Best exercise for fat loss and increase fitness?

I like circuit training! Cardio and muscle at the same time. No rest inbetween.

Whatever you will stick with.

i would say HIIT is the most bang for your buck and will make you the most 'fit'. assuming 'fit' includes cardio vascular fitness

The best calorie burns will be running, swimming and biking.

Lifting weights will not burn as much during but you will continue to burn some after the workout is over.

The best for fat loss would be lifting while eating .8-1g of protein per lb of lean body mass since this will help retain your current muscle and most of the weight you lose will be from fat los.

what's your definition of fitness OP?

generally speaking fitness about being able to increase the amount of work you do in the same amount of time. so i would say anything that is scaleable and causes a bit of discomfort

Cardio gets your heart rate up to burn calories and you also build muscle at the same time. Low (joint) impact elliptical things that look like grasshoppers are probably the best all around work out, you can get the arms and legs going at the same time.

Please elaborate on this. A noob might put on a little bit of muscle, but other wise an individual looking to lose weight isn't going to "build muscle" on a deficit......especially a deficit and performing only cardio.

Op, your diet is for weight loss (caloric deficit). The best exercise for fitness is the one you'll do and stick with.

I simply answered the question. How do you know they are going to be operating on a deficit anyway? When I said "build muscle" I didn't mean "turn into Jack the Rippeder", I just meant an increase in over all strength and fitness level. Everybody has a different definition of what they believe to be fitness. Doing only cardio is a perfectly acceptable and efficient use of 50 minutes in the gym. You can push the pedals and hand things harder on a higher resistance setting in order to stimulate more muscle growth using interval training settings on the machine one day and do lighter resistance and higher speed for fat loss the next day.

But you are right in that what it really comes down to is doing something you enjoy and can stick with for the long term.

How do you know they are going to be operating on a deficit anyway?

OP asked about fat loss.

I didn't mean "turn into Jack the Rippeder", I just meant an increase in over all strength and fitness level.

Overall strength and fitness does not equate an increase in muscle mass. And yes I know they won't be "jacked" and "ripped" because it takes a whole lot more than 50 min of cardio.

Doing only cardio is a perfectly acceptable and efficient use of 50 minutes in the gym.

Agreed, never said it wasn't.

You can push the pedals and hand things harder on a higher resistance setting in order to stimulate more muscle growth using interval training settings on the machine one day and do lighter resistance and higher speed for fat loss the next day.

That's not how it works, it's still cardio whether higher resistance or lower resistance. "Fat burning" doesn't come from light resistance high speed, the same way high resistance low speed isn't going to build muscle.

Noobs, the morbidly obese, the returning athlete, or the severely untrained can put on some minute "noob gains", but gaining muscle takes an on point diet at/above maintenance calories, an exercise routine that includes a progressive overload resistance program (not high reps...that's muscle endurance), and is insanely diffictly......for guys. It's exponentially harder for women.

Can a person put on some muscle performing some cardio...yes, but telling a person that increasing the resistance on the elliptical is going to "stimulate muscle growth" while lighter resistance and higher speed is for "fat loss" is false.

Weight loss is achieved by creating a calorie surplus, which can be achieved with or without exercising. There is no one single exercise that is better for fat loss.

Now with that being said, I personally like to two things at the gym 1. Lifting heavy weights and 2. Cardio on the elliptical.

1. Heavy lifting- It in itself it doesn't burn all that many calories. In fact I take my fitness pal's estimate for the calories burnt and cut it in half. Heavy lifting doesn't burn many calories, but it does help me maintain muscle mass while eating at a calorie deficit, and while I cannot grow muscle mass while eating at a deficit I can still improve strength

2. Cardio - I do cardio to improve my heart health and extra time on the elliptical helps me have more calories per day. I tend to burn a good amount of calories on the elliptical. You need to be very careful when eating back your exercise calories. If you are consistant with your exercise I recommend choosing a calorie goal that accounts for your activity and don't record your exercise calories burnt. If you do want to eat exercise calories back you need to be super careful. I personally like to use an elliptical with aheart rate monitor, allows me to input my age / weight and adjusts difficulty based on my heart rate. That's a better estimate but it's still an estimate.

Cardio gets your heart rate up to burn calories and you also build muscle at the same time. Low (joint) impact elliptical things that look like grasshoppers are probably the best all around work out, you can get the arms and legs going at the same time.

