Help- Is weight training necessary in losing weight??

[crgardner]

Hello to all,

I have been exercising for the last 3 months and have only lost 8 pounds. Me eating is ok (I am addicted to sweets) I do only cardio and I go walking.
This is what my week usually consists of:
Cathe Step Max
Cathe IMAX 1
Cathe Rhythmic Step
Cathe MIC
Christi Hi/Lo Heaven

I don't lift weights at all. Will weight training help me with losing weight??

Thanks

 

[Lynnne]

I'm no expert - but yes! cardio will do little to change your body shape. to tone properly, you need to do weights. Plus - the more muscle you have the more calories you burn. I can't remember - but i think you burn an extra 50 or so calories a day just by adding muscle. i think its because muscle is active - though not positive. Trevor or someone else will be able to help explain why. in short, adding muscle to your body will burn more calories, tone you up and help you build up your bones which will help you when you are older! go for it! you'll get lots of support here!

 

[Aquajock]

In addition to Lynne's very concise summary (and yes, Lynne, muscle is metabolically active tissue, whereas storage fat is unused calories / energy stored in the muscles, organs and subcutaneously), understand too that the stronger your muscles, the more power you can inject into your cardio routines.

Cathe has an extraordinary array of strength- and mass-building workouts available. I'm sure you'll get plenty of good input here as to which workouts are faves and raves.

A-Jock

 

[candi]

Also, as we get older our body begins to lose muscle tone. Lifting weights will counteract that problem and keep you looking youthful.

 

[crgardner]

What weight training videos should I start with?

Thanks,
Chrischelle

 

[Kathy02]

Hmm, I think that you should start with MIS. I believe that Roe once said that this one is the best to begin with. I don't know where Roe is nowadays, but I do remember that one being mentioned as a good beginner. If you get the DVD you will also get BodyMax and Power Hour. Power hour was my first one, then I got MIS. MIS has really good form pointers, and you use little equipment, same with Power Hour and Body Max. All you need are dumbells, a Step and if you have one, a Barbell. You can substitute dumbells for any of the moves that Cathe uses a Barbell with.

Kathy

 

[cjbate]

Hm...I agree you need to do weight training but if you are doing that much cardio I really think you should have lost more weight by now, depending on how much you have to lose. When I started tracking my calories I realized that my impulse to grab sweets could really sabotage things...especially since the workouts were making me so hungry. 5 ill spent minutes with a bag of some kind of sweet could undo all those hours of cardio. Even if the rest of the 23 hours, 55 minutes you ate healthy. Just a thought. I would think you could try tracking your food intake. HTH

Jen

 

[prfitness]

RE: Help- Is weight training necessary in losing weight...

Hey Chrischelle

When I started my weight loss journey, I didn't realise lifting weights was important. I actually used almost precisely the same tapes as you and I walked. Even though my diet was very clean and well within the calorie range required for weight loss, I lost weight so slowly that I was ready to give. I remember even my husband commented on how hard I was working with such minimum results.

Then I visited these forums and bought MIS and the PS series. Although MIS is a good beginning, I found total body workouts hard to do when I was a beginner. I used to get so exhausted by the time I finished the legs that I couldn't get through the upper body portion. Of course you can split them and do them on seperate days as well. I personally found PS a good choice. I added on MIS later. After that the weight started coming off a lot more quickly. And of course you need strong muscles to do all that cardio and prevent injuries.

You will need to workout what ratio of cardio to weights you need to do in order to reach your goals (everyone's body is different) but I get good results by eating a good amount of lean protein, doing lots of weights and limited cardio.

If you find that you do need a lot of cardio to lose weight then you may want to invest in the CTX series as well which has a good mix of both cardio and weights. Lots of people have reported weight loss while using them and as you already seem to be doing a lot of intense cardio, you should be fine with the intensity levels of the cardio in that series. Cathe takes you through weights for one body part per day after an intense cardio session. I think you may like that format as well.

Hope this helps, good luck and have fun spending some money.