I am curious if any of you have insight or experience with cardio and fat loss.

I have heard so many mixed things regarding cardio or endurance training and its effects on fat loss. Some say you can lose weight just as effectively by creating a deficit through cardio vs cutting cals and some say that cardio is great for maint. of weight lost but doesn't really assist in the weight loss, at least in women. I hope I'm making sense! I have done a lot of cardio over the years but I've been a yo yo dieter and now am on a path to strenght train and eat healthy, however, I would like to eat at my maint. and create all of my deficit through running and lifting and am wondering if anyone has experience with this, adding cardio and seeing a difference?

I just bought the NROL (new rules of liftting for women) and it is fabulous but the author only promotes internval training a few times a week and says regular endurance training is basically useless as far as fat loss is concerned.

I would love to hear any thoughts, opinions, personal experiences!

Thanks!
Eve

I have ALWAYS included exercise as a part of any weight loss effort. My "dieting" is patchy, at best. I eat good foods and generally just try to cut back on portions to lose. But I think the exercise is really what does it for me.

It's all calories in vs. calories out, when you think about it. No matter how you're creating that defecit you're going to lose weight if you're consuming less calories than you're using. Exercise will help to maintain muscle mass while you are losing weight, as well.

Good luck!

Kara

This is totally anecdotal, but I found I wasn't on a constant pattern of loss until I was keeping up with my cardio regularly. Some days it's only 20 minutes of cardio, but I always do something. And now I'm thrilled with my progress! Good luck with your efforts

i think you need exercise of all forms. I do cardio and wt lifting. I use to just do cardio..but man does wt lifting really help. Right now i have personal trainer which is doing something neat with me. We are lifting weights, but we are keeping the pace high...my hr is always above 130 or greater. So for instance after the first rep of tricep curls...i'll rest my arms but do lower body or abs...ie she'll make me get on the ground and do a bunch of sit ups..then when we are done wit hthe sit ups....back to the tricep curls...the whole hr i must burn around 500 + cals..she'll even have me go and do burst of cardio (ie climbing stairs or running the track) to get my hr high when its starting to lower. I have found this a tremendous help with fat burning..and over all improved performace. On days when i'm not "lifting" then i'm doing some cardio..i always give at least one day off. btw...with training this way...some weeks i have lost inches but not pounds...but to me..who cares if my jeans fit looser but the number stays the same...so from my experience...you need cardio and wt lifting...Good luck