Please elaborate on this. A noob might put on a little bit of muscle, but other wise an individual looking to lose weight isn't going to "build muscle" on a deficit......especially a deficit and performing only cardio.

Op, your diet is for weight loss (caloric deficit). The best exercise for fitness is the one you'll do and stick with.

I simply answered the question. How do you know they are going to be operating on a deficit anyway? When I said "build muscle" I didn't mean "turn into Jack the Rippeder", I just meant an increase in over all strength and fitness level. Everybody has a different definition of what they believe to be fitness. Doing only cardio is a perfectly acceptable and efficient use of 50 minutes in the gym. You can push the pedals and hand things harder on a higher resistance setting in order to stimulate more muscle growth using interval training settings on the machine one day and do lighter resistance and higher speed for fat loss the next day.

But you are right in that what it really comes down to is doing something you enjoy and can stick with for the long term.

How do you know they are going to be operating on a deficit anyway?

OP asked about fat loss.

I didn't mean "turn into Jack the Rippeder", I just meant an increase in over all strength and fitness level.

Overall strength and fitness does not equate an increase in muscle mass. And yes I know they won't be "jacked" and "ripped" because it takes a whole lot more than 50 min of cardio.

Doing only cardio is a perfectly acceptable and efficient use of 50 minutes in the gym.

Agreed, never said it wasn't.

You can push the pedals and hand things harder on a higher resistance setting in order to stimulate more muscle growth using interval training settings on the machine one day and do lighter resistance and higher speed for fat loss the next day.

That's not how it works, it's still cardio whether higher resistance or lower resistance. "Fat burning" doesn't come from light resistance high speed, the same way high resistance low speed isn't going to build muscle.

Noobs, the morbidly obese, the returning athlete, or the severely untrained can put on some minute "noob gains", but gaining muscle takes an on point diet at/above maintenance calories, an exercise routine that includes a progressive overload resistance program (not high reps...that's muscle endurance), and is insanely diffictly......for guys. It's exponentially harder for women.

Can a person put on some muscle performing some cardio...yes, but telling a person that increasing the resistance on the elliptical is going to "stimulate muscle growth" while lighter resistance and higher speed is for "fat loss" is false.

But do you even lift?

Can you lose fat and increase fitness level by only doing cardio? I bet your profile pic person only does cardio.

Cardio gets your heart rate up to burn calories and you also build muscle at the same time.

Really? It is often explained here that you cannot ride a bicycle in 2 directions at once. Either you are losing weight at a deficit or building muscle. Either, or. These two things do not happen at the same time when we first start working out according to many posts here on MFP. You cannot ride a bike in 2 directions at once.

FYI, MFP is not a reliable source for any knowledge, just people's opinions, some are more incorrect than others. Also, you don't have to repeat "Either, or" after your sentence that contains "either,...or". You could be trolling with "rambling" in your name, but just in case you are not:

If you do 50 minutes of cardio, or 30, or 40, your muscles will hurt the next day and possibly the day after that depending on how hard you giv'r. If you eat properly they should repair into stronger muscles. Fat was also inherently burned during this workout. I've lost 10 lbs in 6 weeks of biking 30 kms every weekday and I have increased my muscle mass in my legs considerably (and my triceps slightly). I do not lift weights consistently because it does not fit into my routine with two young kids and a full time job. Eventually you will plateau and then you can start interval training doing only cardio which will further increase fat loss on fitness level. Yes, this includes building muscle.

Cardio gets your heart rate up to burn calories and you also build muscle at the same time.

Really? It is often explained here that you cannot ride a bicycle in 2 directions at once. Either you are losing weight at a deficit or building muscle. Either, or. These two things do not happen at the same time when we first start working out according to many posts here on MFP. You cannot ride a bike in 2 directions at once.

FYI, MFP is not a reliable source for any knowledge, just people's opinions, some are more incorrect than others. Also, you don't have to repeat "Either, or" after your sentence that contains "either,...or". You could be trolling with "rambling" in your name, but just in case you are not:

If you do 50 minutes of cardio, or 30, or 40, your muscles will hurt the next day and possibly the day after that depending on how hard you giv'r. If you eat properly they should repair into stronger muscles. Fat was also inherently burned during this workout. I've lost 10 lbs in 6 weeks of biking 30 kms every weekday and I have increased my muscle mass in my legs considerably (and my triceps slightly). I do not lift weights consistently because it does not fit into my routine with two young kids and a full time job. Eventually you will plateau and then you can start interval training doing only cardio which will further increase fat loss on fitness level. Yes, this includes building muscle.

