Is it really weight lifting the only way to be fit?

I kind of think of them as the yin and yang of personal fitness. Each has its place. Cardio burns calories... which is good for working off the burger you ate for lunch. Weightlifting, or resistance exercises, boosts your metabolism which causes you to burn more calories while resting long after you lift.

To strike a good balance you should do some form of both. If you are more worried about losing weight I would do more cardio but still do SOME sort of resistance work. If you aren't looking to lose as much weight and want to gain size, strength, or tone what you've got I would do more resistance exercises with some light cardio through the week.

It is all about your goals. It is my opinion that you need both, in some form, to be truly fit.

From my experience, swimming has made my triceps AMAZING. They are covered in fat right now, but before I started lifting, I read that the triceps are usually the weakest muscle. I was shocked to discover I could lift almost double the amount of weight with my triceps than with my biceps, because swimming made them strong. So I do think cardio provides strength benefits and fitness. But IMO, lifting is just as important, because I want to be MORE fit and toned than cardio alone could make me. Cardio has a built in ceiling - you'll get strong enough to move your body around, and then maintain that.

I would add that, in a way, swimming is sort of both a cardio and a resistance exercise. You are using those triceps to push your body through the water.

the only way to be fit is to get your diet in check...

meaning

know your TDEE

and know your daily intake compared to what your goals are

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What GuitarJerry said. Do something you'll actually look forward to.

It all depends on your goals. If you just want to be a smaller version of the current you, then pretty much any weight loss will do. If you want to be tight, fit, athletic looking or even if you just want to be strong, then some form of resistance training has to be involved. Period.

Hi,

I'm a bit confused...

From what I read here, it seems that doing cardio help the weight loss but not the toning of the body... is that right?
Many people advise that the loss of weight involve also the muscle mass so at the end of the journey you will be LESS tonic that at the start... even exercising?

My questions:

cardio include all of these?: walking, running, bicycling, swimming, all the fancy cardio exercise in the web (and insanity? it claims to give you a wonderful body, is it cardio? what is it?)
When I do some cardio exercise, I definitely feels my muscle suffering so they ARE moving... still it is inevitable that in a deficit they cannot become stronger?
So, when I exercise, I do it just for the weight loss, not to become stronger and fitter?

isn't our body smart enough to take the proteins we give it to increase the muscles, and the energy from the rest of the food -and the fat- to all the other activities?

I think I'm missing something here...

And, in the end: do I really have to lift weights if I don't want to become all flappy loose skin?

Thank you in advance for your replies!

You need progressive resistance to build muscle. Progressive resistance can take many forms. It just depends what you want.

Look at the bodies of professional runners, then look at a MMA fighter, then look at a swimmer. They are very different looking. That is because of the muscles they use. Look at baseball players compared with football players. Or, a gymnast compared to a power lifter. Their needs are different. they are built differently.

So, just do whatever you want to do. In running for instance, the way you increase resistance is by increasing time/distance. Also, you can run hills and things like that. Whatever you do, there's always a way to make it more of a challenge. I wouldn't
t worry about it. Lifting is very efficient, and most people find that they get all the results they wanted because it just does all the things that people want to happen when you want to lose weight. It's extremely efficient. But, the main thing is to do what you enjoy doing.

You received some pretty good feedback already...and Jerry nailed it above. At the end of the day, think of your body as a lump of clay, now how do you wish to mode it? Do you want the leanest that a swimmer or runner has? Do you want the power/musclar of a UFC champ? Do you want the symmetry of a bodybuilder? You can get those types of bodies by modifying both the type of exercise you do and the diet that you keep. Sure, genetics has their play, but you do have the power to weld your body into what you want.

For me, I see cardio as a means to keep a healthy heart and to burn fat. I could go into the various types (i.e HITT, LISS) but that's overkill for this discussion. Meanwhile I use weightlifting to build muscles and strength. Lastly, the type of diet I keep determines how much clay to add/subtract.

Your body is an amazing instrument...now, what tune do you wish to play?

My question would be, fit for what?

If you are just asking if you need to lift to be health, the quick answer is not really. If you are looking to generally maintain a healthy weight and stave off big killers like cardiovascular disease, eating right and simple walking can do that.

If you are looking to improve your fitness, you want to do some type of resistance training based on your goals. This improves muscle abilities and fights weakened joints or reduced range of motion. What levels depends on your goal or need.

Of course, eating right, cardio, and some strength training is the best combination.

My question would be, fit for what?

If you are just asking if you need to lift to be health, the quick answer is not really. If you are looking to generally maintain a healthy weight and stave off big killers like cardiovascular disease, eating right and simple walking can do that.

If you are looking to improve your fitness, you want to do some type of resistance training based on your goals. This improves muscle abilities and fights weakened joints or reduced range of motion. What levels depends on your goal or need.

Of course, eating right, cardio, and some strength training is the best combination.

Well,
at the beginning I just wanted to lose weight.
Recently, with 39 pound off of my body, I started to think that I can also improve my fitness, like you say, have a toned body, and be stronger. Physically stronger.

Anyway, some of you are saying that also cardio improve the muscle, just not as resistance.
Some say instead that only resistance -lifting or other- do that.

I think that I'll go through all the suggestion you guys gave me, and try. Why not?

Still puzzled about how come that doing cardio till sweating out my brain cannot make my muscle stronger, thought. Sorry, maybe I'm a bit dumb

Sorry if I ask a few more little questions... maybe it's also a matter of language, english is not my first language.

Please, may you define the difference, if there is any, between "resistance" and "strength training"?

Muscles get stronger when you push them. The body won't bother making more muscles if they are always doing the same amount of work. This is why to get stronger you need progressively overload to get strength gains. With cardio you keep the resistance relatively constant, and while they do get more endurance (you can do the same thing for longer) you won't actually be any stronger.

To me the only difference between resistance and strength training is progressive overload and ideally that should be involved in both, making them synonymous with each other.

ETA: at a deficit you are not likely to make great muscle gains, but you can teach your body to be stronger with the existing muscle mass. This is important for lots of people (including myself) because I want those lovely NSV that come through improving functional strength.

Hi,

Maybe this will help. I have done Insanity and I lost a lot of weight, because I had a lot of fat to lose. So now that I lost it, and
I am definitely stronger than I was ( because I lost weight and my body doesn't have to work as hard to do the things it did before, my cardio is up because I worked my heart out and made it stronger, and my muscles are stronger because I made them work-which wasn't happening before) so with that being said- you are doing both when you do cardio, you are losing fat and toning and building muscle. So now what? When I was done with insanity I knew I needed to keep doing cardio to shed those last few pounds, and I also wanted to build my muscles more than before. So, I decided to do a combination of cardio and resistance bands/weights. Why? because I want to obtain muscle confusion. It is what makes me stronger. doing the same thing every day just makes Muscle Memory, pretty quickly your body remembers it and adapts. You won't get stronger that way-you have to change things up, add more weight or more reps (depending on what your goal is) and keep confusing your muscles.
I hope this helps. Today, I work with people everyday to reach their fitness and nutrition goals so I am here to help and enjoy doing it. So what are your goals? Do you want to lose weight or tone up or both?