As someone new to getting fit, joined about 4 months ago, I have come to realize I have been thinking about my workouts all wrong. Recently it has come to my attention via a facebook friend that I probably have been putting too much emphasis on cardio, and not enough on actual weight training.
I come to you from a newbie's perspective. I think a lot of us that are new to getting fit get it wrong on exactly how we should spend our time working out, whether it be at the gym or at home. Even the fitbit puts an emphasis on walking but is that really correct? Putting an emphasis on cardio activity? My facebook friend says no. And the answers were right in front of me all along.
Cardio: Burn more calories initially, uses muscle and fat stores to provide you with your energy as you burn calories. Thats right when doing cardio you actually burn muscle as well as fat stores to provide you with energy. You may lose weight more quickly but much of that weight is actually do to muscle loss. The more muscle you build the higher your metabilism will be. Meaning instead of having to starve yourself to lose weight you can eat hearty meals, build muscle and let your muscle and metabilsim work for you.
Why choose weight training and lifting over simply doing cardio?
Weight Lifting/Strength Training: Burn less calories initially, however the calories you burn are from fat stores and from food you have eaten through the day. When you lift weights you are building muscle mass, and more muscle means your metabilism increases overtime. Meaning you actually end up burning more fat at the end of the day by lifting than you do doing cardio. Cardio is an effective means to maintaining your mass at where you want it to be but it is not as effective at burning fat as lifting or strength training would be.
Why do I bring these simple concepts up? I think because I have been new to getting fit as many on these forums are. I did not seek a trainer out at the gym. I watched others workout and saw a lot of people doing cardio and figured that is what I need to be doing to get fit. I read these forums, joined some threads and everyone was talking about running, walking, biking, how many steps they are taking. I guess I got sucked into thinking that is how you should workout. Emphasis cardio training. Its not to say I do not lift but I definetly focus on making sure I get my cardio done everytime at the gym.
Again what is the point? I write this because I want to point out to those getting started that while there is no reason to neglect cardio, it is not the be all end all to losing weight. Building muscle mass is even more important. To get down to 163lb, I was logging 6+ miles a day, starving myself on 1200-1400 calories a day, beating myself up when I went over. I am here to warn any new participants to these forums. If I could go back I would concentrate 1) Diet 2) Building muscle. I always felt like I had a lack of energy on a diet that was only 1200 calories, this effected the intensity of my workouts as well. When your starving yourself, your body/metabilism tends to not want to go all out for you, meaning you just keep spinning your wheels.
