on my lunch, am I better to focus on cardio or weights? Right now I am doing 7-10 min of cardio and the rest weights......

If you go every day in the week, I would do M/W/F weights and T/Th cardio.

To lose weight, you don't need either. You just need a caloric deficit, which you can achieve by moderating your food intake. No cardio or weight training required.

However, you clearly want to lose fat, and there is a difference between weight loss and fat loss. For optimal fat loss, you need a caloric deficit to drop pounds, along with adequate protein intake and strength training to maintain your lean body mass so that most or all of the pounds you lose are in the form of fat and not muscle.

Cardio is not a necessary part of the fat loss process. If your goal is to improve your cardiovascular fitness/health, do it. If you have performance goals that involve "cardio" activities like running or cycling, do it. If you enjoy cardio, do it. But if your only goal is fat loss, you don't need it.

To lose weight, you don't need either. You just need a caloric deficit, which you can achieve by moderating your food intake. No cardio or weight training required.

However, you clearly want to lose fat, and there is a difference between weight loss and fat loss. For optimal fat loss, you need a caloric deficit to drop pounds, along with adequate protein intake and strength training to maintain your lean body mass so that most or all of the pounds you lose are in the form of fat and not muscle.

Cardio is not a necessary part of the fat loss process. If your goal is to improve your cardiovascular fitness/health, do it. If you have performance goals that involve "cardio" activities like running or cycling, do it. If you enjoy cardio, do it. But if your only goal is fat loss, you don't need it.

Game, set and match.

both are essential elements to your weight loss + reshaping program.

i incorporate both in my training.

Cardio is great becuase you get more for the time you spend exercising, but I lost a bunch of weight just lifting heavy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAU_sqHGiYw

Sorry, I didnt realize. I guess I should have said more, I have only 40 min at the gym on my lunch, am I better to focus on cardio or weights? Right now I am doing 7-10 min of cardio and the rest weights......

If you go every day in the week, I would do M/W/F weights and T/Th cardio.

this!!

Absolutely this!

I'm only available to go to the gym three days a week for an hour, so I do lifting and then about a mile or two of HITT running/sprinting. It has done wonders for my still-looks-preggo-belly. Actually, in just 3 weeks, my stomach was relatively flat again and it did NOT look like that before. Good luck!!

To lose weight, you don't need either. You just need a caloric deficit, which you can achieve by moderating your food intake. No cardio or weight training required.

However, you clearly want to lose fat, and there is a difference between weight loss and fat loss. For optimal fat loss, you need a caloric deficit to drop pounds, along with adequate protein intake and strength training to maintain your lean body mass so that most or all of the pounds you lose are in the form of fat and not muscle.

Cardio is not a necessary part of the fat loss process. If your goal is to improve your cardiovascular fitness/health, do it. If you have performance goals that involve "cardio" activities like running or cycling, do it. If you enjoy cardio, do it. But if your only goal is fat loss, you don't need it.

QFmutha freakingT

C'mon, folks. When someone is new on MFP, they don't know about previous forums and/or just want a quick, informative, friendly answer without having to do a lot of searching. There is bound to be a ton of repetition over time as who knows how many new people join MFP every day. If you want to suggest looking up certain threads to be helpful, that's great. But if you don't have the patience for it, then it's very very easy to just skip the topic and the post. Driving home how many times a topic has been repeated doesn't exactly help the OP feel great about their reaching out for support.

OP has been around a year, and that is what the search function is for, so we don't have 10 threads on the 1st page about the same thing.