cardio vs. weights

N

naranjo

Active Member
Question? I am a mid 40ish woman with a tummy that has a mind of it's own. I work out about 4-5 days a week but the intertube baby I am growing in my mid-section doesn't like to show off my hard work. I have been researching and changing things up a bit to maybe shake the alien loose. However, no such luck. I ordered STS as I have most of Cathe's other DVD's so why not this set. It seems like there is a lot of talk lately about burning more fat with lifting weights versus cardio. I am willing to give this a try, I usually do Cathe's weight workouts upper and lower once a week. The other days are cardio or boot camp style stuff. So, if I have a choice to do cardio or cardio and weights or just weights which one will burn the most fat. Is it counter productive to do cardio and weights like when I do bootcamp or bodymax or 4 day rotation with maybe step combined. Will I lose more fat and lean up more with straight weights one day and then cardio on another. There are so many combined workouts weights/cardio that I am confused.

Second part of the question I don't eat meat or dairy. I do take a protein brown rice-vegan style shake. I think it says to take it 3 times a day, is there a proper time to take this in reguards to working out. Before or after or whatever. Thanks for yout help, mary-intertube woman.
 
Are you having small meals every 3 hours or so? Also are you eating clean? That helped with my belly bulge.

Carmen
 
Yes I am eating every 3 hours or so. What does eating clean mean? I don't eat cookies cakes or candies. Well, I do have 3-4 small bite sized cookies around 4 they are gluten free healthy cookies. I have salads and veggies and fruit and whole grains. I can't figure it out but I refuse to let it beat me.
I am getting discouraged as I workout and dont lose anything there. I thought maybe Cathe would know and clear up my confusion on what needs to be done workout wise to deflate this tire. Either cardio or maybe only lifting or combos of both. Help! Mary
 
Hi,

You definitely want to keep up BOTH cardio and weights.

Lifting heavy weights will help increase strength and muscle (depending on if you are eating clean and if you are eating enough) which is where the real benefits come in- weights really can change the way your body looks and the way it burns calories through out the day.

Cardio is great too- 3-4 x a week- maybe a couple steady state workouts and some interval type work. I would not rely on cardio alone to help shed pounds- in my opinion cleaning up the diet should really do most of the work. really look at what you are eating and how much. You can still eat clean but if you are not looking at how much, it can be interfering with your weight loss goals.

In a nutshell- Evaluate your diet to see what needs improvement, continue to do cardio, and hit the weights :) As to an exact program, I can not offer that, since everyone's body responds differently- what works for someone may not work for someone else and vice versa.

Good luck and keep at it!
 
I agree, cardio AND weights

but 80% of losing fat has to do with diet

I would evaulate your diet

i would absolutely clean it up. I think thats key

clean eating includes things as close to nature as possible. I would get to a library or do some searches on the internet about clean eating.

also, you can check out bodybuilding.com

they have some EXCELLENT resources

I would figure out how many calories you currently are eating. track on fitday.com ITS FREE and once you get a handle of how much you are eating, you can evaluate where to make some changes.

3 shakes is a lot. how much sugar is in these shakes? protein?

i would get some real foods in. lots of protein

i woudl really check out some nutritional information. i did a search on bodybuilding.com for fat loss veganism and got some great articles

do you eat fish? what protein sources are you using? healthy fats?

i think the workouts you are doing sound good, so i would take a hard look at your diet. do you know how many calories you are eating?
 
Oh my gosh, thank you for those websites. I am eating pretty lean and am pretty toned an in shape everywhere except the (belly). I eat 4-5 servings of fruits and veggies a day, don't eat bread, eat beans, nuts, whole grain rice cakes for a snacks in the afternoon. I usually have soup for lunch w/ an apple and my shake is called Rice Protein by NuriBiotic 1g of sugar per serving, 1.8g total carb, 55cal and 0.3 fat for 15g or 1tbsp. I got it at whole foods. It offers 12g of protein for 1 tbsp. and it says use 1-3 times daily. I know I am staring "the change" so metabolism has slowed wayyyyy down. I grew up a competitive swimmer and could eat anything. Now, not so much. I do like to eat a lot of little meals because I am hungry a lot, but I like the website idea where I can plug in what I eat.
I read in one of these forums that in the (ab diet) book the author describes how you can burn more fat with lifting than cardio. That confused me a bit because I can only lift quality so many days and then I am sore. So I switch to cardio to give my muscles a day off.
As far as protein, I get it in the form of nuts, grains, soy etc. On occasion I will have some fish but I haven't eaten red meat or chicken since I was 18 and have never had this belly problem before.
Thanks for your insight, mary
 
MARY- also check out toscareno.com

she wrote clean eating. a great book

but i'm sure people there are veg. and can help. people keep journals too so you can check out what they are eating
 
Ok back to my origianl question Cathe, do I want or need to do more hard core lifting to jump star the metabolism. Alos if that is true then is a program like Bootcamp or the 4day rotations where there is cardio and lifting the same as lifting only to burn fat and re-shape. Help!
 
Honestly, only heavy lifting and a clean diet with lots of protein are going to reshape the body and build muslce. Remember, it's weights that reshape. Cardio can just make a smaller version of yourself- it will not reshape. In my opinion, you need to lift heavy and eat more protein. Building muscle and reshaping is a long process- it wont happen over night- be patient and keep at it. The diet you described seems to low in calories, especially protein. You need to actually eat more to build.

Hope this makes some sort of sense:)
 
Honestly, only heavy lifting and a clean diet with lots of protein are going to reshape the body and build muslce. Remember, it's weights that reshape. Cardio can just make a smaller version of yourself- it will not reshape. In my opinion, you need to lift heavy and eat more protein. Building muscle and reshaping is a long process- it wont happen over night- be patient and keep at it. The diet you described seems to low in calories, especially protein. You need to actually eat more to build.

Hope this makes some sort of sense:)
 
Honestly, only heavy lifting and a clean diet with lots of protein are going to reshape the body and build muslce. Remember, it's weights that reshape. Cardio can just make a smaller version of yourself- it will not reshape. In my opinion, you need to lift heavy and eat more protein. Building muscle and reshaping is a long process- it wont happen over night- be patient and keep at it. The diet you described seems to low in calories, especially protein. You need to actually eat more to build.

Hope this makes some sort of sense:)
 
Yes, thank you, so heavy lifting will reshape and burn more fat but I need to reshape what goes in also. So, I guess I need to figure out how to get more protein other than my shake in the form of food. And I know this sound dumb, but how do you get more calories I look at food these days and gain weight. This also presents a problem as I am a vegan and allergic to gluten. I know I know, I am a mess, what can I say? Boy I didn't know how lucky I was when I was younger, I never had to think about any of this. Where to start? :)
 
Hi Mary,
I'm interested to hear Cathe's advice on this, too.

Meanwhile, have you seen Prevention magazine's articles on the importance of monounsaturated fats for reducing belly fat? They also have a whole diet program to reduce belly fat. I haven't tried it myself, but the information on MUFAs and belly fat might be useful (and it appears to be vegan-friendly). And since you eat fish, you might consider wild salmon, it's a good source of MUFAs and protein.

I've heard that other factors for belly fat can be stress and insufficient sleep. I know when I was working days and nights, my belly pudged out, even though I was still exercising.

As for the workouts, I find I progress better when I alternate cardio with weights (and core/abs I glom onto cardio), for example,

M-cardio & core/abs
Tu-upper body weights
W-cardio & core/abs
Th-lower body weights
F-wild card (cardio and/or core/abs and/or yoga or break)
Sa-upper & lower body weights
Su-yoga & core/abs

I find this schedule is challenging but still gives my muscles enough rest and recovery time.

Also, I find that I progress faster with cardio workouts that are short-ish (30-50 minutes) and interval-based (the intensity alternates between high spikes and lower intensity) rather than long (50-75 minutes) and at the same level of intensity. And for weight training to be effective, they say that you need to use weights that are sufficiently heavy for your level. Cathe writes about finding your ideal workout weight (the one rep max "1RM") in her description of her new program STS. But I'm not Cathe, and I'm certainly no expert here, these are just my $.02. Hope this gives you some directions to consider.

Good luck and keep at it!
CW
 
Thank you so much CW that is very helpful. I have been doing too much cardi I think. Even on weight days I was so obsessed w/cardio I would do 30min. of it before weights. Also I would do cardio and then the next day a bootcamp style program so I go cardio again also. I like the day off of cardio and then on again. I will look the magazine articles because they sound helpful.

After reading you helpful hints maybe I will try this:

M-4day split kickbox/legs-abs
T-Imax2
W-Powerhour-abs
R-BM2
F-PUB
S-4day split Bootcamp-abs
S-off
How's that? I also added more protein to my diet. I think I wasn't getting enough because I was craving things high in protein that I would not normally crave. Thanks again
 
Glad to be of help :}
Honestly, I am in no position to evaluate your program--I'm not familiar with all of Cathe's videos and am no pro here. Until you get a response from Cathe or her staff, you might get some ideas from the "Video & DVD Rotations" forum, in case you haven't been there already.

butterflygurl made an index of rotations that Cathe has recommended for specific goals:

http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=7&topic_id=7577&mesg_id=7577&page=

It's quite a list of rotations--you could just use one of hers or get some ideas from them to make your own.

I had another thought about diet and when to eat that might be helpful. If you do an intense cardio workout for more than an hour, you need to replenish your muscles' stores of glycogen with carbohydrates within 30 minutes after your workout. If you don't, you'll "empty" your muscles of energy stores and just burn protein/muscle. The rule of thumb is to consume your weight/2 in carbohydrates, liquid or solid, within 30 minutes of an intense and long workout. For example, if you weigh 140lbs, you'd want to consume about 70g in carbs, and that could be a banana and a glass of apple juice. I know this sounds contradictory to the "low carb" diets, but after intense cardio of an hour or two, your muscles need to replenish their glycogen stores, otherwise you can't build muscle, you'll just burn it up. If you're interested, I can find you the reference for this (I learned it from a sports nutritionist who specialized in women's sports nutrition).
Good luck!
CW
 
Yes thank you I would love that info., anything to help the bulge.
I don't think I am eating wrong or working out wrong, just maybe not maximizing the benefits of either because I am unsure of when, how, and how much to do of each. Thanks CW, I don't know if Cathe will respond as I know she is very busy now but you have beeb helpful.
 
Hi Mary,

Here's a link to Monique Ryan's website.

http://www.moniqueryan.com/news/news.html

I attended one of her talks on sports nutrition. It looks like her articles may be a good start for basic info about eating right to support both muscle development and weight (especially fat) loss.

I did some quick googling on exercise and nutrition for fat loss, and there seem to be at least two varying theories and opinions out there (just do long cardio at 50% max heart rate vs. build muscle w/weights and do brief cardio with high intensity intervals).

I am so out of my league here!

Since "a little learning is a dangerous thing," my only reco now is to learn more. Meanwhile I will sit on my hands and quietly wait the advice of the professionals (Cathe, SNMV, etc.).

;-}


CW
 
Thus my original question, a few theories have me very confused. I have mainly been cardio obsessed thru my life as I grew up a competitive swimmer and it always has worked for me, but as of lateley I am not seeing results and am slipping a little backward but working harder. I look down at my little belly bulge flopping,(excuse the visual), and I get dicouraged.

I will look up those websites and try and educate myself further, thank you CW! :)
 
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