New to weightless

Aaronk234
Aaronk234 Posts: 2 Member
edited November 2021 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi my names aaron am 29 5ft 10 and 20stone 10pounds am currently eatting in a small calorie deficit I know this as I've been monitoring and lowering calories every few weeks until I start losing at a slow rate.

Exercise
Am currently only doing weights at the moment I don't know if this is a good idea or bad people say do weights others say just cardio
That's why am here to ask everyone for there opinion should I do weights and cardio ? If yes how many days a week do I do cardio

Or
Do I only do cardio ? Stair climber,walking,running etc

Thanks in advance

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    Both cardio and strength have their advantages. Cardio is good for heart health, strength for keeping/improving muscles and associated body tissues.

    Most experts (HHS in US, NHS in UK, WHO, etc.) recommend doing some of each. The WHO recommendation is fairly typical:

    "All adults should undertake 150–300 min of moderate-intensity, or 75–150 min of vigorous-intensity physical activity, or some equivalent combination of moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, per week. . . . The guidelines recommend regular muscle-strengthening activity for all age groups."

    source: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/54/24/1451

    So, that's a good thing to work toward, if it's feasible for you. Building up gradually and realistically is a good way to improve fitness. You don't have to start doing everything all at once.

    Exercise burns calories, so it's always a consideration when we're calorie counting. People get in big arguments about whether to do cardio because it burns more calories, or strength because it preserves muscles; other arguments about whether one should "eat back" exercise calories or not; and more.

    It's not a good idea health-wise to lose weight super fast, and there's only marginal difference when one loses super fast because of lots of exercise, very little eating, or a combination. There's IMO a good argument in favor of a sensibly moderate weight loss rate (as you're doing), to minimize health risk and preserve energy level for daily life, as well as make it possible to stick to the weight loss process long enough to lose a meaningful total amount.

    So, I say: Work toward a combination of cardio and strength exercise, realistically and gradually increasing duration, frequency, intensity or exercise type(s) to keep just a bit of challenge, while not spending so much time it screws up your overall life balance. You want to have enough time and energy left for other important things, like job, family, social life, etc., not just exercise.

    Best wishes!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Do both - different benefits and there's no good reason to delay starting (at an appropriate level for where you are now).
    But please don't think of exercise as something done for weight loss, it's a fundamental part of your health now and for for the rest of your life.

    Also don't think of cardio as something that has to be done in a gym.
    I've dome 387 hours of "cardio" so far this year and only one of those hours was indoors.

    How much depends on your current capabilities, your fitness goals and how much you enjoy your exercise. Plus of course factoring how much time you have to dedicate to exercise.
  • Onamissionforfit
    Onamissionforfit Posts: 90 Member
    Aaronk234 wrote: »
    Hi my names aaron am 29 5ft 10 and 20stone 10pounds am currently eatting in a small calorie deficit I know this as I've been monitoring and lowering calories every few weeks until I start losing at a slow rate.

    Exercise
    Am currently only doing weights at the moment I don't know if this is a good idea or bad people say do weights others say just cardio
    That's why am here to ask everyone for there opinion should I do weights and cardio ? If yes how many days a week do I do cardio

    Or
    Do I only do cardio ? Stair climber,walking,running etc

    Thanks in advance

    Do both. Weights for bulk and building muscle does burn fat but you should also do cardio for body fat drop. Once you finish a cardio session your body is done burning calories as for weights you still burn calories the rest of the day.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    tawnyamorgan1983 wrote: »
    Aaronk234 wrote: »
    Hi my names aaron am 29 5ft 10 and 20stone 10pounds am currently eatting in a small calorie deficit I know this as I've been monitoring and lowering calories every few weeks until I start losing at a slow rate.

    Exercise
    Am currently only doing weights at the moment I don't know if this is a good idea or bad people say do weights others say just cardio
    That's why am here to ask everyone for there opinion should I do weights and cardio ? If yes how many days a week do I do cardio

    Or
    Do I only do cardio ? Stair climber,walking,running etc

    Thanks in advance

    Do both. Weights for bulk and building muscle does burn fat but you should also do cardio for body fat drop. Once you finish a cardio session your body is done burning calories as for weights you still burn calories the rest of the day.

    There is EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, i.e., "afterburn") from cardio, too. Very loosely, it appears that higher intensity exercise creates more EPOC than lower intensity exercise, i.e., intense cardio causes more EPOC than lower-intensity cardio, heavy lifting more EPOC than lighter lifting. IMU, research is ongoing, but it appears that EPOC from strength training may be higher (last longer, mostly) than EPOC from cardio, but that's going to vary with the intensity of either/both.

    Thing is, for any of these, EPOC is a pretty small absolute number of calories. It's usually expressed as a percentage of the calories burned in the initial exercise, and 15% EPOC would be a pretty good result for any activity, according to what I've read.

    On the one hand, 15% EPOC is a whopping three times more than 5% EPOC. But remember: It's a percent of the calories burned during the exercise.

    So, say one does 500 calories doing some exercise, a non-trivial number of calories. Let's say it was something that generates a very good 15% EPOC. That would be 75 extra calories burned post-exercise. Keep in mind that the more intense the activity, the less total time one can perform it and/or the less often one can perform it (because exhaustion/recovery needs), and the time active affects the number of calories burned during the exercise. IOW, increasing intensity to increase EPOC % tends to decrease exercise duration or frequency, reducing EPOC's absolute calorie value. There are tradeoffs.

    Once it's math-ed out, I don't see EPOC as logically a huge factor in picking one exercise type vs. another. YMMV.

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