Sorry, but no. You're not increasing mass (especially considerably) and losing fat....just doing cardio. It's virtually impossible to increase mass and lose fat. It's called a recomp, requires an on point progressive overload resistance program, an on point diet at TDEE, and is painfully long.

Muscles "hurting" and repairing doesn't turn them into bigger stronger muscles.

Strength =/= increase in mass.

You must market this plan, there are athletes abound that would love to learn how to add mass while in a cut.

Whatever you will stick with.

Yes. Also the suggestion on HIIT or interval training.
If you're short on time, go for an easy warm-up, then do a bit of strength training (maybe compound movements, i.e. combining a couple exercises like squat + overhead press). Put some intervals of cardio in. You could go Tabata style which is 20 seconds max effort (i.e. sprint or do a tough exercise like burpees, high knee run, max effort pushups), take 10 seconds to recover and transition, and repeat for 8 rounds total. Or use another timing method - 45 sec on, 20 sec rest - whatever you can do.

I agree on HIIT. I'm a big guy obvs, but I'd much rather spend 20 minutes going as hard as I can for a minute as often as I can (with intervals growing longer as my stamina improves) than going half assed for an hour and a half on the treadmill.

LOL, building muscle doing cardio...................never change MFP

While I definitely think you can add some mass to your legs cycling, I sure wish it was that simple. My legs would be redonkulous right now since I cycle over 500 miles per month at a faster pace than most.

Cardio gets your heart rate up to burn calories and you also build muscle at the same time.

Really? It is often explained here that you cannot ride a bicycle in 2 directions at once. Either you are losing weight at a deficit or building muscle. Either, or. These two things do not happen at the same time when we first start working out according to many posts here on MFP. You cannot ride a bike in 2 directions at once.

FYI, MFP is not a reliable source for any knowledge, just people's opinions, some are more incorrect than others. Also, you don't have to repeat "Either, or" after your sentence that contains "either,...or". You could be trolling with "rambling" in your name, but just in case you are not:

If you do 50 minutes of cardio, or 30, or 40, your muscles will hurt the next day and possibly the day after that depending on how hard you giv'r. If you eat properly they should repair into stronger muscles. Fat was also inherently burned during this workout. I've lost 10 lbs in 6 weeks of biking 30 kms every weekday and I have increased my muscle mass in my legs considerably (and my triceps slightly). I do not lift weights consistently because it does not fit into my routine with two young kids and a full time job. Eventually you will plateau and then you can start interval training doing only cardio which will further increase fat loss on fitness level. Yes, this includes building muscle.

Sorry, but no. You're not increasing mass (especially considerably) and losing fat....just doing cardio. It's virtually impossible to increase mass and lose fat. It's called a recomp, requires an on point progressive overload resistance program, an on point diet at TDEE, and is painfully long.

Muscles "hurting" and repairing doesn't turn them into bigger stronger muscles.

Strength =/= increase in mass.

You must market this plan, there are athletes abound that would love to learn how to add mass while in a cut.

So you start off by saying "sorry, but no.", then type what you disagree with, but then in brackets you write "especially considerably". So right there you are admitting that on a lesser level you are technically growing muscle doing cardio. The next sentence you start by saying it is "virtually impossible" to blah blah blah. You just don't understand your audience. Not everybody has the same fitness goals and methods as you. I can't believe you actually think that you can't lose fat and increase fitness level (and on a small level muscle mass) by doing cardio. I have lost weight and gained considerable leg muscle by only doing cardio for 6 weeks now. You just like to disagree with people, which is ten-ply.

Bolded is exactly why I put considerable in parenthesis.

I understand my audience.

The: morbidly obese, severely undertrained, and the returning athlete can put on some muscle mass doing cardio. They're called noob gains, are short lived, and far from considerable.

He is disagreeing with you because of science. Not because he likes to.

and this ^ :drinker:

There is no single best exercise.... aim for a combination of cardio and strength training.

At its most base form, Muscle is your fat burning engine... the more muscle you have, the more fat you CAN burn. Cardio is done to engage that fat burning engine.

I find running is my best fat burner, but also weight train so that I can be faster, stronger and to help build injury resistance.

For cross training I also swim and cycle (and no I am not a triathlete... yet).:laugh: