cardio vs strength training

You'll see a couple of benefits from strength training. You already listed a couple of them:

1. Burning calories
2. Toning up (aka building muscle)

Another benefit is that muscle is more dense than fat and requires more nutrients to simply exist. That means your base metabolism will increase and you'll burn more calories without doing anything at all.

I recommend strength training of some sort (even if it's just waking up in the morning and doing 30 pushups) at least 3-4 days a week. Don't train the same muscle groups on consecutive days. Be aware of your form while you're lifting, because your body has an amazing tendency to recruit stronger muscles to compensate for weaker ones (leaving those weak muscles weak)... Don't overdo it, because you can very easily hurt yourself.

IMHO I think 3 to 4 days a week of 30 minutes strength plus your cardio (as long as you are eating right and losing wieght) should be enough to get you relatively toned. I say that yet I am far from tone right now, but I am also 20lbs overweight. My favorite ways of doing strength is with Exercise TV on demand. (If you have a digital cable box, most cable companies carry this). It allows you to pick from different programs (dance/core/upper body/cardio etc.), trainers (Jillian Michaels is one of my favs), lenghts of time (10 minutes to 1 hour programs) and it adds variety (to keep from getting bored. Another good option is the EA Active 2 for the Wii. The more options you have the less boring it is.

I just met with a personal trainer yesterday. He told me to do strength training at least three times a week and cardio 5-6 days a week.

He told me to do strength training for 30 minutes and then cardio for 30-45 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then on Tuesday and Thursday do 45-60 minutes of cardio but no strength training on those days. He said if I had extra energy on the weekends to choose one day to do cardio but not on both days. He told me to take at least one day off from exercise.

This is exactly what my trainer has me do...35 minutes of cardio followed by his plan for strength training for me every other day..on the non strength training days it's 60 minutes of cardio....taking one day off per week. And using different cardio equipment tends to break up the cardio monotony for me (since I'd much rather do leg presses and leg extensions than run or do the elliptical)...oh yeah...and a great song list on an mp3 player. I do find myself getting a little frustrated that the weight is not coming off, even though I'm under my calorie count and I'm doing more cardio than I ever have before (in my life)...BUT I remember that I am building my muscle again and that's a VERY good thing. So, don't despair...it will all pay off in the end!

I've been wondering the same thing, and you guys have given great advice, but some days you are working out for over an hour and a half, where do you find the time ? What do you think is say the minimum amount of strength and cardio you could do a day? I have busy life and at mo can just about spare 30-40 mins a day. Is this enough ?

I'm like you - I do not have 60-90 minutes a day to exercise. I have 45 minutes. That's it. I alternate days of cardio and weights. I love to lift, so I do 3 days lifting, and 2 days cardio. I'm noticing more definition with the increased weight training. Plus, muscle burns more calories. I'm trying it this way this time. So far so good.

I think as long as you're doing something, you're good.

I hate the gym too. I can easily do 3-5 miles walking/jogging 7 days a week, no problem. I do it outside, I tackle stairs, hills, anything! but a treadmill in a gym ehh.... I used to think it was b/c people would stare at the big man. I'm 6'3 large frame. but after 2 months I stopped caring about what others may think when they saw me. I too find it boring. I go 2x a week, 30-45 mins. once on the weekends, once during the middle of the week. I wanna step it up to 3-4x a week. I think it would help if I could convince a friend or 2. make it a group activity. I also found bringing your own music can help.

as others have said strength training is important. I liked one fitness nazi.....errr trainer at my gym how he explained it to me. think of your body as a car engine. you do cardio to burn calories. you want to do strength training to make the engine bigger and burn calories more efficiently for when you do cardio.