I have been doing cardio and eating clean now for about 7 weeks, and I´m noticing progress. I sometimes do weightlifting, but find it hard to stick with my plan (3x /week or something like that (?) huh!).

I know also weightlifting burns off alot of calories, and also helps mucles to grow, and more muslce mass=more calories burned off (RMR). However I just wanted to know if anyone knows exactly what would happen if i skip the weightlifts and only go for cardio?.

I have been told that a good way is to first get rid of the fat and then start building "new" muscles. But also heard that another good way is to maintain the muscles underneith the fat by doing regular weigh lifts during cutting phase.... I feel somewhat confused. Should I skip the weight lifting I´m currently doing, or do more of them..?

It really depends on how you want to shape your body. If you want a very lean "runners" body or a bodybuilder body look. If you want the bodybuilder look then you will have to lift weights but if your just starting out and overweight go ahead and cut the fat off with cardio then decide if you want the bodybuilder look you can bulk up and lift weights. After you make the first change of losing the weight I will bet you won't be able to keep yourself out of the gym.

If you don't go to a gym and you don't have weights at home, if you decide to just do cardio I would recommend you get a set of dumbells the handles that allow you to change weights to work your upper body, also floor excercises, pushups, crunches, using a bench and doing triceps dips is great for the upper body. You can do lunges and squats and many lat and lower back excercises holding dumbells, maby squeeze in 20 min after a cardio using 2 sets of 15-25 reps alternating bodyparts each day just to keep the blood flowing and tone up those muscles.

What I am saying is don't be the opposite of the bodybuilder with skinny legs because he has forgotten to work his legs. Try and work all the muscles in the body. I have seen many bike riders the ones that do the 25 mile daily bike ride with there spandex pants buldging large leg muscles but there arms are toothpicks. Keep it in porportion.

If I wanted to lose weight I'd give up the cardio before I'd give up weight training. For one thing, you'll likely lose muscle mass if you diet without weight training. Second, with serious weight training you'll burn hundereds of calories for a day or two after your training session.

Thanx for the advice, I haven´t been doing alot of weightlifts, nor any other muscle work than cardio sessions and crunches. And so far I believe that I have lost mostly muscle mass due to my calorie deficiency. I think I´ll do what you both said, and try keeping the muscles in work, partly to keep proportional, but also as one of you said that it burns off alot of calories for days afterwards. I´m gonna get a gym card next week.

Again thanx. :)

Hehe, I've been doing basically the same thing, only I haven't been eating clean, I've just calcuated calories, and not even bothered with the correct ratios of protein/carbs/fats. Ive been doing 60 mins of cardio 6-7 days a week since january 8, and so far I've went from 75.5kgs to 60, and I'm 1.85 meters tall. I haven't been any weightlifting at all, so now I look very thin :p

I know also weightlifting burns off alot of calories, and also helps mucles to grow, and more muslce mass=more calories burned off (RMR). ..?

Very important, a pound of muscle burns 37 calories a day just sitting there, a pound of fat only TWO! Cardio can burn off that good muscle mass. There are those like Dr. Ellington Darden, who says drop cardio for cutting and only resistance train and diet. He might be on to something, especially for the person who does not have a structure of muscle.

RTE

When in a caloric deficiency and weight lifting make sure you eat a lot of protein. Very important in keeping your muscle.

WTF if you stop weight training you might as well just stop trying to lose weight because weight training is more important than cardio. a person who has 25% bf and 30 lbs more muscle than a guy who has 15% wwill look alot better and be more fit. It also makes cutting easier. No girl wants a skinny little emaciated boy, they want a big rugged paul bunyan type. Come on ladies back me up on this.

Don't stop weight training. Whatever you do don't stop.

WTF if you stop weight training you might as well just stop trying to lose weight because weight training is more important than cardio. a person who has 25% bf and 30 lbs more muscle than a guy who has 15% wwill look alot better and be more fit. It also makes cutting easier. No girl wants a skinny little emaciated boy, they want a big rugged paul bunyan type. Come on ladies back me up on this.

Don't stop weight training. Whatever you do don't stop.

Wow, when you write something such as that, all I can read is the emotion behind it, losing the meaning of whatever you try to say. :confused: And you seem to do that a lot...

they want a big rugged paul bunyan type

That's about as stereotype as to say that all men wants huge tits. c'mon...

I say from a general fitness point of view, do both cardio and weights, as they both depend on eachother :tu:

Wow, when you write something such as that, all I can read is the emotion behind it, losing the meaning of whatever you try to say. :confused: And you seem to do that a lot...

I agree with you chicanerous. Your posts are generally a bit on the angry side, which makes them a little too easy to disregard. It seems like the majority of your posts start with "WTF". How can you expect to be taken seriously when you repeatedly talk to people like that? And not every girl wants a "Paul Bunyan" type guy. There are plently of guys who are on the skinny side that are still very attractive.

