Cardio or weight training

[NikkiDoc 312]

So what is more important- cardio or weight training? My NUT thinks cardio for weightloss. My personal trainer thinks weight training. The NUT did not give a reason. The personal trainer says the more muscle you have the more calories you will burn. Now I do use a 10-15 minute cardio warm-up and another 10-15 minutes after.

My big problem is that I work an hour from home. I leave at 6 am in the morning. I get home around 5:30 pm. I can make it to the gym 3 times a week. I also have a horse. I like to ride 3-4 times a week. I cannot do both the barn and gym on the same day. I just don't have time. I am sweat big time so this time of year walking at lunch just isn't practical. I don't like being wet and stinky after lunch.< /p>

For those of you that don't ride- yes riding is exercise. I am not a passenger. I ride English so I post. Think of posting as squats on top of a horse. The style riding I do involves a decent amount of core strength. Getting the horse ready involves grooming, walking around the farm, sometimes lifting hay bales, Water buckets and manure buckets.

I am trying to the most bang for my buck timewise. I also fell off the excercise wagon from Mid May until yesteday. So now that I will be going back to the gym do I do cardio? Do I do the cardio warm-up/cool-down and the weight training? Although somewhere in my week I want to try yoga for some core strength and balance. Not sure when to fit that in.

As a reference my surgeon expected me to be at 40% of excess weight lost by 6 months. I am at 55% so I am ahead of where he expected me to be. Should I take that as a sign that the riding and the weight training I was doing is working? At least once a month I will be "stuck" doing cardio at a hotel as I travel for business.

So what works best for everyone cardio or weight training with a little cardio? Remember timewise I can only commit to 3 times a week.

[Bufflehead 6,358]

I try to mix it up. If I were in your situation, I would probably do either weights twice a week at the gym and cardio once per week, or I would mix it up and do both weights and cardio all three times.

As far as the riding and horse care goes, I would consider that "being active" -- which is great -- rather than "exercise" (in the sense of something you journal in MFP and give yourself calorie credit for or anything like that). I have had horses pretty much all my life and I do know what you are talking about in terms of effort and activity level. Anyway, I think weights and cardio are both important and it sounds like you are doing really well, so don't second guess yourself too much

[Veronica Page 488]

You do both. The more muscle you have the more calories you burns. Cardio is great for fat loss but you just simply need both for great results 20-30 minutes if cardio with 15-30 mins of strength training is enough for you to see and maintain decent results. I too have a training who says both is equally important

[Kimjuly7 1]

How soon after surgery can you start really working out? I am 4 weeks out. I started walking right after surgery. At 2 weeks post op I started bumping my walk up to a walk/run interval 1 mile. 5x a week. This week, wk4, I started going to the gym and doing some lundges and weight training. I have hired a personal trainer that I will start seeing on the 17th. My worry is calories in/out. Since I am still only getting 600 cals a day. Any suggestions? I also go back to work next week as a CNA so I am constinatly active there.

[goodnuff 239]

It's frustrating to have a team of people give conflicting advice. I was experiencing the same thing. The two things I decided to do were 1) listen to my body and what it tells me it needs, which changes frequently and 2) let the surgeon be the surgical expert, the dietician be the diet expert and the trainer be the exercise expert. Good luck!

[OKCPirate 5,323]

@@NikkiDoc - Your work around the house counts. If you get a fitbit or other activity tracker I think you will feel better about it. HIIT training with weights will get your cardio and weight training benefits at same time. You might want to check out this site for more ideas: http://www.coachcalorie.com/benefits-of-weight-training-for-weight-loss/

[NikkiDoc 312]

Okay it sounds like since I almost always do a mix of cardio and weight training I should be good. I tend to do 20-25 minutes of cardio- half before and half after weight training. I use the machines for weight training. It is a fairly long routine so 30 minutes if I do the base workout and if I am feeling ambitious and do extra sets maybe 40 minutes.

I guess it didn't seem like the amount of cardio I was doing "counted" for much.

As far as horses not counting as exercise, I pointed it out to show I wasn't being couch potato on the other days. Many people think that riding horses is like renting a fully tacked and groomed horse for a 1 hour guided trail ride where you are primarily walking and the rider doesn't need to do much.

Thanks for the replies

Edited August 5, 2015 by NikkiDoc

[catfish87 3,471]

What worked for me, was getting my heart rate into the aerobic or fat buring zone.....AND keeping it there. I chose to use cycling as my primary form of aerobic exercise early on when I couldn't/didn't run. It was (for me) the best thing I could possibly do. The most bang for the buck as you mention. I would never get my heart rate to the level necessary to burn enough calories just by weight training. I'm not saying you can't, but I didn't. And besides, cycling is sooooooo much more fun! After I lost most of my excess weight, I also started running.....and that changes things up too.

I'd suggest to anyone, get some form of accurate heart rate monitor and figure out how many calories you're actually burning with each exercise. Then you'll know what burns the most for you.

[GeekMomChanging 48]

Try the 7 minute workouts. They keep your heart rate up for a good cardio but they use your own body weight to build muscle. Best bang for your buck. I use an app on the iPhone. I tend to do 3-4 different each time which takes about 40-50 minutes.