Strength Training VS Cardio

Muscle mass helps to keep your metabolism high so you burn more calories all day long. Cardio is important but strength training is equally important.

I agree.

Men's health says that you will burn more fat doing strength training than cardio.
Everybody has opinions.

Your doing what 100's of others are doing, cardio one day, strength training the next.
Keep up the same routine, and you will notice results.

Remember take measurements, because you might lose inches when the scale is not moving.

Jenn,

I played High School and College Football over a spand of 8 years, and just about ever coach I have ever had pushed us to do both (it has been said that Cardio is better for wieght loss, but weight training is equally as important). I agree with GTO Girl and tttthumper muscle mass will keep up your metabolism. Right now I am trying to get back down to my fighting weight, I am Running about 2-3 mile Mon,Wed,Fri, and Sun. Then I lift for about 45 min Tue, Thur, and Sat (mostly upper body).

I hope this helps, Good Luck.

Bill

You will burn more fat doing both now. When you build muscle, that muscle constantly burns more calores throughout the day. If you did just cardio, that doesn't happen.

The thing with strength training, you may not see as big of a loss on the scales but you lose more inches. Take any fit football player, they may weigh 250 lbs but they would never be considered overweight because they are all muscle and fit. Does that make sense? Now, as a female you will NOT bulk up like a football player, women's genetics aren't meant to be that way. Instead you wll get lean, toned muscles and lose more fat.

I'll say this, you can't really build muscle while in a caloric deficit. that is you can't build NEW muscle. So you probably won't gain any muscle mass while you are on a diet that is lower in calories than your maintenance.

NOW

There are other factors involved, including activating new muscle fibers that were there, but not being used, this will add weight in the form of glycogen stores and water weight, that can account for increased weight or the seeming of not losing weight while beginning a new workout schedule.

Also, your body may also have a metabolic rate that doesn't quite conform to the averages, if that's the case you won't lose weight at the level the site predicts, some tweaking may be needed, if you do tweak, remember, give each change time (a month or so) to kick in, and most importantly keep the changes small (like caloric changes should be 100 cals per day or less)

BUT

this doesn't mean weight training while trying to lose weight is bad, or doesn't do anything for you, it just means that you won't really put on muscle while doing it. Weight training is important for many reasons, most importantly it keeps your bones and muscles healthy and strong, this forces your body to work the way it's supposed to, keeping your metabolic rate active and fast, this helps burn fat. It also keeps your muscle using protein, this keeps that protein from being converted for energy, and thus leaving more energy for fat conversion. So keep up the weight training, 2 times a week is good for a start, but 3 times a week should be a good goal.

There are a few things that I've learned along the way about strength training vs. cardio training. Both are important in any weight loss program for a number of reasons.

As many other people have stated, muscle keeps your metabolism going all day long. Muscle also burns more calories than fat per hour. You of course need to continue to feed your muscles in order to build them, so make sure you're getting a good balance of fat, carbs & protein - especially the protein. You should be eating approximately your body weight in grams of protein each day.

One very common misconception is that muscle weighs more than fat. This statement can be true - if we finish it. Muscle weighs more than fat WITHIN A GIVEN VOLUME. This is because muscle is more dense than fat. Face it, a pound is a pound. There's no way around that. But when you take a pound of fat, it is larger than a pound of muscle. As you build muscle & burn fat, you will not only become stronger, you will become leaner.

If you are going to incorporate strength training into your routine, make sure you do it after you do your strength training - NEVER before. Warming up for 5-10 minutes is one thing, but putting in 30 minutes of cardio before you go lift is pointless. When you lift, you're burning carbs - which your muscles need. It isn't until about 30 minutes into the workout that you start to burn fat. Always put in 20-30 minutes of cardio after lifting, but tailor it according to your strength workout. On leg day, don't try to run a 5K on the treadmill, just walk at a good clip at an incline. On days when you strictly work your upper body, put in some HIT (high intensity) cardio afterwords. You'll see better results.