Weights vs. Cardio - HELP!

From my meger research - cardio is always more important. I've read numerous things from body builders saying if you only have 45 minutes to work out, make it all cardio. BUT - when you have more time, resistance training is going to help you faster and more in the long run.

I try and get both, and don't focus on one as more important than the other. They're both equally important to me.

Both are important - the difference between the two is that with cardio you burn calories as you're doing to exercises but with weightlifting you can potentially burn calories long after workout has finished because your body is repairing your muscles. With weightlifting you breakdown the muscle tissues and as they rebuild they burn calories and you get stronger.

Cardio will help with weightloss as well but weightlifting may give you a more defined look.

I am a personal trainer and I am with your trainer. We have discussed this over and over again. Cardio is important, I am not saying to get rid of it. I would still do it, but weights are one of the greatest options for losing and you can still get your heart rate up. They way I do weight lifting I am sweating like a mad woman and my heart is up. I am a HUGE advocate of weights. So keep up the cardio, but also make sure to include weight training to get the biggest bang out of your workouts. It is good you have a trainer and hopefully a good one and is teaching you the right way to do it and pushing you beyond your comfort zone to get you the results you want.

Sorry and your trainer maybe didn't go to school, but there are more adaptions he didn't tell you about other than burning more cals at rest, which is a HUGE bonus. However, there are many adaptations to weight training that are great for your body. Including slower lactic acid build up-which means you can go harder longer. Just keep a balance of both, unless you want to be a body builder-haha!!

Here is what I do and I have been consistently losing weight and feeling stronger and in nearly great shape. I go to "body pump" (a weight lifting class that works the whole body) 1-2x a week (careful it's addicting!! so fun!) and just work as hard as I can there and then I do some sort of cardio nearly EVERY DAY be it walking, jogging, hiking, taking the stairs at work. Even if I can only get 20 min in walking my dogs I do it. As soon as I got off my toosh and did something, I started losing weight and feeling good. I think you have to do both weights and cardio. Having the increase muscle tone from weight lifting will raise your resting metabolic rate and so you will burn more in general but you also have to have a strong heart and lungs which you will get from cardio. Good luck!

Yea they are both important.

BUT What's most important right now though is what you will do. Anything you stick with is most important. I like cardio- it makes me feel awesome and I like it best, so I started with running C25K. Now I've started doing bodyweight training (search "Nerd Fitness Beginner Bodyweight). If you like do a little of them both- 20-30 min ea.

IMHO - SCREW WORKOUT EQUIPMENT :drinker: But seriously- you have equipment, you have a body. Sorry I'm a cheapo and see no reason to pay to get in shape. Your walking sounds GREAT!!!

Just remember- stick to what you will DO that's the most important thing.

Best of luck!
~Gonks

I am a personal trainer and I am with your trainer. We have discussed this over and over again. Cardio is important, I am not saying to get rid of it. I would still do it, but weights are one of the greatest options for losing and you can still get your heart rate up. They way I do weight lifting I am sweating like a mad woman and my heart is up. I am a HUGE advocate of weights. So keep up the cardio, but also make sure to include weight training to get the biggest bang out of your workouts. It is good you have a trainer and hopefully a good one and is teaching you the right way to do it and pushing you beyond your comfort zone to get you the results you want.

This is exactly what my trainer set me up on. Weights 3 x a week and I do 45 min of cardio 3 x a week and sometimes if I have extra time on the days I do weights (depending on my schedule) I may jump on the treadmill for 30 min or so...

So I would agree both are important for different reasons. I would also find out more bout your trainer- certifications and such. I had to swtich trainers 4 times before I found the "right" one for me!

I am SO confused! I have a recumbent bike and a Gazelle at home, and I like to walk at the mall or outside on good days. I want to buy some new fitness equipment but I don't have a clue what to buy!

My trainer is suggesting to get rid of the bike and gazelle - and instead buy a treadmill, a set of weights, and one of those big stability ball things...lol. See how little I know about this? I don't even know what to call the stuff!

I'm starting SLOW, and I want an OBTAINABLE goal, something that will last long term that will give me results and I won't get discouraged or quit trying because its too much for me to take on at the beginning. I also have a very tightly restricted budget and can't afford a bunch of expensive equipment.

The most effective exercise plan is going to be the one you will actually do. I wouldn't get to hung up in specifics when you are just starting out. Start out with your walks to the mall, using your bike and gazelle. With the restricted budget I would recommend at the most buying some inexpensive barbells. Maybe start out with the weight your Dr. recommend but plan on increasing as you gain strength. Body weight exercises like push up and squats are great free exercises.

Bottom line I would put your early efforts into building and maintaining an active life style. As you become more fit your exercise options will increase and your funds for new equipment can be better allocated.

Make it fun.

I would go with your trainer. Doctors are trained in medicine, not other areas. If your trainer is properly trained himself, he will be keeping up on the latest of information out there, and all of it shows that long duration steady state cardio is not a very effective fat burner, especially in the long term. If you have been very sedentary up to this point, any activity will help, but the research out there is showing that some exercise types are much more effective to lose fat than others, and cardio is not near the top.

I really need to find different a different comparison picture for the ladies, but look at these two athlete (if you are female try to imagine the female equivalents). Both are skinny, but most of us would not want to be skinny like the marathon runner, but would rather be skinny like the sprinter.


Long duration cardio is the sort of training that a marathoner participates in the majority of the time. Their bodies are built for endurance and that means a minimum of muscle tissue, only enough to run for miles and miles. Sprinters on the other hand are much more toned and their running consists of lots of intervals of sprinting really hard, followed by slower pace portions that allow the heart rate to recover. They also use weight training much more than a marathon runner.

