Cardio or Strength

I think either could work. Personally, I do 2 days of straight cardio ( walking, stairs, bike, elliptical, etc) and 2-3 days of straight strength, that may or may not raise my HR. When I get down to goal weight, I will look GOOD. No chance of "skinny fat" here.

I have 45 lbs to lose, and the scale has not moved very quickly this year, but I am sure it is diet related. My diet is not the least bit clean. However, my body is constantly changing for the better. I can also barbell squat almost 80% of my body weight.

this is almost 18 months ago, about 4 months after I started my journey, and I had lost about 10lbs

IMG00518-20120518-0906 by crochetmom2010, on Flickr

this is me in february, april and september of this year. I am wearing the same outfit in all 3 pictures! I've only lost about 25 pounds since the picture in the purple top.


2/13, 4/13, 9/13 by crochetmom2010, on Flickr

Hi dont know if this will be any help to you or not, i have a lung condition and ligament damage in my ankle so have been taking it it slower at the gym, but that being said since December i have lost 34lbs - 15kg . doing one zumba class and one body pump class ( strength / lifting) a week and a odd 20min zumba work out at home if ive felt up to it, my diet isnt good i have takeouts every week and chocolate is a staple. so im sure if you could add a cardio strength like body pump and keep up ur walking and other cardio the 45kg will be gone in no time. and i log my body pump as cardio.

For me both. I do 3 cardio sessions, 1 weights session and 1 that is kind of both every week. I'm working on the hope that my muscles must have been pretty decent to carry around 300+lbs so if I can keep as much of that muscle as possible whilst dropping half the body weight at least then I should look pretty damn toned! (Please no one spoil that illusion for me!)

A combination of both works well for many people.

...converting some "fat" to "muscle"

No. :grumble: You can lose fat. You can add muscle. You cannot "convert" fat into muscle.

My opinion only ...

Focus primarily on cardio, but SOME strength - after all, converting some "fat" to "muscle" in addition the the straight calorie burn is key

1) Continue your daily walking, it's doing more than most people give credit for
2) If you're doing two days of cardio, the third day can be a nice mix of strength and cardio - try circuit training for that day to keep the aerobic benefit going
3) Mix up your cardio - do Zumba once a month, or something to make it "different" for both you AND your body
4) Most strength exercises do not either get your heart rate up OR burn many calories
5) Keep up the excellent mindset AND excellent work!

Focus primarily on strength , but SOME cardio - after all, being in a caloric deficit while maintaining lean muscle is key. *Fixed this for you bro*

Everybody has their own opinion about what is the best way. All I can say is, I KNOW what's under my remaining fat. I can feel it when I hoist the barbell loaded with weight over my head. I can feel it when I push back up from a squat with the barbell on my shoulders.

So when I lose all my fat/weight - I will have a strong, healthy body. Cardio will make me drop weight - but lifting heavy is changing my body - and I'm loving it!

Good luck in your choice!

No. :grumble: You can lose fat. You can add muscle. You cannot "convert" fat into muscle.

Um, you did notice that "fat" and "muscle" were in quotes, right? Perhaps I should have put the word "convert" into quotes instead. Yeah, I could have used "replace". You know from the way the sentence was written that I was in no way suggesting that you can directly CONVERT fat to muscle, as does everyone else.

It would be more appropriate to say "preserve muscle while lose fat."

When in a caloric deficit you will lose both fat and muscle. When in a caloric deficit with strength training you will still loose both, however you will lose less lean mass than without, effectively tipping the bf% scale more quickly than you would otherwise. For example, when I was doing only cardio I was loosing weight at a good rate but 25% of my weight loss was coming from lean mass, making only 75% from fat. However, when I started focusing on strength training over cardio while maintaining the same net deficit I was losing only 10% lean mass, effectively losing 90% fat . . . it's an overall more efficient approach.

My opinion only ...

Focus primarily on cardio, but SOME strength - after all, converting some "fat" to "muscle" in addition the the straight calorie burn is key

1) Continue your daily walking, it's doing more than most people give credit for
2) If you're doing two days of cardio, the third day can be a nice mix of strength and cardio - try circuit training for that day to keep the aerobic benefit going
3) Mix up your cardio - do Zumba once a month, or something to make it "different" for both you AND your body
4) Most strength exercises do not either get your heart rate up OR burn many calories
5) Keep up the excellent mindset AND excellent work!

Focus primarily on strength , but SOME cardio - after all, being in a caloric deficit while maintaining lean muscle is key. *Fixed this for you bro*

^ This

A caloric deficit is all you need to lose weight. This can be done with diet alone and no exercise, or exercise and diet (same results). By adding strength training, along with adequate protein intake, you will ensure that a larger % of your weight loss will come from fat, and less from lean muscle.

Cardio will benefit your heart, increase endurance, etc, but for weight loss just allows you to eat more while having the same deficit you could have achieved from diet alone.