If weight loss (10 lbs) is a person's goal, which is more important, cardio, or weights? Or an even mixture of both? I saw your rotation of 4days cardio/2 days of weights for weight loss and was wondering if I will be sacrificing any of my current strength that I have by doing that rotation? I have quite a bit of muscle but just need to lose that layer of fat surrounding it. I am having a hard time with the nutrition aspects of this as well. With so many different schools of thought out there (low-carb, 40-30-30, low-fat, eat clean, calories in vs. calories out) how does one go about deciding which one to go with? And then, once I think I've made up my mind, I see a thread all about something else and how it works and I end up changing my mind. It's getting close enough to summer that I don't have a lot of time to fool around experimenting. Any suggestions?
Weight loss confusion
- Thread starter Cbelle
- Start date
Cathe Friedrich
Administrator
Hi Cbelle! Yes, you are right, it all can be very confusing. Unfortunately there is just not one formula or equation that works for all. Many of the things that you hear and see are general guidelines that work for many but not all. Or that work for many as a starting point but once they have already done these things would need something else to continue to see results or that work for many but need to be tweeked some, etc. Same goes for nutrition. Depending on your genetics and lifestyle, your nutrition requirements will vary.
To answer your question directly, generally speaking, a combination of both weight training and cardio is recommended for body fat loss since both play an important role in stimulating and boosting ones metabolism. So with this information, it is best to look at what you are doing now, evaluate it, and decide where to make changes to enhance your goals.
For your fitness routine, if you are happy with the amount of strength you have, simply change your exercise order around or substitute some new exercises in place of others. For cardio, add a new form of cardio, something completely different than what you are doing now, to get muscles working in new ways. But remember to ease into the new activity since your muscles will need to get acclimated. Or you can try adding a day of cardio, or high intensity circuit workout, or interval workout, if it is something you are currently not doing. Just some examples not rules ;-).
For nutrition, contact a local registered dietician and ask to have a consultation. You can tell them of your workout structure and they will help you create a nutritious customized food plan to meet your energy output. This will help eliminate some guesswork for you.
Good Luck!
To answer your question directly, generally speaking, a combination of both weight training and cardio is recommended for body fat loss since both play an important role in stimulating and boosting ones metabolism. So with this information, it is best to look at what you are doing now, evaluate it, and decide where to make changes to enhance your goals.
For your fitness routine, if you are happy with the amount of strength you have, simply change your exercise order around or substitute some new exercises in place of others. For cardio, add a new form of cardio, something completely different than what you are doing now, to get muscles working in new ways. But remember to ease into the new activity since your muscles will need to get acclimated. Or you can try adding a day of cardio, or high intensity circuit workout, or interval workout, if it is something you are currently not doing. Just some examples not rules ;-).
For nutrition, contact a local registered dietician and ask to have a consultation. You can tell them of your workout structure and they will help you create a nutritious customized food plan to meet your energy output. This will help eliminate some guesswork for you.
Good Luck!
Thanks for the reply, Cathe. Things would be a lot easier if they were more black and white instead of so much grey area. I'm doing the Intensity Series Total Body Blast rotation now (just started today) and we'll see how that works. I'll also try to clean up my diet a bit more.