Cardio or Weight training for weight loss.

I was wondering if I could get some opinions on this.  I did cardio, for 45 minutes six days a week for three months and didn't get any results, then I got ticked off and switch to strength trainingonly, four days a week for about 40 minutes, and have actually had better results. But my conscience says maybe I wasn't doing enough cardio or maybe didn't work hard enough.  And when I say I didn't get any results, I mean I went up four pounds and put on an inch. That is not what I wanted.  Just wondering if anyone else out there had the same problem.

Strength training! To read why, check out Hierarchy of Fat Loss

edit: made link work (I hope)

amethystgirl,   Thanks so much for that info, it eased my guilt!!!!!

Never feel guilty about strength training. If you are interested, there is a great book - New Rules of Lifting for Women. Lots of women on this site are using the program, and the book has lots of helpful advice and information.

What type of cardio? What is your diet like?

Weight/strength training is definitely key. But so is cardio. It is a blend/mix that works the magic. But without proper diet you will not see the results you want.

I agree with littleshellys that a mix is the best! Good luck!

Original Post by vidaloca:

I agree with littleshellys that a mix is the best! Good luck!

 Read the article amethystgirl posted.

Original Post by spirochete:

Original Post by vidaloca:

I agree with littleshellys that a mix is the best! Good luck!

 Read the article amethystgirl posted.

Then read it again. 

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by spirochete:

Original Post by vidaloca:

I agree with littleshellys that a mix is the best! Good luck!

 Read the article amethystgirl posted.

Then read it again. 

 Then read it very, very, carefully and you'll find that it supports littleshellys post.

There are so many different theories, studies. Each one a little different. I believe the key is a mix. I mix aerobic, anaerobic and strength training and I have seen excellent results. HIIT is definitely a great activity. HIIT and lifting are two of the only activities that burn calories and rev your metabolism for days after a session. Also two of the only types of activities that naturally release HGH (human growth hormone) that we loose as we age. Our HGH levels naturally decline each year. HIIT and weight lifting bring those levels back up. This promotes muscle growth, energy and overall well being. I love lifting but without adding some cardio in the mix you will not see the results you want and I do cardio not just for weight loss but for my over all  health. Lifting does not get your heart pumping in the same way HIIT and other cardio does. So the benefits of both are great and well worth the time and effort. Not just for weight/fat loss but for over all  health and wellness. And diet is key. If you still fill your body with crap you will not be healthy and see good results.

It depends on the lifting you do - when you do high-intensity single rep training at 90-95% of your max there's not enough volume of exertion to have a significant impact on your cardio system, but the further down the scale of intensity you are, the greater volume you can sustain.

 hGH release depends on intensity of effort, but that can be anaerobic intensity as well as %1RM intensity - high-rep training at around 60-80% of your 1RM can be an intense cardio workout as well as a strength workout.

But it ain't gonna improve your mile time on your marathon or bike, so if you've got goals over in the endurance fitness space you can't use training methods from the strength side of things, eh?

 Diet is a neccesary and sufficient condition for weight loss - exercise only influences the quality of the weight you lose. In that regard, strength training is clearly superior when you look at what you actually lose - but there's more to health than fat loss, and there's more to fitness than being able to lift a lot of weight.

 If you're a specialised athlete - bodybuilder, powerlifter, sprinter, marathoner, triathlete, road racer, mountain climber - you need a specialised training program that supports your chosen sport. Most people aren't specialist athletes though, and should do a more well-rounded training program than one which focuses on maximising one particular physical characteristic.

 Still, the hierarchy of fat loss is a good guide to efficient time management - you'll notice it doesn't say that you shouldn't do cardio, it just tells you how to spend your avaliable time for maximum efficiency. If you're not interested in efficiency it doesn't apply to you, does it?

Original Post by melkor:

Still, the hierarchy of fat loss is a good guide to efficient time management - you'll notice it doesn't say that you shouldn't do cardio, it just tells you how to spend your avaliable time for maximum efficiency. If you're not interested in efficiency it doesn't apply to you, does it?

 Exactly. #1 is your diet (I think he says #2 as well!), #3 being weight lifting and #4, if you have time, cardio. He does not say a mix is the best.

The original poster was relaying her experience that the cardio wasn't helping her (in fact she got negative results), but when she switched to weight training she saw positive results.  Her post was asking for opinions on if this was strange, or if this meant that she had been doing cardio wrong.

The answer is that it isn't at all strange, and in fact, the hierarchy of fat loss supports her experience, and she should keep at it.

Telling her that she should still be doing cardio, despite it having not helped her in reaching her goal (fat loss, I'd guess) and she doesn't seem to have any goals specific to cardio, doesn't seem to make sense - shelly writes "but without adding some cardio in the mix you will not see the results you want."  The OP has already stated that she is seeing the results she wants from strenght training alone.

As for diet, since she is now seeing good results from her strength training, I'm going to guess that her diet is in check, so that's not in question.

I don't believe the original poster was intending this to be a debate between cardio and strength training, just wanted to make sure that there wasn't something funky about seeing results from one and not the other. I repeat my earlier statement - you should never feel guilty about strength training. If you want to do cardio, fine. But if you are happy and getting the results you want from weight training alone, you don't have to add cardio to the mix.

My goal, is fat loss first and foremost, but I do want to bodybuild seriously when I do loss a few pounds.  And Amethystgirl is right I wasn't trying to debate which was better, it just seems that most people push cardio over weight training for fat loss and it just wasn't working for me.  I think I now have my diet under control so that is probably also helping me a lot.  I know that I need cardio for heart health so I do try to keep myself active in my daily routine.  I'm just glad to hear that I wasn't really doing anything wrong it just didn't give me the results I wanted.

Oh and by the way what is HIIT?

Original Post by lotsafoodgirl:

Oh and by the way what is HIIT?

 High Intensity Interval Training.

I don't think the poster intended for a debate either. Neither did I. I just think mixing it up is the key. Even with weight/strength training if you do the same thing day after day your body will adapt and you will not see good results. I have a hard time believing that someone could do cardio 6 days a week and see NO benefit at all. And the article that was posted is just one study/observation. I could post several that believe cardio and HIIT are the best. So it is just finding the right thing for you. What works best for each person.

I know its hard to believe that, but trust me no one was in more disbelief then me. Week after week of getting up at 5:30am sweating up a storm only to have the scale and my tape measure go up instead of down.  Only when I stopped doing the cardio and went to strength training did my scale and tape measure change for the good. And your body won't adapt if you are always challenging yourself, with heavier weights or more reps.   I totally agree with you about finding what works best because everyone responds differently, I thank everyone for their useful information, I appreciate it!

Remember, muscle burns fat and fat doesn't get efficiently burned in cardio until 60 mins plus. The hardest thing for women to get over when they weight train is when the number on the scale goes up... but the inches go down. So also remember that muscle weighs more than fat but consider the fact that you are stronger. Also, sometimes people eat a lot more than usual when they do cardio because they think they need the food for energy, not true unless you spend hours at it!

Original Post by littleshellys:

I have a hard time believing that someone could do cardio 6 days a week and see NO benefit at all.

Rachel Cosgrove did 20 hours of cardio a week while training for her Ironmand and saw negative results in terms of body composition.  I bet she would have been thrilled as only getting 'no benefit'.

Aw crap...now that i've logged in i forgot what i was going to post!  ahhh yes, I've found that when I do a lot of cardio, and I mean a lot (for instance, for a while i was running 4-7 miles a day), that I loosened up so much on my eating habits that I was negating any positive effects from the cardio, possibly even eating at a surplus without realizing I was doing so.  Perhaps this is one reason that you saw negative gains when you were only doing cardio?  Could have been a psychological thing that you thought you could eat more but were actually eating more than burning without realizing it. 

In fact, I used to run so much that at the gym a woman who works there told me her story of how she used to run a lot too (not sure how much, though probably similar to me) and then something happened that made her stop running so much and more focus on weights and she lost about 10lbs and a few inches off her waist from switching the focus from running to weight training.