Keeping muscle, losing fat

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jenniator
jenniator Posts: 475 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey everyone :)

I go to the gym 5 days a week and use the elliptical for 1 hour each day. I have seen great results from the elliptical and absolutely love it! The elliptical is my favorite machine at the gym which is great since I absolutely hate running. The problem is a few months ago, I started strength training for the purpose of keeping my muscles and having my weight loss be from fat. I did start doing it 2-3 times a week for 20-25 minutes at a time. I problem is, I really disliked strength training and got bored from it. So I haven't been strength training for a few months. I have no problem with motivation on the elliptical since it's fun for me and there is a T.V. on the monitor of the elliptical, so time goes fast. I know the elliptical gives you a great lower body work out and a little bit of a upper body work out, but the problem I'm worried about is if it's enough of a workout to keep my muscle and result in losing fat. Can this be achieved just from using the elliptical alone, or does strength training need to be included for this to happen?

Replies

  • JRO2685
    JRO2685 Posts: 23 Member
    edited July 2015
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    If you are cutting weight no mater how you do it you will lose both muscle and fat. You can try and preserve muscle mass through your diet by eating an adequate amount of protein and by strength training.

    As someone who has used the elliptical to drop a significant amount of weight and didn't weight train at the same time I can say from my experience you are probably sacrificing at lot muscle by only using the elliptical.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    JRO2685 wrote: »
    If you are cutting weight no mater how you do it you will lose both muscle and fat. You can try and preserve muscle mass through your diet by eating an adequate amount of protein and by strength training.

    As someone who has used the elliptical to drop a significant amount of weight and didn't weight train at the same time I can say from my experience you are probably sacrificing at lot muscle by only using the elliptical.

    Pretty much this. Some sort of progressive strength training is going to be needed to maximize muscle retention (maybe even build a little). Protein intake is also key - in fact even more important in my opinion.
  • jenniator
    jenniator Posts: 475 Member
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    Thanks guys :)
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
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    Find some different froms of resistance training that are more enjoyable for you like kettlebells, a class or the cable machine if a simple lifting program wasnt your thing. The eliptical is essentially CV. The CV with an all over body workout is the rower, which is prety good, but still nowhere near as good as an actual resistance program.

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