I'm quite confused...need some harsh truth!

Venice girl

Venice girl

New member
Hi,
I've recently started a diet but I've been overwhelmed with contrasting information.
For example, some people tell me that the best way to lose weight is to do cardio, some others say the best way is to do weight training. Which one's true? And is it true that doing cardio makes you lose only muscles and not fat? Or is it enough to keep your muscles fit when on a diet?
I'm quite worried of losing muscles and not fat.
I'm really confused...I hope you can help me. Thank you so much for your time.
 
Good question and good concern.

First and foremost your diet needs to be in check as that is where any goal is going to shine. If you desire you may list it for opinion.

The answer to your question in short...

You use both;) but as needed and correctly.

A great start would be to incorporate a 2-3x a week full body strength training program of compound (multi joint/muscle) movements like squats, lunges, rows.

And then 1-2 times a week work on an interval cardio training program and work your way up to HIIT if not previously experienced with running or sprinting at a fast pace. This is of course based on your stats and program. Someone largely overweight needs to do just some simple walking and light resistance work for corrective movements. So see it all depends on where you are personally at.

So again if you want to post some more information on what you have been doing, yours stats and diet in detail then we would be more than happy to help in some more detail.
 
I'm 21 yo, I'm 173 cm (I'm sorry I don't know how many inches they are), I'm 165 lbs and would like to be 143 by august.
I bike for 45 minutes 3/4 times a week.
I went to a doctor to decide my eating plan. I have 1200 calories a day.
this is a tipical day:
breakfast: milk and cereals or toasted bread and tea
snack: fruit
lunch: pasta and vegetables or meat, bread and vegetables, or fish bread and vegetables
snack: fruit
dinner:meat or fish with bread and vegetables.

I don't usually do squats, crunches or things like that because I find them a bit boring but I know I'll have to do them.

Thank you for answering me so promptly!
 
Venice girl said:
I'm 21 yo, I'm 173 cm (I'm sorry I don't know how many inches they are), I'm 165 lbs and would like to be 143 by august.
I bike for 45 minutes 3/4 times a week.
I went to a doctor to decide my eating plan. I have 1200 calories a day.
Click to expand...


First off, trusting a doctors advise on nutrition is like asking a plumber how your computer is working. Their specialty is prescribing drugs, not knowing what foods do what.

You want to speak with a RD (Registered Dietitian) Not with a doc that had about 12total hours of nutrition study in college. RD's spend their entire 4 years on the subject.

For example, a doctor will tell a person to take 2 baby aspirins a day for its affects on platelet aggregation and platelet adhesiveness, while an RD will tell you that Vitamin E reduces platelet aggregation and platelet adhesiveness to collagen, MORE so then aspirin ever could. for the Record the RD is correct here.

----------------
Make sure the bread and pasta are WHOLE WHEAT and Whole grains NO white bread/pasta and so on should exist in your diet.
 
I went to a dietitian, only I didn't know how it was called in English.I'm sorry, English is not my first language.
 
Not (Silent) said:
For example, a doctor will tell a person to take 2 baby aspirins a day for its affects on platelet aggregation and platelet adhesiveness, while an RD will tell you that Vitamin E reduces platelet aggregation and platelet adhesiveness to collagen, MORE so then aspirin ever could. for the Record the RD is correct here.
Click to expand...

So what do you think about ?
 
What about it? I dont think this silent guy was promoting Vit E, but stating the difference between doctors and nutritionists. Plus this is what I see when I read it anyways:

Those taking vitamin E supplements had a slightly higher death rate than did participants getting a placebo

The rates of death, stroke, heart attack, and cancer were similar for the two groups,
 
Venice girl said:
I'm 21 yo, I'm 173 cm (I'm sorry I don't know how many inches they are), I'm 165 lbs and would like to be 143 by august.
I bike for 45 minutes 3/4 times a week.
I went to a doctor to decide my eating plan. I have 1200 calories a day.
this is a tipical day:
breakfast: milk and cereals or toasted bread and tea
snack: fruit
lunch: pasta and vegetables or meat, bread and vegetables, or fish bread and vegetables
snack: fruit
dinner:meat or fish with bread and vegetables.

I don't usually do squats, crunches or things like that because I find them a bit boring but I know I'll have to do them.

Thank you for answering me so promptly!
Click to expand...

I think your food intake is low as well. Lets do the quick guesstimate: 165*15=2475. Reduce that by 20% and you're at 1980. So somewhere around 1800-2000 would work for you.

Boring?? I guess we're opposites then, because I hate doing aerobic training (cardio). If I had to choose an hour of jogging or being fat, I might choose fat. :D
 
Good information. I was wondering borderline the same thing.

