Weights - circuits or heavy lifting?

emmaruns · February 2012

Hi all,

I've done both, but I'm wondering what's best for fat loss, keeping my metabolism going and toning. I want to make these lifetime habits, so I started off with cardio and walking on my treaddesk. Meeting with a trainer at 2 today and wondered if I should look for free weights, circuits to keep my HR up as well or what?

Any thoughts/expeirences would be helpful!

Emily

HeidiMightyRawr · February 2012

Heavy lifting

Heavy lifting helps to build / maintain your muscle easier. More muscle = slightly higher metabolism. It also creates more of a toned look in my opinion. Compound lifts such as squats and deadlifts are also great for working your whole body and get your heart rate up more than isolation exercises (such a bicep curls)

Cardio/circuits etc have their place, and would probably get the heart rate up more / burn more calories in that time frame but providing you already have a deficit in place through food you'll still lose weight just as easily.

rayleansout · February 2012

If you have never lifted before, do full body circuitds and concntrate on correct form and reps. If you have lifted do Both circuits and heavy alternate workouts every ohter time. week 1 - hard and heavy - circuit - heard and heavy - week 2 circuit - hard and heavy - circuit

chrishgt4 · February 2012

From what I understand weights is better than cardio for weight loss. Since cardio burns fat through having your muscles working, working your muscles directly has more effect. The difference is cardio burns fat for longer after you've stopped, but I believe the overall winner is weights.

Aim for a weight you can do 10-15 reps of should be about right.
Once, over time, you start being able to do more than 15 reps on a particular exercise, up the weight so you can only do 9 or 10 and work up the reps again.

Also try and do a full body workout each session rather than focusing on body areas as I believe this is better for burning fat as well.

jamiesadler · February 2012

Initially I would have said Cardio but I read an article yesterday written by Maik Wiedenbach who said that the best way to burn fat is to do circuit training. I think it differs fro all of us but as long as you are building lean muscle and keeping your intensity up you will burn fat. You need muscle to do that. Good luck

pfelix54 · February 2012

I have been told that both cardio and strength training are of benefit. My trainer told me that when doing strength training you should warm up with about 10 minutes on the treadmill or eliptical , then do the strength training and finish with more cardio to rev up your metabolism.On my cardio only nights I do 1 hour of Zumba. It burns a lot of calories but is a lot more fun than the treadmill or running.

grinch031 · February 2012

lift heavy

for cardio do intervals and get your heart rate up

HeidiMightyRawr · February 2012

The difference is cardio burns fat for longer after you've stopped, but I believe the overall winner is weights.

From what I've heard it's the other way around. With cardio you get the better calorie burn in the time frame. Weights may not burn as many right then, but you continue burning calories for longer after you finish your workout.

grapenutSF · February 2012

I'm a big fan of heavy lifting. Many of us here, so you would have a nice group of support here as icing on the cake.

You might try New Rules of Lifting for Women, a book many of us use to learn and organize our workouts.

chrishgt4 · February 2012

The difference is cardio burns fat for longer after you've stopped, but I believe the overall winner is weights.

From what I've heard it's the other way around. With cardio you get the better calorie burn in the time frame. Weights may not burn as many right then, but you continue burning calories for longer after you finish your workout.

Perhaps it is that way round - I know there is something along those lines but I'm pretty sure weights wins out in the end...

KarateGoddess · February 2012

I combine them. I always do my lifting in a circuit because I don't like to sit still but that's just me.

GrahamBarwick · February 2012

i split all my training all the time, i do circuits of weights a bit like pump.... generally not giving myself much of break for an hour and i always warm up with 10 to 15 min job.

Even when i do heavy weights i rarely focus on one area but try all over body moves, eg squats with bar bell on sholders, return to start then overhead press, then into a lunge. I find this great for toning and adding whilst burning fat. works for me, maybe not everyone else. each to there own

Quickster34 · February 2012

If you're trying to make this a life long habit you should blend both, look into periodization it will strategically include heavy lifting and then taper into more circuit type training while maintaining the lean muscle that you build.

as far as cardio vs weight training, it all depends on how you lift, if you lift with short rest or even better active rest ( jump rope or jumping jacks) than your going to get an increased heart rate that will continue to burn fat after your workouts

intervals or sprints are the best way to burn fat with raw cardio , thats why they are also tougher to do than just jogging

good luck!

Beeps2011 · February 2012

Lift heavy.

There are two groups here, at mfp, that you might consider joining: "Women Strength Training" and "NROL4W".

Good luck!

