Video Fitness Forum  

Go Back   Video Fitness Forum > Video Fitness Reader Forum > General Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 06-13-06, 08:05 PM  
benemma
 
benemma's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Cardio vs. Weights for fat loss

On another board studies were mentioned that say steady state cardio is not the best way to lose weight (that weight training 3 x a week and interval training are the way to go). So.......I'm confused. Whenever anyone asks about fat loss, besides diet of course, cardio, cardio, cardio is mentioned. I thought most people always say that long steady state cardio is the best for fat loss. Also, I thought too many interval training sessions a week were not good for you. I'm so confused.

I gained ten pounds since I started working and I'm trying to lose it. I was attempting to do two full body weight days, two intervals days (cardio coach), and the rest longer steady state cardio and pilates and yoga in there somewhere. Or possibly upper/lower splits, 30 min cardio a day, (with intervals or longer steady state on days without weights) and yoga and pilates thrown in there somewhere. Now I don't know what to do. I figured the more cardio, the more calories burned.......hence the weight loss. So, only taking into acct the exercise portion, what do you need to do for weight loss?
__________________
~Krista

It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.
-Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own
benemma is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-13-06, 08:21 PM  
toaster
Exchange Moderator
 
toaster's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Western NY
Krista, it all gets pretty confusing, doesn't it? I can only speak from personal experience: traditionally, I focused mainly on cardio for exactly the reasons you mentioned, but I never lost any weight (I maintained only). What finally prompted my weight loss last summer was more weight work: 2-3 full-body sessions per weight, and pushing myself to lift heavier. YMMV, but that's what worked for me!
__________________
Beth aka Toaster (she/her)

Follow me @YogiBethC

YouTube|Instagram|Facebook
And yes, I am Reviewer Dr. Beth on Amazon.
toaster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-13-06, 08:22 PM  
olexa17
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Lake in the Hills, IL
I am no expert but what I have read and what I found works for me is this:

Your "diet" (not meaning a specific diet plan but rather just what you eat in general) is far more crucial to weight loss than WHICH workout plan you do.

Certainly I believe that adding extra cardio for a fat loss phase is also something that works.

On just about every message board I've seen when it comes to losing weight, especially the "last 10 pounds" or whatever, everyone has always said, well I started to really watch my diet and eat clean etc. etc.

Hope this helps. I'd love to hear what others will tell you too!

Kelly
olexa17 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-06, 06:44 AM  
lwseymour
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Georgia
unfortunately it's diet

I wish it only took exercise to lose weight because I have that part down. Heck, I even enjoy exercise (gasp). But I admit I'm terribly jealous of my neighbor who has lost so much with only diet (she hates exercise). I swear she gets smaller by the day. Now she is suddenly an expert and likes to give advice to everyone and her advice to me was "stop lifting weights". I'm also tempted to follow her advice since she is looking so good but I know down the road I would regret it. Wouldn't I?
lwseymour is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-06, 07:08 AM  
Talie
 
Talie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Northern California
I saw the same thread on the other board and think he was really advocating AWT along with intervals. I think the idea being with AWT you keep at a steady fat burning state. Just my take on his ideas. Unfortunately for me, I agree with others that food choices in the end are just as, if not more important.
__________________
Natalie
It is necessary to move through rather than avoid resistance. - Rainbeau Mars
Talie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-06, 07:09 AM  
~^~RedFlame~^~
VF Supporter
 
~^~RedFlame~^~'s Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Littleton, Colo
There is a WONDERFUL article in More magazine this month about weight training which answers many questions about the subject and how important weight training is to not only our overall health, but the weight loss issue. It also debunks some myths, such as lifting really really slow and heavy is better. As the article says, that trains your muscles to react slowly and who wants slow muscles, haha. Another VERY interesting item is regarding the age old cardio or weights FIRST which has always stymied me, since most tapes do cardio first and yet we know that seems backwards, since weights need quick fuel, where cardio can use fat better, etc. I am going to address that in a separate thread, as it has been a topic of interest here recently, and we were looking for answers.

But back to the original question, weight training is essential particularly to MAINTAIN your loss. You will hit a plateau and stop if you just try to do cardio and d**t. As for d**t, it is also very important, but I believe that exercise would be number one, if only because calories are calories, and if you burn them off, they are gone. I think that exercise without d**t would get you farther than d**t without exercise, if I understand your original question.

When competitive athletes need to lean out, it is cardio cardio cardio and yes, if you are looking for CUT and esthetics are of key importance, you will need both a LOT of cardio and a very strict d**t. But athletes ALREADY have their muscle base, so they have done the deed regarding weight training or whatever their sport is. You NEED NEED NEED muscle, yes, even we women! Bottom line YES, Weight training is as important as cardio both for fitness and health
__________________
~^~RedFlame~^~


Proud GRADUATE of P90X!! TWICE Class 2007&2008!!
Burn Burn BUUUUURRRRRNNNN!


