Cardio vs. Weight Training

So I'm about 5 weeks into this. I have a LOT to lose and I've barely started to scratch the surface (15 lbs so far). Doc says cardio only until I hit my goal weight -- and then work weight training in after I've hit my goal weight. Has anyone else been told this? Or are you/have you done both throughout the entire process? Thanks.

Unless there are underlying medical factors not mentioned here, your doctor is wrong. Incorporating strength now will help you preserve muscle mass while you are doing cardio, and will actually help you burn calories/fat more quickly.

P.S. - Fifteen pounds is great!

You don't want to wait until you are at goal weight.

Edit: spelling

The scale will go up when you weight train, mostly from water being stored in your muscles.
But it will drop eventually.

And the goal isn't weight loss. It's fat loss. This week is the Mr. Olympia contest. Anybody want to go to Las Vegas and tell those guys that they need to lose weight and stop lifting and only do cardio until they drop down to some doctor's pre-determined ideal weight for them?

If your weight did go up, but it was because of muscle gain, would that be such a bad thing? Because that muscle would be burning more fat. Such backwards thinking on that doctor's part.

Outside of any medical reason not given here, I would say most definitely do some weight training along with your cardio. You can add a little muscle, tighten things up on your body, and when you shed the remaining fat you'll have some muscles to display instead of just looking thin. Like the others have said, dont try benching 400 lbs or doing 50 pushups right off the bat, start off light and gradually increase. I would recommend a log so that you can map your progress and increase your weight/reps as time progresses. It will be motivating to see that you started out barely being able to do 30 lb dumbbell presses and you're now up to 60 lbs or something like that.

Cardio is definitely the most important thing for losing fat, but weight training will help retain your muscles in the process.

Losing 15 lbs already is awesome too! Good job!

If I was in your position I'd go see the Doctor again and ask why he told you to only do cardio. There could be a reason he's not told you about. Just to be on the safe side, after all, you'd like to think that after gaining a medical degree, he'd know wtf he was talking about.

I don't disagree with the advice. Or the thoughts. Unfortunately, it isn't always the case. With what most doctors know about exercise and nutrition, you are more likely to get solid advice from them about your fantasy football team than you are about exercise and nutrition. Sad but true.

Edited because of double post

If I was in your position I'd go see the Doctor again and ask why he told you to only do cardio. There could be a reason he's not told you about. Just to be on the safe side, after all, you'd like to think that after gaining a medical degree, he'd know wtf he was talking about.

I don't disagree with the advice. Or the thoughts. Unfortunately, it isn't always the case. With what most doctors know about exercise and nutrition, you are more likely to get solid advice from them about your fantasy football team than you are about exercise and nutrition. Sad but true.

Source of this information? What percentage is "most"?

Thanks everyone for the responses! No, I don't have any medical reason not to weight train. I originally just assumed it was because the scale can go up when you weight train and I'm trying to lose... I wanted to ask because I hear so many people say that they swear by weight training...

When weight training you are right that the scale may vary a lot more but let's be honest, the scale will vary no matter what you do. It will go up and down.

So what you need to do is take measurements of your neck, bust, waist, hips and anything else you want to take measurements of. Get someone to take your body fat percentage if you feel comfortable or there are some body fat calculators (like the army body fat calculator) you can use with your measurements to get a rough estimate of body fat percentage. I would suggest only getting on the scale once a week and do not get upset when it goes up as there are all SORTS of reasons for it going up other than an actual gain of FAT.

So.... pick a good balance of weight training and cardio and prepare for great results! Be patient as everything takes time and commit to a healthier you! You got this!

Couldn't agree more! Balance is key, and I will never advocate a cardio only approach, namely because strength training has done wonders for me, a former cardio junkie with zero muscle tone.

First, I don't think there are, to my knowledge, any nutrition or sports med/kinesiology classes required for a GP medical degree. Yes, we'd all like to think that our doctors are smarter than the average bear, but they aren't any more likely to be experts on nutrition and exercise any more than your auto mechanic is likely to be an expert electrician.

Just a random guess, but I'm thinking the doctor probably said that because cardio helps drop weight faster, and if he's wanting OP to drop weight as quickly as possible, then that is more likely to happen with straight cardio than half cardio and half strength training. Now, that being said, I would definitely ask about the reasoning behind this advice, and if it doesn't include a medical issue, I would go ahead and start strength training now.

Doctors often operate from their experiences dealing with hundreds to thousands of patients. Your doctor may have observed:

- More injuries amongst his overweight/obese patients when they do weight training
- More patients giving up on a fitness routine over a dislike of weight training than over cardio
- More rapid improvement in key cardiac measures such as blood pressure and cholesterol from his patients who focus on cardio over those who focus on weight training
- Difficulty getting patients to do both. Generally on the days you do weight training you tend to do little to light cardio (or if you do heavy cardio then it detracts from the quality of weight training).

Thus in your doctors eyes the most successful course of action would be to tell patients to concentrate on cardio first and add weight training later. He may have oversimplified the message in terms of saying to wait until you reach goal before adding weight training, but that could easily be clarified in a discussion.

If I was in your position I'd go see the Doctor again and ask why he told you to only do cardio. There could be a reason he's not told you about. Just to be on the safe side, after all, you'd like to think that after gaining a medical degree, he'd know wtf he was talking about.

I don't disagree with the advice. Or the thoughts. Unfortunately, it isn't always the case. With what most doctors know about exercise and nutrition, you are more likely to get solid advice from them about your fantasy football team than you are about exercise and nutrition. Sad but true.

Source of this information? What percentage is "most"?

Knowing how much is (or to be specific, isn't) taught in medical school and how much is (or isn't) covered in medical specialty board tests. Knowing that any doctor worth their salt will refer a patient for diet question to a registered dietician. Even the speciality that probably needs diet knowledge the most, endocrinology, relies heavily on RDs for their expertise on diet and nutrition. There is too much information that is constantly evolving to worry about in the rest of the field of medicine. Nutrition, diet and exercise are miniscule parts at best.