TONING under all this fat... waste of time??

I keep hearing and seeing amazing results from P90X, Insanity, Ripped in 30, then Jillian Micheals kick your *kitten* thing... Honestly I've never heard a bad thing about it. Sounds fun (especially the variation since I get bored easily). But I'm still about 50 lbs away from my goal weight, kinda flabby, and I was wondering if there is any point in doing these programs. I know the P90X will tone you really well but will it be visually noticeable? Should I wait until I've lost more weight?

PS Can anyone recommend an inexpensive HRM that will count my calories burned?

Strength training burns a ton of calories, every bit as many as running does.

And HRM's are terrible at estimating it, they miss low big time. HRM's only measure aerobic calorie burn, the majority of calorie burn from strength training is anaerobic exercise and recovery, neither of which a HRM measures.

Careful on the advice... Everyone has a different body, for example, when I run at 6.0mph on the treadmill, I burn approx 700+ calories an hour. (I'm 5'2" 175lbs) Lifting weights in not even close to that number. I still lift 2-4x per week, and I would say on average, I burn 6-8cal a minute, which would put me between 180-240 cal for 30 mins, compared to 350+ for running.

How do you meausre how many calories you burn weightlifting?

Recovery from weightlifting has a very significant calorie cost as well, greater than the actual workout.

I have a long way to go before I reach my goal & I definitely am working on toning now. I love 30 day shred. I can see muscles in my arms already. And my legs look a lot better too! The only thing I hate is that I am losing way more inches than lbs. But I know they will come off. My clothes are way bigger & my brand new bras are too big. I am on the smallest hook now & I think I can go down a band size. So I say start toning now. I bet you will be able to notice a difference.

So tell me which is more noticeable and more ego boosting... losing weight or losing inches and fitting into that little bikini and looking good in it? People constantly mistake the number on the scale for being a sign of fitness and accomplishment... I would rather be smaller and toned than 10 pounds lighter... just food for thought. Btw I am smaller now (with muscle) at 175 than I was in my younger days at 165.

I definitely love that my clothes are getting big. I think taking measurements are important for that reason. I know I get frustrated when the scale doesn't move like I think it should but then you look at your measurements & realize you have lost however many inches. That is a great feeling!

So tell me which is more noticeable and more ego boosting... losing weight or losing inches and fitting into that little bikini and looking good in it? People constantly mistake the number on the scale for being a sign of fitness and accomplishment... I would rather be smaller and toned than 10 pounds lighter... just food for thought. Btw I am smaller now (with muscle) at 175 than I was in my younger days at 165.

^^THIS^^

I've got a total of 60 lbs to lose, and I'm strength training. So far I've lost only 18 lbs, but lost 8 inches at my waist and two dress sizes. I weighed what I weigh now 2 years ago and couldn't fit into half the clothes I've reclaimed from my "when I'm thin again" stash. It seems like waste to me to work so hard to lose weight if I'm still going to look flabby because I have underdeveloped muscles, especially when more muscle now makes it easier to lose the fat.

ETA:
I am 5 lbs heavier in the picture on the right. I don't know how obvious it is to someone else, but I can see a difference in my arms and legs and stomach. The pants I'm wearing on the left fall off of me now if I don't cinch them in with a belt. Pants are size 18, shorts are size 14. Left was taken October 2010, right was taken a week and a half ago.

I keep hearing and seeing amazing results from P90X, Insanity, Ripped in 30, then Jillian Micheals kick your *kitten* thing... Honestly I've never heard a bad thing about it. Sounds fun (especially the variation since I get bored easily). But I'm still about 50 lbs away from my goal weight, kinda flabby, and I was wondering if there is any point in doing these programs. I know the P90X will tone you really well but will it be visually noticeable? Should I wait until I've lost more weight?

PS Can anyone recommend an inexpensive HRM that will count my calories burned?

Strength training burns a ton of calories, every bit as many as running does.

And HRM's are terrible at estimating it, they miss low big time. HRM's only measure aerobic calorie burn, the majority of calorie burn from strength training is anaerobic exercise and recovery, neither of which a HRM measures.

Careful on the advice... Everyone has a different body, for example, when I run at 6.0mph on the treadmill, I burn approx 700+ calories an hour. (I'm 5'2" 175lbs) Lifting weights in not even close to that number. I still lift 2-4x per week, and I would say on average, I burn 6-8cal a minute, which would put me between 180-240 cal for 30 mins, compared to 350+ for running.