One's main goal in life is to give birth to oneself.
If you are not busy being born, you are busy dying!
~^~RedFlame~^~ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-06, 07:19 AM  
Peggy T
VF Supporter
 
Peggy T's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Virginia
My problem with higher intensity cardio is that it makes me RAVENOUS. I find that strength training/yoga and moderate cardio and clean eating gets the last 10 off for me. I think its different if you have more to lose, plus every body reacts differently.
__________________
Peg

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
-Will Rogers
Peggy T is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-06, 07:41 AM  
olexa17
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Lake in the Hills, IL


Your neighbor that is losing a lot of weight without working out is (I am guessing) NOT someone whose advice you should take. Only because in my observational experience, women that lose a lot of weight like that either A) have those Gwenyth Paltrow metabolisms, B) are not eating ANYTHING or C) perhaps younger where their metabolism hasn't changed and they can just burn off food.....in my mind I want to hurt people like that LOL.

Also as usual, everyone's body is different so one workout combination might work intensely well for some but horribly for others. I know this very well from my own experience. Forgive the length of this post but here is what I went through and I'm so glad to be where I am now ~

I originally lost about 10-15lbs like 10-11 years back when I was 26. I'd moved to FL and partied a lot and gained - was up to 176!!! Back then was the Susan Powter book so I read that and everything was about fat-free etc. and I started cooking that way and working out for the first time in my life. I got down to about 155-158 and everyone was like, whoa you look great. I kind of parked there for a while. By no means was I fit, just not looking hefty anymore.

I graduated college (a bit delayed obviously!) and moved to Chicago, got a job, started working in offices and eating more and moving less. Clothes got tighter. Etc. After a while I started realizing I needed to lose again. Started eating Lean Cuisines and doing Taebo. Then I discovered Body For Life; threw myself into that and was doing weights and Taebo.

But you know what, for several years I was working out fairly regularly and eating healthy foods but I saw NO muscle definition that I wanted and no weight loss. I was stymied. And frustrated.

It wasn't until about 3 years back when I FINALLY started journaling what I ate that I realized that was my main impediment to seeing results. I was eating healthy stuff but way too much of it. So once I started watching, I started losing.

I then was only doing Taebo. I added the FIRM workouts. Started to see tone and weight loss; slow and steady. This year I added Cathe and now Yoga/Pilates.

**I am writing all this down not to bore you but to show you that I had to experiment what worked for me. Earlier this year I tried really "Heavying up" my weights~ works tremendously well for many women. For me, I was bulking up big time in my lower body. So I evaluated my program and went 'back' to what I was doing and adjusted to lower weights for LB and still heavy for UB. I'm currently doing a lot more cardio to encourage the last however many pounds I want to lose.

I watch what I eat every day. I have 1-2 cheat meals a week but it is working out regularly and consistently that I believe allows me to maintain what I have achieved and not turn into a flabalanche when I stray and pig out at a cookout!!

I would suggest you definitely NOT lose the weights. Lifting weights has so many long term benefits plus it can chisel your body to look REALLY NICE. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy wearing tank tops and such because I'm proud of my arms; finally!!

I hope that my experience will help you to realize that other peoples opinions might be helpful but do what works for YOUR body; and that will take some experimentation. However I would second what RedFlame says and tell you to definitely keep the weights whatever you do!!

olexa17 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-06, 07:50 AM  
Sandi M
VF Supporter
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: La Plata, MD
My experience

My experience has been that heavy weight training with interval type cardio work best for me. Yes, d**t plays a huge role, but I tend to keep that constant, unless things get out of control and I need to cut back a little bit for a while.

I did step, kickboxing, circuit workouts, full body weight workouts, AWT, etc., etc., for many years, and managed to maintain my weight for the most part. As I've gotten older, I have found that heavy weight splits and interval running on the treadmill get the job done. I throw in some circuit workouts for variety, and I also do some core work and stretching, but those thing do not make up the majority of my exercise.

I wonder, just like you, if doing interval type workouts more than once or twice a week is bad for me, but I haven't noticed any ill effects. Here is my workout schedule for this week:

Mon - IWT Abs #2, P90X C&B (no w/u or c/d), Cardio Coach Vol. 1
Tue - Viper, Total Body Stretch #1
Wed - KPC Abs, P90X S&A (no w/u or c/d), Cardio Coach Vol. 3
Thu - 20 min Flat Abs Yoga, P90X L&B
Fri - Cardio Coach Vol. 5, 30 minutes of stretches from Cool It Off

This type of schedule works best for me, and I think it's about 2-1/2 hours of cardio for the week, all with intervals. I sometimes take a walk on the weekends, which is definitely low steady state.

Keep the weights, and take the time to figure out what works best for you.

Sandi
Sandi M is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-14-06, 08:05 AM  
benemma
 
benemma's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Thanks guys! I haven't really ever done AWT, that is about all that I haven't tried. LOL! I've been trying to reign in the eating and tracking everything in sparkpeople. Hmmmm......some more "food for thought" --ugh...bad choice for that one.
__________________
~Krista

It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.
-Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own
benemma is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
body for life, cardio vs weights, weights only, weights vs cardio

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:35 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
© 2009 Video Fitness