should I first loose fat with cardio before starting to do ab exercises and stuf? please read(:

I have some fat I want to loose throughout my body(stomach and legs) that i want to get rid of but I also want to have hard defined abs and legs. I am currently running I run for about 30 min 4 days a week and I walk for 20 min everyday and days that I dont run I bike for 15 to 30 min.  So should I keep on doing this until I loose the fat I want or should I start doing ab and legs exercises? Because my friend told me that If I do ab exercises without loosing the fat first all the fat is going to turn hard but i wont loose it and I might look firm but wide because the fat is just going to turn hard but not go away is that true? I need advice please help!

:| Shape magazine strikes again

I could be wrong, but it doesn't sound like you have a lot of weight to lose based on how you phrased your post. I would cut back on the cardio and add some all over weight training. Heavy (relative to you) is the BEST way to get rid of fat. Big lifts like presses, squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc burn fat faster than cardio

Check out the gals at Stumptuous. They know their stuff. Also find a copy of The New Rules of Lifting for Women for a lot of science and background info on my post

umm i dont think thats true. fat turns hard? i've never heard of that before. anyway, ill just tell you what i know from experience. start lifting. i looked at your profile and im also 5'2 and was about 118 last year. i've always been a runner, so i was running consistantly, but i started lifting and was 108 when i went to the dr.'s a few weeks ago. my fat didn't turn hard, i have lean, muscular arms now. i dont do heavy lifting, i do high rep lifting. i have a muscular toned tummy, and my legs can still use some work but they are thinner too. id say definitely start lifting. it raises your metabolism, and makes you look smaller.

The fat WILL NOT turn into hard muscle. Fat turning into muscle would be like water turning into wine...a miracle. You should keep up your cardio inorder to lose the fat and reveal those muscles underneath. 

P.S. Maybe you should find someone else to take advice from Continue to do research and make sure your sources are reliable.

Your friend is an idiot.

Original Post by abriliux:
 Because my friend told me that If I do ab exercises without loosing the fat first all the fat is going to turn hard but i wont loose it and I might look firm but wide because the fat is just going to turn hard but not go away is that true? I need advice please help!

We are about support here, I do not believe your friend is a idiot, she had the right idea. For example, what i think she meant is that if you just start with sit-ups the fat around your stomach will turn into muscle, since technically fat is muscle. If you want lean muscle you should run.

Also you should run because it greatly builds up your endurance so when you are ready to do full body, you'll be able to do it for longer.

PS: Fat does turn into muscle, for example, football players are big which makes them look fat, but its really muscle

I hope this clears anything up

:D

Put squats and Deadlifts into your work out each week. Do Deadlifts/squats/Deadlifts one week then visversa next week. Add some other   exercises as you see fit. Also you run for 40mins? I assume that you are and very good shape, so do sit ups(weighted), pull ups. There is alot of stomach exercises  but just doing situps will not give you what you want Good web site, use it to see what exercises you can dohttp://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php ?Real_New=%3C%3D+7&Name=&MainMuscle=& amp;Isolation=Compound&Equip=Barbell& order=Name

Doesnt muscle replace fat? Also foot ballers do have a fair a bit of fat on them.

Original Post by nagely12:

For example, what i think she meant is that if you just start with sit-ups the fat around your stomach will turn into muscle, since technically fat is muscle.

PS: Fat does turn into muscle, for example, football players are big which makes them look fat, but its really muscle

No, I'm sorry but this is horribly wrong. Technically fat is not at all muscle.

Muscle is the contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells.

Adipose tissue or body fat or just fat is loose connective tissue composed of adipocytes. Adipose tissue is derived from lipoblasts.

Very different tissues, and one does not turn into the other. They have different structure, function, and are no more able to turn into each other than they can turn to bone or blood or skin.

Football players are big because they have lots of muscle, and often a nice layer of fat over that. But it has nothing to do with one tissue turning into the other. It has to do with muscle occuring underneath fat, so the fat hides the definition that muscle can give.

abriliux - I too was once a runner and like you wanted the abs and legs and after experiencing some back pain and seeing a sports doctor I was instructed to add both back and ab workouts to my exercise routine.  I think the cardio and other benefits of running are important to maintain but according to the doctor you must counter the front muscles you are strengthing and building by also working on back muscles.  After a couple weeks of situps and a weight lifting routine for my back and arms I started to see definition.  Working on muscles will build muscles and decreasing fat will allow those muscles to show through, ask any body builder...the muscles you build are there, to see them you have to lose the fat.  But if you do the ab workout you will be able to feel the six pack that lies beneath that fat.....I use to tell one of my workout teachers that below all my fat was a body just like hers....LOL

I will add that back in February when I started trying to get in to better shape I was confused if I should do more cardio to burn fat and less weights until I lost some of the fat or what? 

IN MY EXPERIENCE, as soon as I eased up on the amount of cardio I was doing AND started lifting a little heavier weights more often (AT LEAST 3 times per week) I started noticing the fat shed from my legs and he muscle definition set it.......I am EXTREMELY happy with the results that I have gained!