Alright, then don't take my advice. I am speaking to the guys (or rather, men) Who want to make a change, rather than those who SAY they want to make a change. Going to the gym and throwing around weights is just as bad as not doing weights.

No girl wants a skinny little emaciated boy, they want a big rugged paul bunyan type. Come on ladies back me up on this.

Don't stop weight training. Whatever you do don't stop.

I´ll take that in mind!, however my main goal isn´t to get big. I assume there are some people in the forum, who´s main goal is to attract women ( ?) with their ´to be´enormous muscles.

Personally I´d like to have a slim defined healthy look, not extreme in either way. In fact, I used to have an anorexic ideal, thinking people that were very tall and skinny (see pulp, renton) was the most attractive, but have realized I won´t ever be tall, thin and skinny. I have accepted the fact that I´m what some would call big boned. So aiming for a somewhat defined body is more apropriate for me.

I will consider working more with weights, as that seems to be what most of you have been suggesting. Another question that comes up is which exercises to focus on. Since I still have alot of bf I assume working with big muscle groups is to be preferred, and perhaps by seeing results from that, it might get me into training the smaller parts.

Thanks everyone for the advice!.

WTF if you stop weight training you might as well just stop trying to lose weight because weight training is more important than cardio. a person who has 25% bf and 30 lbs more muscle than a guy who has 15% wwill look alot better and be more fit. It also makes cutting easier. No girl wants a skinny little emaciated boy, they want a big rugged paul bunyan type. Come on ladies back me up on this.

Don't stop weight training. Whatever you do don't stop.


This is not true. I have been running 4 miles almost everyday for like 11 weeks and eating clean and i manage to lose average 1kg(2.2lbs) every week. So you see I have lost 11kg and 4 inches off my waist since i started.

May be some of you are against cardio because you think it will burn away your muscles, but I believe if you are eating right and enough carbs before cardio and enough protein after cardio you will not burn much muscles.

After doing cardio, it also give you the feeling of like total body work out. That's part of the reason why i like running so much; I just feel good after running with all my body drench with perspiration.

However i agreed that weight training is more important that cardio, but only after you are nearer to your ideal weight. Because at that time you don't want to keep doing cardio till you are in acceptable weight but with no muscles.


So I would like to summarise by saying that cardio is not totally useless, they serve their purpose too and weight training is also important You don't want to be damn muscular and can't even complete a 1mile run. I think health is not all about physical apperance but also innerly. Just don't think either one is useless.

I kind of agree with teencraft. Weightlifting is an extremely important part of making a transformation. Not lifting, just makes you like any other person is simple satisfied with not being fat/overweight/whatever the PC term is anymore. By itself, that's a pretty admirable goal, but that's my point, depends completely of what your own personal goals are.

On a side note, it does kind of irk me when people say stuff like can I still lose weight if I still eat such and such/don't do cardio/don't weight train? Bottom line is, you get what you put in. Lets say hypothetically speaking, 60% of weight loss is do to diet, and there's an even 20/20 split between cardio and lifting. Let's use this example here and say you cut out weightlifting. That means, at most, you can get roughly 80% of the results of the next guy who's doing everything right, and that's assuming your diet plan and workout plan are _perfect_, which is pretty much impossible for anyone.

Anyways, I know those numbers are kind of arbitrary, but if you look really hard, I'm sure you can kind of see the point I'm getting at.

To clarify, its not so much when those peopel say that kind of stuff, its when they say it, and they ask why there's not getting the same results that someone else was getting who was working twice as hard as them.

Anyways, bottom line, if you want the quickest results, and without a doubt in my mind, the "best" results, you would do weightlifting on a regular basis.

Weight training is the most rewarding thing you can do.

Most people would say diet, but think of it this way. Even if you paid no attention whatsoever to your diet and just ate whatever you felt like, then if you weight trained you'd still see huge improvements in body composition.

Why?

Because you'd be eating better. Your cravings would cause you to naturally :tucool:

Because you'd be eating better. Your cravings would cause you to naturally :tucool:
How about someone who doesn´t know anything about healthy foods? Would he/she start eating healthy by them selves, just because they started growing muscle mass...?


I believe, (I think it might have been you posting that somewhere else in the forum....) that your calorie /food cravings decrease, or simply adjust to better balanced levels, once you get started up with physical activities. In the long run we won´t even have to count every gram of substance we consume into our bodies, as the body will naturally know when to eat and when not to...

Thats why most of us are fat, because we have been eating too much, of the bad things at the wrong time, in comparision to how much calories we have been burning off.

I have noticed being less hungry then before, even though I eat probably half as much calories then what I used to. Perhaps it´s from eating the right kind of carbs/proteins/fats but I also think that my body has adjusted to a more healthy level. I thought being on a calorie deficient diet while running and moving around like craazy every day would make me starv, but I was wrong.

