Weight Lifting or Cardio?

Simply put, if you want to just burn more calories & improve cardiovascular health, do cardio.

If you want to gain strength, firm up your muscles, improve bone density, & increase your bodys metabolism, do strength training.

I personally prefer strength training. A simple progressive 3x a week full body routine can be very effective.

Some folks like cardio. I hate it and just choose to eat a little less :P

Yup. I really don't like cardio, unless I'm walking somewhere with a purpose (like the farmer's market down the block). I love weight lifting and love the results I get with it. Both have different benefits, and both if done in excess can cause problems.

That being said, the pudge is probably just a little bit of extra belly fat. If you start strength training while eating at a deficit, you can preserve that muscle under the belly fat. That way when all the fat weight is gone you'll still have good muscle there too.

Continue doing cardio but do weights too... the benefits, oh the benefits of combining the two... as far as the tummy, mostly it is food but stay away form the floor when doing core - make sure you are engaging it with each exercise, no matter what movement you make you should be feeling it in the core as well

Both

This.

The point of lifting while dieting is to maintain muscle. We naturally lose some muscle when we lose weight. We'd rather lose fat, right? Weight lifting.

There's no reason to not do both. Disclaimer: I'm not saying you should do THIS exactly. I'm just pointing out that it's possible.

It takes some tweaking, but I and many of my friends log some serious miles 3x- 4x a week AND lift 3x-4x a week. It might involve some double days, and of course, what works for you is going to be very individualistic. You'll have to trial and error to see what works.

What normally works out for me is leg day combined with a short run(1), rest(2), upper body day combined with a medium run(3), a long run(4), rest(5), and another leg or accessory day(6), rest, or sprints, short run (7).

I know you aren't saying you're going to run. But I know many people who keep a fast paced schedule with cardio and lifting. (Just so happens most of them are runners). It's a thing. It can be done, and there's no reason to shy away from it or see it as an "all or nothing" if you WANT to do both.

Also- per my experience- if you're not happy with your body as you approach your goal weight, strength training is going to get you where you want to go looks wise faster than losing more weight.

Given the choice of either, I'd go for Weight training - at the moment I'm doing both.

I do cardio for, well, cardiovascular improvement .
Also, means I can eat more - but that's the only part I'd take to mean anything for weight loss.

For a nice figure, heavy weight lifting seems to be the best choice.

Add me if you like. I have lost 24lbs but not seeing as much as of difference as I want. Clothes fit better but it is the "naked" part I want. So starting this morning, I started back to strength training as well as cardio. I did all my strength training with the machines today and then did 30 mins cardio. I am going to eat back cardio calories but not strength training. I took measurements and pictures this morning too, to see what the difference is in 6 weeks. I will alternate the machines with free weights as I do what cardio I do. I make it to the gym an average of 4x week.
I was doing strength training with a trainer prior but not seeing weight loss (wasn't on MFP). So I have lost some weight now with MFP and cardio but now need to get rid of the smushy.Let's see what happens!

For purely aesthetic results, you need to lose fat. That means eating at a caloric deficit and somehow preserving the muscle that you have. The most efficient way of doing that is to do heavy compound barbell lifts. Starting Strength is a great book with an excellent overview of all the big lifts that you'll really want to strive to learn. Perform that program if you like, to begin with, or look into something like a Reverse Pyramid Training program.

If you're concerned with cardiovascular health or athletic performance in addition to what you've mentioned, then supplement with some sprints or other type of interval cardio for maximum efficiency.