Best Fat Loss Methods?

So basically, just let me know what you believe are the best fat loss methods. I'm curious.

Also, is HIIT essential?

In order of importance:

1. Eat right
2. Eat right
3. Eat right
4. Strength training 3x week
5. Cardio 2x week (HIIT is awesome)

Let's say for the cardio, I don't do HIIT, but run around 4km 2-3 times a week. Is that also effective?

fat loss not weight loss: (you lose slowly on the scale this way)

- minimum calorie cuts (dont over diet)
- low intensity cardio - like walking or easy bike riding.
it burns less calories. but the body will give up mostly fat so you see your results in inches.

http://exercise.about.com/cs/cardioworkouts/l /aa022601a.htm

check out that chart. its my favorite thing i found out. you burn 10% more fat per calorie burned taking it easy.

If you're also leaving time/energy for weight bearing exercises, I'd say so.

edit: curses_to_anathema that's a good link, but there are much more effective ways for fat loss. T-nation.com has a fantasic article on this very point:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=15265 39

You could also try staying in your target heart rate during your cardio for at least 15 mins. There are several calculators out there for you to determine what your target heart rate is for your age/height/sex etc. I agree with curses_to_anathema in that you shouldn't be pushing it too hard during your cardio because your heart rate will go above this desired level and won't actually continue to burn fat as quickly. Just do the breathe test: If you can carry on a conversation with only having to stop for breath occassionally then you should be in your target heart rate range. If you can finish a sentence then you should slow it down some.

This is just what's working for me, based on the research I've done. Good luck to you!

I think I have to stop frequenting these forums, you guys are bound and determined to cardio your way into fat loss.

Here's an excerpt from the link I posted. Your diet is causing you to lose weight, NOT the cardio you're doing!!! I know this is men, but I'm pretty sure women are part of the same species.

Kramer, Volek et al.

Influence of exercise training on physiological and performance changes with weight loss in men.

Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 31, No. 9, pp. 1320-1329, 1999.

Overweight subjects were assigned to three groups: diet-only, diet plus aerobics, diet plus aerobics plus weights. The diet group lost 14.6 pounds of fat in 12 weeks. The aerobic group lost only one more pound (15.6 pounds) than the diet group (training was three times a week starting at 30 minutes and progressing to 50 minutes over the 12 weeks).

The weight training group lost 21.1 pounds of fat (44% and 35% more than diet and aerobic only groups respectively). Basically, the addition of aerobic training didn't result in any real world significant fat loss over dieting alone.

Thirty-six sessions of up to 50 minutes is a lot of work for one additional pound of fat loss. However, the addition of resistance training greatly accelerated fat loss results.

Yes but the best group was Diet, Cardio AND weights!  That is the key!  All of them, not to much cardio, or your just helping yourself eat more than you really need to.

So do the cardio and the weights and eat right!

The cardio added no real fat loss, I'm not sure where you read that. I'm not saying cardio isn't important, but it's not nearly as important as weight training and eating right. I hope you folks have time to read the article and do more research on your own. I'm not trying to be argumentative; it just makes me sad there is so much misinformation out there about our bodies.

I think that cardio is important for a lot of reasons...the MOST important for me happens to be heart health and cardiovascular fitness as opposed to weight loss alone.

If someone is concerned about weight loss AND overall health then I believe that cardio should be a very important part of their regime.

I agree that weight lifting will give you better results; however, cardio is extremely important for your overall fitness level, your heart, your lungs, and your circulatory system.  Plus, if you do cardio, you get to eat more which does matter to me.

Any one thing is not the ultimate answer.  Weight lifting a few times per week with cardio a few times per week and a healthy diet will help you tremendously.

Your muscles are your cardiovascular health and fitness; the definition is how well your muscles transport oxygen. If you were to take the heart of Lance Armstrong, could you win the Tour de France? But if you had his legs! You gain cardiovascular fitness through resistence training, but it has to be the right kind and not what I see at the gym-women wandering from machine to machine doing isolation exercises with 10lbs.

Again, I don't want to be argumentative. Folks have to do what they feel is right. Sadly we have an entire generation of women who think they shouldn't lift weights because they'll get big, and who don't know how important it is for their long term health.

smwhipple: read up on how many calories you burn doing cardio vs weight training. You burn a lot more over 24 hours with weight training while what you burn during cardio stops the minute the treadmill stops. You burn more with weights.

undertherainbow please tell me you don't do cardio before your weights :(

It's not my way, it's been proven. Like you said, everyone must do it their own way regardless. I'm not sure why you are being so defensive when I have not put anyone down in the slightest.

what is HIIT?

HIIT is High Intensity Interval Training, there are some great links out there if you have time to Google.

Basically you do a 5 minute warm up then alternate going as fast as you can for 30-90 seconds then having a 30-90 second break at a much less intense pace. You do several cycles of that then cool down.

It's not for folks new to working out; it makes a lot of people vomit if they aren't careful. You can't do it on a treadmill because you can't move the belt around fast enough. It works well on the eliptical machine, running (not on the treadmill) and bikes.

I didn't realize there is so much controversy around this issue.

I guess I will just stick to my weights [20-30 minutes of cardio afterwards] and then some cardio on its own.

Ok, now Im really confused . . . I heard that it was better to do small amounts of cardio before weight training . . . at least that is what my fitness instructor had said.

Small amounts as in getting warmed up by some walking, active stretching, etc is good and you should do that. Doing your actual cardio before your weights isn't good because you're using your energy stores up doing the cardio and you're not getting an effective weight training session in.

Is it best to do cardio and weight training on seperate days?  I can only make it to my gym 4 days per week so I have been combining them together.  Some days I do weights first, some days cardio first, and some yoga here and there.  What is the best schedule to incorporate these activities when you only have 4 days available?  Thanks for the imput.

Ideally you should be doing three days of strength and one day of cardio if you just have four days, but as to avoid anymore issues with other members I would just highly advise you to do your own research. The link I posted earlier is an excellent resource, as is that site.

Combining the activities does not give either the intensity it deserves. I can't do HIIT after squatting 100+ lbs several times, nor can I deadlift 165lbs after running three miles.