stop overdoing cardio and hit the damn weights!!!

at 300+ lbs, and a former cardioholic..i say lifting>cardio anyday. I have seen people literally look like someone else in a little over a year by losing weight doing nothing but lifting and eating at a deficit. one woman in particular on my FL lost 120 lbs, and maybe did cardio once a week. She doesn't even look lik eshe carried tha tmuch weight on her. I believe her Success Story was on MFP.

I have lost a total of 8 1/2 inches since I started lifting. I am down a pants size, but weigh exactly the same as when i started. The issue there is with my calorie counting. Which i have hopefully worked out. I have lost and gained the same 10 lbs since starting in september. It is frustrating but that is on me. Not everyone wil llike lifting..but its proven that it can help. I tried running.walking. Treadmills are mind-numbingly boring. And I literally have zero time to walk outside after or before work (when its pitch dark out)

I lift with my boyfriend 4-5 times a week now. he sees improvements, i see improvements and hell, it simply makes me feel like a BEAST. I can deadlift more than some men at my gym! :P


Do what works for you, but i have read article after article about how stale cardio isnt the best option. And for the girl who said she never sees runners with the kind of problems obese people have.. thats just because you cant see it doesnt mean they don't have issues... Read up on Cardiac issues with Marathon runners, knee, joint and tendon problems etc. I know people who are overweight and are perfectly healthy aside from being overweight. I am 300+ lbs, i have normal blood preassure, no Diabetes (nor am i near having it), no heart or liver problems. The only issue i have is my knees, which can mostly stem from a Softball career, and then the extra weight. Overall though I feel great. Id probably feel a hell of a lot better with 100 lbs off me though.

Lifting is giving me my strength back, I don't want to lose 100 lbs and THEN decide its time to start toning..Why can't i just tone WHILE i lose weight..so when i get to my GW im fit and toned. Seems like a win win to me!



Best of luck to everyone no matter the route they choose. Everyone deserves to be healthy and Happy. Find your own way and make your Jouney about you!

The confusion is that a lot of people will pitch their own workout plan without listening to the poster's goals or desires. It's more of an ego thing that 'my workout is best.'

There are multiple ways to skin a cat when it comes to fitness. They all have advantages and disadvantages. The key is sticking to a plan that you will consistently execute and that will match with your fitness goals.

If your goal is weight loss, it makes little sense to attempt to bulk with weights. That doesn't mean there are no benefits to lifting weights while losing weight, it just means you have to decide which of the two goals you would prefer to achieve.

Lifting during weight loss allows you to retain more muscle while dropping fat. This gives you a better look at a heavier weight than you'd achieve with just diet or cardio alone. You may actually put on up to 5 lbs of muscle if you are completely untrained, which will (slightly) help your BMR get higher. But the act of traditional weight lifting doesn't burn many calories, particularly if you are a beginner starting with light weights (I'm talking about something like a starting strength or strong lift routine, not the aerobics class done with 5 or 10 lb dumbbells which will burn calories, but are ultimately ineffective at building strength). Your best bet is to not account for weight lifting at all until you have a few weeks of data on how it's affecting your weight loss, then adjust your TDEE accordingly.

Cardio burns more calories than lifting weights during a constant time period, provided you push yourself and aren't reading a magazine while walking on the treadmill. The benefits of cardio are that it burns more calories to contribute to weight loss, it improves muscle efficiency, and it improves blood circulation. But just like weight training routines, you need to select an effective cardio routine that will help you achieve your goals. Just hopping on a machine for 30 minutes (or even worse, 60 minutes)* with no plan is not going to get you from A to B effectively.

So, doing a very cardio-heavy routine will allow you to drop weight faster, assuming your workout time and diet remains constant. However, a higher percentage of that weight loss will be from lean body mass, which means you'll have to lose more total weight to get the body you desire. Doing a weight training routine means the weight will come off more slowly, but you will retain more muscle and thus have to lose less overall weight.

However, the two are not mutually exclusive. Many people like to say that you can't/shouldn't do cardio and strength training in the same day. I think that is hogwash, I have seen many people do it and do it myself.

* Why is it worse? Because a key point of fitness is intensity. Doing an activity for 60 minutes at an easy pace is not the same as doing it really hard for 20-30 minutes, and people don't have the endurance to do an intense 60 minute cardio workout as a beginner. But many people fall into the trap that 'longer is better' for weight loss, which isn't true. What's better for weight loss is to get into shape, and to do that you need to go all-out, even if it's only for 15 minutes.