Cardio?

The one the you can stick with is the best. I like HIIT, others like biking, running, dance, etc...

I still go for maximum calorie burn so I do cardio first, then while my HR is still high I move on into my version of cross training which incorporates body weight training with all muscle groups with very little rest in between sets. So cardio first on an elliptical machine, then push ups, pull ups/chin ups, crunches, planks, leg lifts, squats, sit ups (weighted), etc. I try to do as many as I can (usually around 20-30 per set) with two sets of each exercise. Takes about 30 minutes if I keep up the pace. Between that and the cardio I can do about an 800+ calorie burn six days a week that way and work just about every muscle group I want. It's tiring, and sometimes I don't manage six days a week and have to take an extra rest day but it's been rewarding. I've been doing this for almost a year now, and the last three months or so have been at or near maintenance calories. I'm now hitting maintenance and going over some days to help build more muscle slowly. My body fat has continued to lower and muscle tone and size is very slowly increasing. It would increase faster if I'd increase calories but I still am at around a 5% deficit and fluctuate into about a 5% surplus a few days a week. I'm still around my goal weight and usually for a week or so I'll hit it a bit harder and drop a couple of pounds, then increase calories for a week and gain the pounds back. I'm sitting around 12-13% body fat right now and am hoping to hit 10% by the end of the summer. The fluctuations, I hope, are muscle being built and fat being eliminated. At least that's the plan.

The catch is that I found that weight training (not body weight, real weights) wasn't doing me a ton of good in a severe deficit. There were some newbie gains but after that I didn't progress at all, and actually managed to injure myself being at a 2lb/week loss deficit and trying to increase weight. So I transitioned into body weight training and have been very happy with it. I figure if I get to the point near the end of this year where I can be at a 10-15% bulk I'll transition back into weigh training more.

Moral of this story is that weight training is a good thing, but if you're at a deficit you may want to think about body weight training first. It's all good, but you can't build very much muscle in a deficit.

I'm a cycling enthusiast and like to participate in various cycling events, so my training is geared towards that. Right now I'm training for the summer time trial series so I'm doing a lot of shorter but higher intensity rides and threshold work...in the late summer/early fall I will transition to more endurance and longer rides as I have a few 1/2 centuries slated for the fall. I lift to support my cycling and to be a better cyclist...and also I look better than I otherwise would if I didn't lift.

Because I'm actually training for events and races, I want to be able to put maximum effort into what I'm doing...I usually cycle in the early morning 5-6 days per week and I lift 2-3x per week with a full body program...I lift in the evenings so I have plenty of time to eat and recover from my morning rides on two-a-days.