Cathe - my weight goes up when I do your workouts!

[JuliaBelle]

Hi Cathe - I'm a huge fan, and I know that your workouts are really helping me build muscle because I recently had to refrain from doing them for a while while we sold our house and moved to another city. Unfortunately I had to put away my weights and step so we could make my workout room look like a real den, lol. I didn't do your workouts for about 3 weeks, although I did continue to walk/jog on the treadmill. I was able to stick to clean eating 90% of the time, and I found it really interesting that my weight went down 3 lbs., but my pants felt tight! Not only that, I lost a lot of strength. When we got settled into our new home and I got my workout room back up and running I gained the 3 lbs. back, but my pants fit me again! So in my book that's proof that muscle takes up less room than fat.

All of this leads me to a question. What do you think is better for building lean muscle mass and lowering overall body fat, more weights or more cardio? For example, is it better to do 2 short, intense cardio workouts and 4 weights workouts per week? 4 long, slow cardio workouts and 2 weights workouts (upper/lower body split)? Or some other combination?

Thanks for reading - I'm really looking forward to the new DVDs!
Julia

 

[JuliaBelle]

Bumping in the hope that Cathe will read and answer my question about how much/what kind of cardio is best for fat loss.

 

[maggietc]

Not Cathe here, but I think everyone differs in that and that one needs to experiment to find out what ratios of cardio/strength/rest work best for them. Also, how many heavy vs light workouts work. I also think this changes for everyone. It can be tough to nail down, but I think listening to your body and mixing things up from time to time are the best strategies. The good news for you is that what you are already doing seems to be working to burn fat and build muscle, thus the inch lost and the better fitting pants. That must feel great!!
--Laura