GrahamBarwick · February 2012

If you're trying to make this a life long habit you should blend both, look into periodization it will strategically include heavy lifting and then taper into more circuit type training while maintaining the lean muscle that you build.

as far as cardio vs weight training, it all depends on how you lift, if you lift with short rest or even better active rest ( jump rope or jumping jacks) than your going to get an increased heart rate that will continue to burn fat after your workouts

intervals or sprints are the best way to burn fat with raw cardio , thats why they are also tougher to do than just jogging

good luck!

well said

emmaruns · February 2012

Just to be clear, this would be in ADDITION to cardio. Still plan my 45 minutes or so of elliptical each day and I also walk very slowly (2.0-2.5mph) on my treaddesk. I walk about 6-10 miles a day.

Essentially, I decided this year to develop habits that I could live with, that I would enjoy and that would ultimately lead to losing my weight. Have been "adding in" things slowly and am now ready to add weights.

Sounds like I should go heavy, though, as I'm already getting the heart benefits of cardio. What makes me nervous is my whole "sweat means it's working" thing and when I lift I don't sweat as much.

Thanks all!

jenniebean1680 · February 2012

The difference is cardio burns fat for longer after you've stopped, but I believe the overall winner is weights.

From what I've heard it's the other way around. With cardio you get the better calorie burn in the time frame. Weights may not burn as many right then, but you continue burning calories for longer after you finish your workout.

Perhaps it is that way round - I know there is something along those lines but I'm pretty sure weights wins out in the end...

Yes, cardio burns more during, but not as much after. Lifting burns less during, and more after. And I guess HIIT is in the middle somewhere?? lol.

I switch it up... I got kinda bored w/ lifting heavy and resting lots, so I do circuits now. But I don't exactly go 'light' on circuits, either. I still go to near failure for the last rep, and I usually do burnouts for the last round of the circuit (I do 3 rounds). But some weeks I'll just feel like going trad and doing heavy lifts.

Maybe I'm not the best one to ask, as I have some good muscles in there but am working on cutting the fat off of them myself. I like threads like this!!!

chrishgt4 · February 2012

HIIT is apparently the way to go.

You're talking a good study I've seen used 20 seconds on cycling machines of absolute effort followed by 10 seconds of steady pedalling then immediately 20 seconds back on it for a total of about 8 minutes.

Apparently how it works is that during the high intensity bit, your body is using glucose, but when you drop down to 50% effort for the rest period it burns fat. During a normal exercise there are long periods of exercise and so fewer breaks, but apparently it is in these intervals that fat burning is best. So having more intervals burns more fat.

thankyou4thevenom · February 2012

For a long term plan you should be doing both.

If for the short term you're looking for fat loss rather than weight loss heavy lifting is best. Heavy lifting will give you a great toned look and raise your metabolism. However if you're looking to lift heavy you shouldn't really be at a deficit in order to gain muscle. You can gain muscle at a deficit but it's really hard and it won't happen as fast as if you're not.

salxtai · February 2012

Apparently how it works is that during the high intensity bit, your body is using glucose, but when you drop down to 50% effort for the rest period it burns fat. During a normal exercise there are long periods of exercise and so fewer breaks, but apparently it is in these intervals that fat burning is best. So having more intervals burns more fat.

+1. Agreed.
Glucose (carbs) is easier to burn so its used by the body when its low in oxygen (high interval) - fat requires oxygen to burn through it so lower intensity helps.
The switching between the high and low helps to up metabolism.

chrishgt4 · February 2012

Apparently how it works is that during the high intensity bit, your body is using glucose, but when you drop down to 50% effort for the rest period it burns fat. During a normal exercise there are long periods of exercise and so fewer breaks, but apparently it is in these intervals that fat burning is best. So having more intervals burns more fat.

+1. Agreed.
Glucose (carbs) is easier to burn so its used by the body when its low in oxygen (high interval) - fat requires oxygen to burn through it so lower intensity helps.
The switching between the high and low helps to up metabolism.

And there's the science behind it!

kdiamond · February 2012

I'm a big fan of heavy lifting. Many of us here, so you would have a nice group of support here as icing on the cake.

You might try New Rules of Lifting for Women, a book many of us use to learn and organize our workouts.

This ^^^^^

Since I started lifting heavy I can eat tons more, my metabolism is through the roof. Not to mention I dropped 2-3% body fat while I gained a few pounds of healthy weight.

I do 2-3 interval sessions (HIIT) on the treadmill per week, no more than 20 minutes a pop.

Weights - circuits or heavy lifting?

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