The best fat loss exercise types are Metabolic Resistance Training (also called Cardio Strength Training) and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). A fairly recent study by Dr. Angelo Trembley at the Physical Activities Sports Clinic in Quebec, Canada compared HIIT to long duration cardio. Once they adjusted for the differences in the amount of time spent in training (a typical HIIT routine will be about 20-30 minutes where a typical long duration cardio from 40-60 minutes) they found that the HIIT burned 9 times as much fat as the long duration cardio. Link to study http://bit.ly/h3T4VS

This is but one study. There are many more, and the findings are becoming quite clear, after decades of pointing to long duration cardio as the weight loss exercise, it is clear it is not. That would explain the many weight loss experts who now say if they were to do things again, they would put less focus on exercise and more on diet change. At least in part the exercise type they were recommending was not the most useful one. There is a place for long duration cardio, but not as the primary exercise type to lose fat. Other exercise types using weights or doing intervals on a tread mill will do much more to burn off fat than long periods spent walking briskly or running at a steady pace.

For more information you can see my blog here at MFP, you can go to http://www.intervaltraining.net/ for more information on Interval Training, and there are lots of other resources here as well like this one http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/213976--the-final-nail-in-the-cardio-coffin

I hope this helps, and may you have great success in losing your fat and getting healthy, lean and toned.

OKAY FOR ME, WHEN I STARTED THIS JOURNEY, I CHOOSE CARDIO OVER WEIGHT FOR THE SIMPLE REASON OF BUILDING MY STAMINA AND ENDURANCE, I BELIEVE THAT BOTH CARDIO AND WEIGHT ARE ESSENTIAL TO THIS PROCESS, BUT YOU HAVE TO HAVE A SOLID BASE IN WHICH TO BUILD UPON. SO WHEN I STARTED I DID CARDIO FOR LIKE THE FIRST 6 MONTHS AND NOW I AM STARTING TO SLOWLY ADD WEIGHT TO MY ROUTINE. TO DATE I HAVE ACTUALLY LOST 50 POUNDS. I STARTED OFF AT 465 IN FEBUARY OF 2010.

If you just want to drop weight, and don't care if it comes from fat or muscle, do cardio only. You won't drop as many inches, but the number on the scale will move more quickly. You'll absolutely be losing muscle in the process, which means you'll need to eat less and less the more weight you lose, and you'll likely wind up "skinny fat" with no visible muscle tone. Personally, that look is just not for me, but I know it's the ideal for some people.

If you want to drop weight, keep as much muscle as possible, and drop inches, then do strength training. With heavy weights. You'll get "toned" (gah - I hate that word), and you won't bulk up. Go heavy like your trainer suggests. Eat way more protein than MFP suggests (like 1 gram per pound of your ideal body weight). See here: http://www.stumptuous.com/lies-in-the-gym

You can also add in high intensity interval training (HIIT) after you lift weights (you want to be "fresh" for strength training). 20 minutes is about all you need. No need for hour long marathon sessions (unless you really want that).

Oh - and nutrition is FAR more important than either one. But I feel that working out puts me in the right frame of mind to keep my nutrition on track the rest of the day. It's more of a mental thing.

I'm hesitant to tell you to ignore your doctor, but he needs to read up on exercise physiology before dispensing any more advice.

is your doctor perscribing a low-dose of metformin? If so, i'd REALLY look into going on the medication. I was 220 pounds when i was diagnosed and it took only about 3 months (with a strict diabetic diet and taking the MINIMAL dose of Metformin) for me to go down to 175 ... I had tried losing weight before without the medication and never got results like that because my body just didn't have what it needed process the (admitedly small!) amounts of sugars and staches i was eating.

I'm now at 152 pounds and i've talked to my doc about getting off the metformin but when i do even on a STRICT diet w/ exercise my weight tends to creep back up. sometimes the meds are not a crutch, it's what your body needs. i'm just saying discuss it further w/ your doc. Of course you still need to work on diet and exercise but if you have insulin issues that is no joke

-J

Let me second the body weight exercises advice. I do pretty much all my workouts using body weight. I have an extensive weight set, but prefer body weight stuff. "You Are Your Own Gym" by Mark Lauren is a good book on that with a bunch of exercises in it. Also along with youtube.com as a good resource, the free website http://bodyweightculture.com/forum/content.php is quite good with lots of exercises to be found. You can do strength training without any weights and get really good results.

I'm sorry, I normally don't respond to posts but I just have to speak up. I just couldn't let this slide. You are asking people who don't know you and don't know your medical condition(s) whether you should follow your trainer's advice over your doctor's? From the little you have said you are apparently under doctor supervision for various reasons. From the posts here you have stated you have diabetes. Your profile said you had gastric bypass surgery several years ago, and for all we know there could be a host of other issues. Any trainer worth his salt would never advise you against your doctors orders. There may be a reason he put you on a plan of more cardio. Maybe you have cardiovascular issues, respritory issues, etc, etc. We don't know and asking people on here means you either don't trust your doctor (so get a second opinion) or you are looking for another way out. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but the first thing your trainer should have done was have you get a physical prior to starting any weight loss program or exercise program and then base the plan for you on what the doctor says so they work in conjunction with each other, not against each other. I hope your trainer had you sign a medical waiver so he is not held liable for anything that happens to you based on the plan he provided that is different than what your doctor is recommending.