Cardio or Weights

both...

The more muscle you have the more you burn when at rest - your body needs a mix of both.

A mix of both. Good luck on your journey, feel free to add me.

A lot of people here are saying both... and they are correct. If you want to tone your body use lighter weights and more repetitions. This will avoid gaining bulky muscles which I assume you wish to avoid. The combination of resistance and cardio training will burn more calories than either one alone.

Hi!
My experience with a peronal trainer for the past 2 1/2 yrs and 70 pounds lost is that you need both.
You need to do weights because in increases muscle strength and muscle burns more calories. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism and caloric burn. The cardio will do similar things for you, but more importantly, help raise you metabolism. I do weight/strength training 3 days a week and follow that with 30 minutes of cardio in a targeted zone set by my cardiologist. On the days that I do not weight train, I still get in 30 minutes of cardio.
Do not worry about bulking up. A woman's physiology will not let that happen. Your muscles will become leaner, shapelier, but not bulky like a man. You need testosterone to bulk like a man and luckily, we are estrogen based!
Let me add that I'm just shy of 60 years old and did not start my weight lifting until 2 1/2 years ago. I have many health issues and proceed carefully and at the pace monitored by my trainer, and yet I can lift weights that none of the younger women will even try.
Your local gym has staff that can answer many of your questions, and if not there, the internet has many private gym websites and you can check out their trainer logs and find some answers there. Hope this helps.

I only do about 10-15 minutes of cardio daily, and a half an hour of weight training, alternating upper, lower body days. I also do abs on my lower body day. I'm seeing inches vanish, and pounds shed. I had to experiment with what the perfect "mixture" was for me, but from what I've read, you really don't need that much cardio to lose weight unless you are training for some type of event to build endurance. To drop weight you should be good with what I mentioned as long as you are lifting heavy. I do.

A lot of people here are saying both... and they are correct. If you want to tone your body use lighter weights and more repetitions. This will avoid gaining bulky muscles which I assume you wish to avoid. The combination of resistance and cardio training will burn more calories than either one alone.

This has been stated so many times, and is dead wrong. You are NOT going to become super bulky by lifting high weight/low reps. Low weight/high rep is more of an endurance workout than strength.

Okay, yes low weight high reps are for endurance, heavy weights, low reps are for strength. Muscle size is 6-8 reps. There are many power lifters who have very firm muscles, but they're not all bulky like a body builder. It trains muscle contraction ability. The 6-8 rep range, is the opitmal range to increase sarcoplasm in the muscle giiving a bigger size. Power lifting builds new muscle fibers, but it's not wear as the size compared to increase sarcoplasm in the muscle.

Definatley both I used to do just cardio but after adding circuit weights I may not have lost too many lbs since starting that but my clothes are falling off me I love it and what better NSV than clothes not fitting:happy:

Feel free to add me too we all need motivation !!

Hi everyone.. my name is Margie. I am only new to this site and am looking forward to having your support in my weight loss goal. I've got about 11kgs to shed and am a little confused whether cardio or weights is the go. Everyone has a different opinion and am really up in the air on what is best. I figure that if I have a bit of beef on me, wouldnt weights just make me look more bulky before I lose the inches?

Everyone is saying do both, If you could do both I don't think you'd be asking. If you can do both, do both. If you can't...
You have to think about what your goals are. If you want "general" fitness. I would recommend circuit training with weights. Meaning go through your sets with out rest, this will get your heart rate up, kind of giving you a cardio effect. Muscles also build up giving you a higher metabolism, an effect you won't get with cardio. Cardio would actually slow down your metabolism.

Most people would think I am stating crazy stuff. In the long run with weight training you will build more muscle increasing your BMR(Basal metabolic rate) this is how many calories you burn at rest. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn just by laying around. In the long run, cardio doesn't have this effect, as you lose ore body fat, the less you weight, the easier the cardio is, so the less calories you burn.

You 'only' have 24 pounds to lose. Do Both. You'll notice the shape of your body changing and toning up nicely and more significantly by lifting weights. if you only have time or the inclination to do one, do the weights like 'asmcriminal' says - no pauses between reps, so you get a cardio and a weight workout in one and count your calories. Then when you start to get the hang of it, get your cardio in a few times a week - 30 min. I see young folks on here with a relatively small amount to lose [it's all relative] doing P90X and eating clean and they look fantastic. If I could do it over again...

Hollycat
:flowerforyou: