Cardio or Weight Training? Or Both?

If you've been doing cardio it's likely the weight you lost is not muscle weight, however you should incorporate weight-lifting into your workout regime due to the fact that lifting weights will cause you to gain more muscle, as well as burn more fat (even when you aren't working out.)

Congrats by the way

look at Stronglifts or Starting Strength

Yes, congrats on the beginning of your weight loss. Good start. Also, good choice on soda and junk food. Hard, but well done.

At 290lbs, continue cardio. Right now, fat lose is your objective. At 26 years-old, muscle loss is not happening as you might think or have read. Ensure you are consuming plenty of protein in your diet to help protect your muscles from breaking down. When you are down to 230 - 240, then consider adding weight training. Nordic Walking does good things for cardio and muscle. I highly suggest it. I mean this nicely: to move a 290lb frame, takes muscle and energy. You're fine doing cardio.

Also, read this short article on dieting to assist you.

http://www.mckinley.illinois.edu/handouts/metabolism.htm

Best of luck to you and stay positive.

So i have gone from 315 to 290 in the last 2 months. I have just been doing Cardio and cut my calories down to 2200 while not eating fast food or soda. I am trying to get to 215 but i don't want to lose muscle to get there, i want to lose fat. So do i just keep doing cardio or do i mix in weights or do i just do weights? maybe im over thinking this. Some people tell me i need to do weight training because my 25 pounds lost could be muscle weight but i think i need to do cardio to get down to my goal weight then add muscle. Sorry i am rambling i just want to know if anyone else has had similar circumstances and what they did?

Thanks.

On a calorie deficit, progressive strength training will get you better results in terms of keeping muscle mass and removing fat.
Strength training is great for retaining muscle, and increasing fitness.
Cardio is great for easily and quickly creating a calorie deficit, and also increases cardio vascular fitness.

It's always a good idea to keep health in mind when trying to lose weight. So I vote for both. However I have arthritis and repetitive movements do not like me. So I lean more towards the strength training (though I use to be a cardio bunny, I still felt flabby tho).

If you're going from sedentary to either of these options they will help, but progressive strength training is definitely the better option if you're looking at losing a higher percentage of fat. Keeping in mind this all depends on a calorie deficit, so if you exercise more, you can eat more...Cardio is great for helping with that.

yup. this.

look at Stronglifts or Starting Strength

He's 290lbs and probably 40%BF, depending on his height. Deadlift, power-cleans and squats, he's nowhere near ready for. His primary goal is fat loss.

im still working at it myself, but from my countless hours of research it seems that strength training is much better for the long term. not only does it boost your resting metabolic rate, but once the fat begins to disappear you'll end up looking much better overall. personally i say focus on weights, and use cardio for your alternate days when your muscles are recovering.

as an added bonus the activity the day after a weight training session can help to avoid DOMS.

So i have gone from 315 to 290 in the last 2 months. I have just been doing Cardio and cut my calories down to 2200 while not eating fast food or soda. I am trying to get to 215 but i don't want to lose muscle to get there, i want to lose fat. So do i just keep doing cardio or do i mix in weights or do i just do weights? maybe im over thinking this. Some people tell me i need to do weight training because my 25 pounds lost could be muscle weight but i think i need to do cardio to get down to my goal weight then add muscle. Sorry i am rambling i just want to know if anyone else has had similar circumstances and what they did?

Thanks.

On a calorie deficit, progressive strength training will get you better results in terms of keeping muscle mass and removing fat.
Strength training is great for retaining muscle, and increasing fitness.
Cardio is great for easily and quickly creating a calorie deficit, and also increases cardio vascular fitness.

It's always a good idea to keep health in mind when trying to lose weight. So I vote for both. However I have arthritis and repetitive movements do not like me. So I lean more towards the strength training (though I use to be a cardio bunny, I still felt flabby tho).

If you're going from sedentary to either of these options they will help, but progressive strength training is definitely the better option if you're looking at losing a higher percentage of fat. Keeping in mind this all depends on a calorie deficit, so if you exercise more, you can eat more...Cardio is great for helping with that.

Yep. Also, here is the thing, when you are overfat you have an opportunity to make strength and muscle gains that others do not. It would be silly to squander that.

From Lyle McDonald, here: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/adding-muscle-while-losing-fat-qa.html

There are a handful of situations where the combination of muscle gain and fat loss occur relatively readily. The first of those is in overfat beginners. I want to really stress the term overfat in the above sentence. This phenomenon doesn’t happen in lean beginners for reasons I’m going to explain in a second.

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You should see my fancy schmancy muscles. It makes me really happy that I was able to increase muscle mass, and now that I'm not making gains there as much anymore, I'm seeing definition as I pull the weight off. It's really wonderful. You won't regret starting :flowerforyou: :drinker:

Mix or do both. For cardio, stay in fat burning zone. Muscle training is good for many reasons - you'll burn more calories in your day; you'll be more toned; you can retain body strength (we lose muscle mass as we age unless we do anything about it); prevents injury and adds more balance; strengthens your bone, and so on.

Cardio is good for melting fat away, but if you keep doing one thing all the time, your body will develop only particular muscle groups, making you more injury-prone.
For example, I know a friend who only biked. He developed such strong leg muscles that one day he ended up pulling his lower back muscle (which was not trained) when he tried to pedal forward.

As for the ratio of cardio vs strength training, it depends on what your goals are. People who want to do endurance sport (bike, swim, run) will probably have more cardio days than strength, with strength training being supplemental workout on their rest days. I'm one of those people. I run 4 a week, but I do 10-minute "mini" strength workout on those days. Twice a week, I work out with a trainer to do strength training.
People who want to build more muscles will spend a lot more time lifting weights. My boyfriend's brother is really big on this, and he spends maybe up to 10 minutes on treadmill to warmup but he'll spend about 50 minutes or more doing strength training, and he supplements it by doing yoga to stretch his muscle. However, I should note that these people are already down to 10% fat or something crazy and they are simply working to increase their muscle mass. My recommendation is that if you want to lose fat, cardio ratio should be more than strength.

ps. Diet will also factor in. On days you do strength training, eat more protein than carb, and on days you do cardio, eat more carb, etc.

I guess i should have mentioned i am 6'0. Thanks for all the tips people. I think ill keep doing about an hour of cardio a day like i have been doing and i am going to add in some weight training like i did this morning. I did reps on the seated press, seated row and the leg press and also did reps with 15 lb dumbells.

^Good for you! Keep it up. Anything is better then nothing. But I do want to point out progressive heavy lifting is the way to go if you want to keep muscle. My bookbag is heavier then those dumbbells, and I'm a school girl. I just started lifting again after being away for many months, and the lowest weight I touched was 50 lbs. As an overweight male, you could lift some pretty serious stuff in the right program. Lookup stronglifts 5x5 (it's a free program). I highly recommend it! But any heavy lifting routine would do.