I agree that you most definitely need to be careful on the advice . . . everyone IS most certainly different especially between men and women. Strength training most certainly does NOT burn as much as running for most of us ladies. I used a BodyBugg for a long time to monitor my calories spent - which I strongly recommend over an HRM. It tells you exactly how many calories you're burning at any given moment. I found that when I was weight training, I only burned about 2 calories a minute but when I was on the elliptical, it was about 6-8 calories a minute. Plus, I was amazed at how many calories I burned just by doing everyday chores around the house!! Before I got the the BodyBugg, I was very committed to weight training and high intenstity cardio for a long time and couldn't understand why I wasn't losing any weight - after a year I'd only lost 8 pounds. I finally went to a personal trainer who explained that the intense workouts were causing me to eat more than I was expending. That's what losing weight all comes down to - calories in/calories out. He also informed me that everyone will tell you that you're gaining muscle which is why you aren't losing, which is only partly true. Men can gain as much as a pound a week in muscle while on average it can take a woman up to a year to gain only 10 pounds of muscle. My trainer showed me the most sensible cardio and weight program, along with the BodyBugg and that was the best money I ever spent on losing weight.

I have lost a bunch of weight an waited to start weight training which I did it from the get go cause I can feel my 6 pack, but unfortunately the loose skin covers it some and instead of a 6 pack of beer it looks more like a 6 pack of Capri Suns. I say start early and often learn from my mistake

I'll give you zero science with my response. But I will say that my handful of belly roll is turning into a thinner flabby roll as I lose weight, and I don't want to go from chunky to flabby. So toning and strength training it is! I've been on MFP and doing cardio for about 5 weeks, and I just started 30 Day Shred to actually use my muscles this week. I'm loving it so far. It looks like we're in a very similar boat. I'm 5'7" 210 (started here at 219) with a goal of about 160.

I keep hearing and seeing amazing results from P90X, Insanity, Ripped in 30, then Jillian Micheals kick your *kitten* thing... Honestly I've never heard a bad thing about it. Sounds fun (especially the variation since I get bored easily). But I'm still about 50 lbs away from my goal weight, kinda flabby, and I was wondering if there is any point in doing these programs. I know the P90X will tone you really well but will it be visually noticeable? Should I wait until I've lost more weight?

PS Can anyone recommend an inexpensive HRM that will count my calories burned?

Strength training burns a ton of calories, every bit as many as running does.

And HRM's are terrible at estimating it, they miss low big time. HRM's only measure aerobic calorie burn, the majority of calorie burn from strength training is anaerobic exercise and recovery, neither of which a HRM measures.

Careful on the advice... Everyone has a different body, for example, when I run at 6.0mph on the treadmill, I burn approx 700+ calories an hour. (I'm 5'2" 175lbs) Lifting weights in not even close to that number. I still lift 2-4x per week, and I would say on average, I burn 6-8cal a minute, which would put me between 180-240 cal for 30 mins, compared to 350+ for running.

I agree that you most definitely need to be careful on the advice . . . everyone IS most certainly different especially between men and women. Strength training most certainly does NOT burn as much as running for most of us ladies. I used a BodyBugg for a long time to monitor my calories spent - which I strongly recommend over an HRM. It tells you exactly how many calories you're burning at any given moment. I found that when I was weight training, I only burned about 2 calories a minute but when I was on the elliptical, it was about 6-8 calories a minute. Plus, I was amazed at how many calories I burned just by doing everyday chores around the house!! Before I got the the BodyBugg, I was very committed to weight training and high intenstity cardio for a long time and couldn't understand why I wasn't losing any weight - after a year I'd only lost 8 pounds. I finally went to a personal trainer who explained that the intense workouts were causing me to eat more than I was expending. That's what losing weight all comes down to - calories in/calories out. He also informed me that everyone will tell you that you're gaining muscle which is why you aren't losing, which is only partly true. Men can gain as much as a pound a week in muscle while on average it can take a woman up to a year to gain only 10 pounds of muscle. My trainer showed me the most sensible cardio and weight program, along with the BodyBugg and that was the best money I ever spent on losing weight.

A lot of people don't understand that the benefits from lifting aren't seen while lifting. The aftermath is where the caloric expenditure comes into play- while the body is recovering from the workout. That is when muscle is built and calories are burned. The following is a link that explains it pretty well:

http://www.builtlean.com/2011/06/29/afterburn-effect-of-exercise-qa-with-dr-christopher-scott-phd/

Weight lifting is definetly not a waste of time! First off it's FUN!!!!!! lol and second, you're building muscle which means you burn more calories while sitting around doing nothing. You may not see the results now, but you'll love that you did it once you get rid of the fat

Re: Calories burned while weight lifting. While it is true that in general, you burn more calories doing cardio than weight lifting, it all comes down to the style/approach you use for strength training. If you style your strength training as a circuit/interval training your heart rate will be higher throughout your session and you will burn more calories. Wearing a heart monitor while strength training will help you monitor your calorie burn. As an example, after I warm up, I do my weight routine straight through with essentially no rest in between sets except to move from one set to the the next. For 45-60 minutes my body is in constant motion, my heart rate at about 70%. When my heart rate slips (as it does when I do abs or hamstrings) I insert a minute or two of step ups, then move on without rest.