I realized I forgot to post this in here too. I got a really great response so far but I'd like to hear from more people too...

In the immediate future I'm looking to loose the last 38lbs to get to a healthy BMI and so am just concerned about my health, not really my appearance as much (that will come eventually but we want to TTC once I get to a healthy BMI so that's a secondary concern). Anyway, what's the best distribution between weight lifting and cardio? We have a gym in our apt complex so I can workout whenever (it will probably end up being about 3x a week for the next week or so until things settle down and then I hope to move to 5x a week). I can normally get about an hour in each day that I work out (I have a 2 year old so a lot of that depends on DH too).

I used to be an athlete (long distance runner and soccer player) so for me cardio comes more naturally (I mostly run on the treadmill) but I know lifting is important too and can help to speed up weight loss.

Eventually, when I do get to an ideal BMI I probably will work on arms/legs lifting more (I like having a well-defined arm and I have always had a lot of strength in my legs so it's fun for me to do leg exercises) but until that time I'm pretty much up for anything that gets the weight off.

Our PT's at the gym are always telling the women they're getting too much cardio. I love my cardio and am so pleased with what it has done for my heart health that I'm not willing to back down. But I do place equal emphasis on the lifting. So right now, I'm lifting 45 minutes and doing cardio 45 minutes 5 days a week, and often on Saturday I'll go for a long distance run.

Ultimately, it's the lifting that really packs a punch and most women don't give it enough credit. It's great for bone density and therefore posture, self-esteem, overall strength and endurance for every day activities, and of course you know muscle burns more calories at rest.

I am no expert but I know from my own experience. I try to do cardio 6 days a week and burn at least 500 calories each time. I do weights 3 days a week and sometimes four. My weight trainings are 30 minutes each. To me the cardio is important for immdiate weightloss and the weight lifting is helping for longterm weightloss.

Thanks for the responses! I've been working on upping my weight lifting and doing it BEFORE cardio. I've also been doing HIIT (so far I've done it with a jump rope, on the treadmill using the elevation+speed, and on the bike) and I think the bike was the easiest one to do it with.

Here's my routine so far
5min stretching/walking
20 min lifting (constantly moving, no resting, doing arms+legs at the same time)
10-15 min HIIT (I did 10 on Tuesday and 15 today so I'm trying to work this up to 20min)
5min stretching/cooldown

I have to say I feel so good after doing that! I have more energy, and my body feels wonderfully sore but not in a bad way.

Weird thing, though. I keep getting sore spots? Last week my back was sore so I avoided doing any weights with my back. Yesterday and today it's been my left butt cheek so I avoided doing too many squats. It seems to keep changing where I'm sore at. However, I feel the best when I'm moving and i normally only feel sore if I'm sitting for awhile.

This looks like a great routine! You're doing the lifting before the cardio so you can be at your best for lifting. And on HIIT, I agree, the bike is the easiest to do it on. I prefer the treadmill, but there's such a lag while trying to increase or decrease the speed. I hate "jumping ship". The elliptical's pretty good too, but you get funny looks.

The soreness should work itself out as your body becomes more accustomed to this routine.

I actually wanted to do the treadmill today but apparently only two of ours at the gym elevate and without elevation the lag would be too big! But, yeah, the bike seemed to work really well. I also found that I don't get any weird looks because the bikes are back in the corner and the treadmills are upfront where all the super skinny people (besides me) that use the gym hang out.

Yep, I'm ready for the soreness to end. I actually feels a lot better now that I've worked out for the day so hopefully tomorrow I won't be dealing with it. Maybe a nice swim would help.

Yeah, for my 15 second sprints, I actually went into a separate basketball court room, off the treadmill. You can't increase/decrease every 15 seconds. But on the bike you can! And I saw in another thread you mentioned swimming? Also great! And I did HIIT on my stairs at home there for a while which did wonders for my legs.

On the treadmill, I did 1:00 on, 1:00 off. That worked out ok, but as I said, I had to jump ship. I contemplated leaving the machine at a sprint level and then pacing or jogging in place off the machine, but talk about your funny looks! LOL!

Yeah, 15 secs would definitely be hard to manage! I also did 1 min ones on the treadmill and jumped ship every time too. Thankfully I was the only one in the cario room at the time.

We have a few swimming pools in our apt complex and I keep meaning to get down there but just haven't because it takes more time to get ready before/after a workout (I can't just go there straight after the weight room!). But I think I'm going to try it tomorrow.

Today was an off day for me from lifting/HIIT so I went to the pool here for the first time and it was wonderful! I think I'm going to work on alternating between swimming one day and the lifting/HIIT. I took a really nice relaxing swim and stretched between every 2 laps and I feel so refreshed now I just want to go back down there!

Oh, and very cool news. DH was in the gym last night and he was talking to one of the trainers there. The guy said that if we were interested he would train both DH and myself at the same time and charge us the same price for one person. The price was A LOT less than I expected and would be something doable 2-4 times a month. I think I'd probably be ok sticking to my routine but I really think DH needs to hear solid advice from a trainer since he doesn't research things related to weight loss and doesn't want to hear it from me. He got the guys card and once things settle down around here financially I'm going to try and get him to set up a time to meet the trainer.

Running- it is worth it to have a trainer. I work with a trainer 3 times a week and really look forward to it.

I do 50/50 weight training and cardio in intervals at a personal training gym. We alternate so some weeks it's 4 minutes of weights then 4 of cardio and back and forth for an hour and some weeks it's 30 minutes of each. They say that they have found that this is the most effective way to burn calories. I've been doing it 3x a week since December and I think it's working for me. Good luck with your goals!

I posted this 3 weeks ago and since then I've been doing weight lifting every other day and then sometimes either doing HIIT afterwards or doing it the next day (depending on time). Here's the thing, I'm feeling bored in the weight room. I don't have a trainer (maybe eventually but that won't be for a few months at least) and I'm having problems pushing myself. I also don't have anyone to spot me so I feel a bit lost there. I know of some good exercises to do and even though I try to get heavy weights it just feels like I'm going through steps instead of pushing myself. So here are my questions:

1. I'm thinking of just doing weight lifting 2x a week and doing cardio the other days (so 3-4x a week). I'll probably do HIIT at least 2-3x and maybe just some swimming the other days. My thought was if I do weights only twice in the week maybe I'll be able to push myself harder on those days?

2. I'm trying to get into swimming more. Any tips on maximizing a workout in the pool?

3. I'm thinking of picking up the book New Rules of Lifting for Women. Would you recommend this to someone like me? I'm 35lbs away from a healthy BMI and am definitely up to lifting heavier weights/trying new things in the weight room.

4. Is there a time limit after which cardio just isn't worth it anymore? I know I've heard often for long distance runners that eventually your body gets used to the workout and you don't burn as much calories. I'll probably do 1-2x just normal cardio workouts a week and I'm just trying to figure otu what would be best?

5. What are your thoughts on crunches/workouts that work your core? I know you can't spot reduce so are these things really needed? Wouldn't it be better for me just to focus on keeping my abs tight throughout my usual lifting routine? Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!