Lifting and Cutting back on Cardio

I started seeing a trainer ( I have about 5 lbs to lose, but mostly want that muscle tone). She said stop doing so much cardio! It will burn my muscle , not the fat. She has me lifting 3-4 days a week and only 2 days cardio (15-30 min) of HIIT . That is it! She said building up that muscle will help you burn more calories over time (more than just what you burn in one cardio session). So, it's hard for me to give up the 30-45 on the elliptical, but I am trusting her... I'm only a few weeks in, but already feeling tighter.

Do as much or little cardio as you choose, but realize that "building muscle" requires that you eat in a calorie surplus and gain weight, which will be hard to achieve with excessive amounts of cardio. "Toning up" (as far as I can tell) generally refers to the process of dropping body fat while maintaining lean mass (but not building new) which requires a calorie deficit with lifting (and cardio will help you create a bigger deficit).

I started seeing a trainer ( I have about 5 lbs to lose, but mostly want that muscle tone). She said stop doing so much cardio! It will burn my muscle , not the fat. She has me lifting 3-4 days a week and only 2 days cardio (15-30 min) of HIIT . That is it! She said building up that muscle will help you burn more calories over time (more than just what you burn in one cardio session). So, it's hard for me to give up the 30-45 on the elliptical, but I am trusting her... I'm only a few weeks in, but already feeling tighter.

Building muscle will help you burn more calories over time, but it's very small. 1 lb of muscle burns about 5-6 calories per day at rest. 1 lb of fat burns about 2 (per the interwebz). So you can gain 10 lbs of muscle but you're only burning another 50-60 calories a day.

Also, never really seen a routine where there is cardio like that between sets. Wonder what the logic is behind that?

The only reason I can see a cardio between sets is for cross fit. But cross fit is a combination of extreme callistenics and cardio to be done in a certain amount of time. To start, it is slow and progresses to a more demanding time frame, pushing yourself to the limit. Again, this form of exercise is untraditional in the use of weights and resistance.

Otherwise, I do not see the purpose of cardio, set, cardio, set....when you can cardio for a warm up, sets, then low impact cool down cardio.

I was never a personal trainer on paper, but my military background and taking courses for private use has let me to understand the ins and outs of what it takes to burn fat and/or build muscle, etc.

Its funny that this is on the forum, my co-worker and I go to the gym together M-F during lunch and I explain many different things about weight lose and muscle mass to her so that she understands what we are doing that day. She mentions that she had heard other people say the same thing after I have and she is seeing the results. Right now, we are still in the cardio/fat burner stage. April, we start lifting and I told her that we would not be doing cardio but 2 days out of the week.

Everyone questioning the cardio in between sets should research "metabolic" training/workouts.

It keeps your heart rate up and provides caloric burn by doing "active rest" between weight lifting sets...like jumping jacks, mountain climbers, jump squats, jump rope, etc.

Not saying it's necessary by any means, and it depends on your overall goals, but it is a legit workout method that many bodybuilders and fitness athletes use to cut their body fat leading up to competitions, etc rather than standard cardio sessions..

Do as much or little cardio as you choose, but realize that "building muscle" requires that you eat in a calorie surplus and gain weight, which will be hard to achieve with excessive amounts of cardio. "Toning up" (as far as I can tell) generally refers to the process of dropping body fat while maintaining lean mass (but not building new) which requires a calorie deficit with lifting (and cardio will help you create a bigger deficit).

Thank you for pointing this out.