Weight Training or Cardio to burn? Does it Matter?

derek2680
derek2680 Posts: 48 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Just a general question. First off, Im 33(male), 6'3, 260lbs. I still need to lose about 30-35lbs. I have never really lifted in my life except for a little back in my college sports days. I have a friend at work who is training me for free, but he is huge into lifting. I have really gotten into it with him and increased my strength in many areas over the last couple months. My main problem is I am not getting as much cardio in as I use to. So, for example today using my HRM I burned 595 cals doing 50 min of lifting and 275 doing 20 min after on stairclimber. That is a good total cal burn. Does it really matter if I am burning from lifting or cardio? Or is burning cals just burning cals. I just know I get rest in between sets while lifting so didnt know if it is as effective. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks in advance.

Replies

  • jdm_taco
    jdm_taco Posts: 999 Member
    Cardio will burn more calories if that is strictly your focus. I think a combination of both cardio and weightlifting yields the best fitness level and body composition.
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
    HRM's do not remotely work for lifting. or anything other than steady state cardio.

    Exercise has zero bearing on your weight loss or weight gain. You diet is 100% responsible for that. What exercise is responsible for is how you look at that weight your diet brings you to. lift weights and you will look like someone who lift weights. do cardio and you will look like someone who does cardio.
  • 257_Lag
    257_Lag Posts: 1,249 Member
    Both of these are good responses from a guy that does both ^
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    My goal is to be both strong and fit, so I don't choose, I do both.
  • derek2680
    derek2680 Posts: 48 Member
    Well I am just wondering i guess because since I have started doing the lifting I have had a serious plateau in lbs lost. While back doing just cardio I was seeing that typical 1lbs or so a week (I know I am putting on muscle weight though). So, I should not use my Polar FT4 to measure my cals burned during lifting?? Only count cals from cardio? I absolutely argee with doing both. I want to have a 100% healthy body.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    No, do not use your hrm to count lifting calories as they are highly inaccurate when it comes to strength training
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
    Well I am just wondering i guess because since I have started doing the lifting I have had a serious plateau in lbs lost. While back doing just cardio I was seeing that typical 1lbs or so a week (I know I am putting on muscle weight though). So, I should not use my Polar FT4 to measure my cals burned during lifting?? Only count cals from cardio? I absolutely argee with doing both. I want to have a 100% healthy body.
    perfectly normal for that to happen. When lifting, and specially if you're able to progress in lifting quickly, you can very easily see a mini recomp and your muscles will from the constant work start to retain more carbs and water. so it's possible for people to see no results on the scale for a month or 2, yet their bodysize continue to get smaller in the right places, and even bigger in other right places.

    this is also why the scale is a useless as **** metric for progress.

    It will eventually plateau where you basically just maintain your lifts and muscles until you start eating tons of food again. But long as you are at deficit, you will eventually start to lose.
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    Delete.

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