It was tough during my first 2 days though, because I was a new naiv beginner looking at different spreadsheets, and got the idea that 1000 kcal/day would be enough. I looked at Johns calorie intake aswell, (before I read his critical comments on them) and figured that was correct. My god I was hungry!!!!!..... it ended up in me buying a 500 gram bag of chocolate sweets the first afternoon, then trying spewing it up :p (HUH!!) :o talk about getting the wrong ideas about diet.

Luckily I read Johns comment, in the FAQ regarding his very low calorie intake, and that it was a miscalculation.

Ok, I'll put in my 2 cents worth. I've struggled with my weight all my life. If I go for two weeks without weighing myself and without even thinking about fitness, then step on the scales, I will have gained 5 lbs of pure fat. I'll bet that I've lost, and then regained, over 500 lbs in my lifetime.

I've gone through two major "transformations" where I lost over 30 lbs. Both times I did it with diet and cardio. At the time, I was very proud of my accomplishment.

I'm currently in the middle of my third transformaton. This time, I'm doing it with diet, cardio, and weight training. The results are better than anything I've ever seen before. So far, I've lost 60 lbs. I can see my obliques and I'm oh so close to seeing my abs for the first time in my life. I am developing that V shape that I've never seen before.

I'll admit that one reason I've lost so much weight is because I let myself get so far out of shape this time around. I went for nearly a year without thinking about fitness or stepping on the scales. Even now, I weigh 190 lbs on a 6'0" frame. In my previous weight loss efforts, I got down to 175 and I wasn't in nearly as good of shape as I am now. I am nowhere near looking like a muscle bound body builder.

I only wish that I'd discovered the secret of weight training when I was in my 20s! I strongly advise everyone to use diet, cardio, and weight training to get the maximum results.

In an ironic way, I'm beginning to think that getting so heavy (I was 250 lbs) was good for me. I was so heavy that I was doing "passive" weight training every day all day long. My LBM is 162 lbs. I think I inadvertently built some muscle by carrying around all that weight.

My LBM is 162 lbs. I think I inadvertently built some muscle by carrying around all that weight.

Very good post indeed!.
You seem to be one very experienced person when it comes to weightloss/ fitness. Amazing results!. Good point about the LBM and passive muscle training.

I´m off to the gym, for the first time actually, before my lame struggles for muscle mass have occured in my own room, with a total of only 21 kg of weights assisting me. I know I haven´t hade enough weights to get the best results, therefore my lack of motivation when it has come to weight lifting.

And guess what, I´m POWERWALKING there (to the gym) 6 km there, 6 km back :drool:

Thanx for all the advice everyone!.

Simon, my experience with hunger is the opposite of yours: the more active I am, the hungrier I am.

The fact is, you're going to be easily be able to find testimonials that tell you that only cardio is necessary, or some guy only lifted weights, or this person did neither and just dieted.

I also keep hearing from cynics about how George Burns live to be 101 yrs old and was eating crap and smoking cigars the whole time.

Well, good for them. I see no reason to stop eating well, doing cardio and lifting weights. They all have their benefits.

You seem to be one very experienced person when it comes to weightloss/ fitness. Amazing results!.
Thanks for the compliment but I really wish I weren't quite so experienced! Gee, if I'd only learn to keep it off I'd feel a lot better about myself. Surely no one, except me, is dumb enough to force themselves to go through this three times! Well, third time's a charm, right? This time I am going to stay this way!

Personally I´d like to have a slim defined healthy look, not extreme in either way. In fact, I used to have an anorexic ideal, thinking people that were very tall and skinny (see pulp, renton) was the most attractive, but have realized I won´t ever be tall, thin and skinny. I have accepted the fact that I´m what some would call big boned. So aiming for a somewhat defined body is more apropriate for me.

Simon, take a look at John's pics here:http://www.johnstonefitness.com/html/123.html

If this isn't enough proof that you must combine weight training with cardo and diet, I don't know what else would convince you. Will you get as ripped and lean as John? Hard to say, to certain extent you are still a product of genetics. My mother is full blood Swedish and has the same pear-shaped body as her Mother and her parents before her. I realize that I've inherited the same body type (large boned) and have needed to work extra hard to keep the extra weight off. It wasn't until I started giving weight training equal or more time as my cardo did I begin to notice a huge change in my overall physical appearance.

I've checked out your journal and you're making fantastic progress - keep going, you'll be there before you know it! :tucool:

Darren

Simon, take a look at John's pics here:[url]

I've checked out your journal and you're making fantastic progress - keep going, you'll be there before you know it! :tucool:

Darren

Thanx!, and yeah i understand now the importance of weight lifting. Good points everyone!.
:tu: :bb:

But if you fat all your life, the first thing that you could imagine yourself in acceptable weight is just a slim person without much muscles, like the second picture of john in http://www.johnstonefitness.com/html/123.html
, and the only thing that can motivate you in the initial stage is the significate physical changes.