1 hour of cardio or 30 mins each of weights and cardio

Definitely stick with a combination of cardio and weights. The whole "afterburn" thing is highly exaggerated but not a good reason to ignore strength.

Depending on how your strength program is structured it may not take too long or be too demanding at first (I'm fond of Stronglifts 5 x 5) but the idea is to develop good lifting form and gradually build up the weight to avoid injuries.

Keep in mind that weight loss is a function of energy balance (ie eating fewer calories than you expend) and you could accomplish that through diet alone. Exercise is for fitness and health. If you're not planning on doing endurance sports 3 x 30 minutes of cardio (assuming it's of a sufficient intensity) is enough to significantly improve cardiovascular health.

"I've heard that weights are great for the afterburn"
The afterburn from weights workout might sound great in percentage terms (but often dramatically over-stated....) but in reality it's a percentage of a small initial calorie burn.

Say you burn 100 cals in 30mins of lifting and get 20% afterburn (EPOC) - that's a totally insignificant 20 cals.
Weights are a great thing to do, but not for calorie burns.


"Will doing weights really be better than 3 days of 1 hr of cardio"
You need to define "better".
In terms of calorie burns it's not remotely close.

And by the way the intention of this site is that you don't use exercise to boost your exercise. It's trying to make exercise a habit for life for the health benefits and not for a short term fix.

You exercise schedule needs to align with your health and fitness goals rather than purely calorie burns but if that's what you really intend doing then long duration, medium intensity cardio is the way to maximise calorie expenditure. Likely to be boring as hell and unlikely you would get the fitness benefits of a more varied routine which includes cardio, resistance training and flexibility.

Pickle107 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your help and feedback. So the general consensus is cardio on its own might be a smidge quicker to drop lbs but I'd be better off lifting as well? That's cool. That confirms I'll do the Muscle and Fitness plan plus cardio mix.

Does yoga actually give any aesthetic benefits? Flexibility and balance, yes- which are great. But will it change how I look compared not doing it? Or would I have to be doing it daily to see any effect?

Cardio typically burns more calories minute per minute than strength exercise. Calorie balance (in < out) determines body weight. Doing some strength exercise will increase odds that weight loss is relatively more fat loss vs. lean tissue loss, but that difference may not be huge (co-depends on a bunch of other factors).

Weight loss rate is primariy about that calorie balance (in < out). If you burn 100 fewer calories via exercise, but eat 100 fewer calories also, you end up at (about) the same loss rate.

You say "I'd like to weigh 120lbs in an ideal world but I'd take a lean figure with a higher weight."

The cardio may help more with calorie burn, but strength exercise will help more with aesthetics for most people, and with "leanness at a higher weight", in the very long run.

"Lifting heavy" is not about some abstract number of pounds. It just means lifting things that are heavy to you. A "weakling" lifting lighter weights that are challenging for them is increasing strength and eventually muscle.

For me, yoga has more to do with my mental state (i.e., it's calming, helps with focus) and on the physical front, with flexibility. I've had phases where I had a daily yoga practice for months at a time, and I saw no significant change in my aesthetics, and while I won't say no change in strength (depends on starting fitness and type of yoga), it was certainly slower change than with resistance exercise like weight training.

I'd say that when Azdak gives advice, we should listen (he's a very experienced pro in the field). That's even true when he disagrees with me. Maybe especially true when he disagrees with me, even.

Only you are in a position to say how your goals trade off against one another. Different exercise modalities contribute to those goals in different ways.

Pickle107 wrote: »

I'd take a lean figure with a higher weight.

Definitely include lifting!

jesselee10 wrote: »

Be warned- weight training is great for aesthetics the most of the three, but you will be sore from time to time and the scale might not move, in fact it may go up. I would keep the mobility/yoga aspect to help with muscle tightness and cardio (no more than 30 minutes) for calorie burn. Steadily increase weight along the way (doing 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps). You will find your measurements will get smaller(esp. waist) but the scale might not coincide. Don’t worry about that and trust the mirror instead.

No more than 30 minutes of cardio? Why? For what benefit?

jesselee10 wrote: »

So you don’t waste away your muscle.

That's not actually an issue.
Muscle isn't used as fuel except in a true starvation situation.

Cardio burning muscle for fuel is a common myth you have fallen into. Think about why elite athletes train so many hours and then you would have to assume that the people that trained the most would have the lowest performance and that's clearly not the case.

jesselee10 wrote: »

Well I’ve done the extreme in cardio with marathon running and did strength training as well (esp. legs) to keep injury to minimum. You do not gain the muscles you would if you limited cardio to a reasonable level. Quite known in the bodybuilding/powerlifting community to keep cardio levels lower if trying to increase muscle/strength, especially the same day.

As I've sure you've seen by now. This idea of cardio "wasting away your muscle" is simply not accurate. But if you'd like some more evidence:


Track cyclist Robert Förstemann's muscles don't appear to have wasted away despite hours of cardio daily. In fact you could maybe even call what he was doing "extreme cardio" with additional emphasis put on lower body strength training. For more cardio that doesn't cause muscle atrophy (or at the very least, the prevention of muscle growth), here's an entire Buzzfeed post (I hesitate to call it an article of any kind) with a number of pictures of various olympic gymnasts. If that's somehow not enough for you...



You can see Mary Lou Retton's abs through her leotard and from what I've seen having watched gymnastics, that doesn't seem rare. I haven't even touched ballet dancers with their hours and hours and hours of classes (practice) and their rather muscular builds. Here's four hours from the Royal Ballet's live stream earlier this Fall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=390h0Cv2gMQ

I do a mix of cardio and strength. Love yoga but just don't have the time right now. Sounds like you have about 4 hours per week to devote to exercise. If you want to lose weight, Id do around 35-40 mins cardio, 20-25 mins weights. I find I can get a decent strength workout in in that amount of time if I keep moving. If you don't care about the scale and just want to improve body composition I'd do the exact opposite.

If probably start with the first combo with more cardio and then once I got to my desired weight, shift to the second. And I'd just find some 10 minute yoga routines to squeeze in when I was in the mood. Agree with the above posters who say they don't notice much of a difference in their bodies with doing yoga but it does make you feel good!

You really only need to limit cardio if you're not eating enough to support it AND lifting. I used to dance 3 hours/day plus random gym workouts with my friends on the wrestling team. I still managed to build a reasonable amount of muscle - but I ATE LIKE A HORSE.

RIGHT NOW, I am keeping an eye on my cardio, because I'm having trouble eating enough to support my activity level, due to some medical complications.

If you can get in enough calories to power your activities you will not lose too much muscle mass as you lose weight (You will always lose *some* but the losses can be mitigated by matching your fuel to your goal - and UNDERSTANDING what your goal requires is seemingly the hard part for many.)