Right now, all I want is just to get my body in shape for normal things like walking without getting tired after a few blocks and/or bending down without my gut flowing over my waistline :(

I plan on running 3 times a week and working out 2 times a week for 30 min each....I really just want to lose some weight and maybe tone my body but thats it :)
 
Hrm. I heard that bread is really fattening? So I'd recommend that you didn't eat so much of it...
I know several people who weren't losing any weight with their diets until they removed the bread. And since then, one of them has lost over 100lbs, the others have lost 10-40lbs. Might just be a coincidence...?
 
Pwuffie said:
Hrm. I heard that bread is really fattening? So I'd recommend that you didn't eat so much of it...
I know several people who weren't losing any weight with their diets until they removed the bread. And since then, one of them has lost over 100lbs, the others have lost 10-40lbs. Might just be a coincidence...?
Click to expand...

No necessarily a coincidence, but maybe they have a wheat sensitivity or allergy.

Some people, from what I've heard, seem to react to that sensitivity in different ways, some having a typical allergic reactions, others gaining weight as a symptom.

My trainer and I were just talking about this the other day -- she took wheat out of her diet (she only ate whole wheats) and she lost some little belly fat that she had been trying to lose for a while. She substituted it with other grains, like buckwheat, to replace that carb.

Just food for thought. She gave me some questionnaires to fill out to see my nutrition habits to see how well I process certain carbs, and if I shouldn't do something similar. I guess we'll see.

I don't eat much bread/wheat as it is, but I've noticed that some things have wheat in it that I didn't expect -- like soy sauce!
 
What I don't understand is why some people claim to lose a lot of weight (sometimes 50 - 100 lbs) by simply walking. These people don't do any weights and they still lose weight. So, if one doesn't do weights you still lose weight, right? But do you lose MORE weight by adding some kind of strength training? Or, is it unhealthy to lose weight simply with cardio. I'm quite confused. Help would be appreciated. :D
 
helga said:
What I don't understand is why some people claim to lose a lot of weight (sometimes 50 - 100 lbs) by simply walking. These people don't do any weights and they still lose weight. So, if one doesn't do weights you still lose weight, right? But do you lose MORE weight by adding some kind of strength training? Or, is it unhealthy to lose weight simply with cardio. I'm quite confused. Help would be appreciated. :D
Click to expand...

I am sure someone can correct me if I am wrong but walking is still a great way of exercise if you do it enough and with the right amount of distance.

My mother walks early in the mornings and has lost about 10 pounds. Get her metabolism running and she feels better, earlier in the day.

I think though eventually if people want to get into "real good" shape or tone their body and whatnot....other exercises may be needed.
 
Venice girl said:
Hi,
I've recently started a diet but I've been overwhelmed with contrasting information.
For example, some people tell me that the best way to lose weight is to do cardio, some others say the best way is to do weight training. Which one's true? And is it true that doing cardio makes you lose only muscles and not fat? Or is it enough to keep your muscles fit when on a diet?
I'm quite worried of losing muscles and not fat.
I'm really confused...I hope you can help me. Thank you so much for your time.
Click to expand...

Weight training WON'T make you burn fat!
The exercices you must do to burn fat are the aerobic ones (aka cardio or wtv that put you moving with an acelarate heart beat).
Cardio will make you lose fat, cardio won't make you gain muscles or lose them in a large scale...
Your muscles can be very fit and hard and it wont matter because you could still have fat covering them... Abdominal exercises wont make you lose the fat on your belly... weight is lost in a general way, not localized and dont let anyone tell you the opposite because there aren't any studies who comprovate that local exercises can make someone lose fat in that area...
You will only lose muscles if you're following a bad diet.
 
Pwuffie said:
Hrm. I heard that bread is really fattening? So I'd recommend that you didn't eat so much of it...
I know several people who weren't losing any weight with their diets until they removed the bread. And since then, one of them has lost over 100lbs, the others have lost 10-40lbs. Might just be a coincidence...?
Click to expand...

Bread is not the problem, the problem is what people put in there ;)

Of course bread must be eaten with moderation, it has calories! Now... bread being fattening is one of the major myths at nutrition...
What people CAN'T eat is WHITE bread, white rice, or any other refined cereal...
Refined cereals is just "eat and get fat" because of a mecanism that I won't explain here because it would take me more time than I've...

I guess people follow too much some messy studies and setences like "someone told me that...".
Don't let them tell you a thing! If someone wants to know smt about this, they MUST talk to a person who knows what he/she is talking about...
 
helga said:
What I don't understand is why some people claim to lose a lot of weight (sometimes 50 - 100 lbs) by simply walking. These people don't do any weights and they still lose weight. So, if one doesn't do weights you still lose weight, right? But do you lose MORE weight by adding some kind of strength training? Or, is it unhealthy to lose weight simply with cardio. I'm quite confused. Help would be appreciated. :D
Click to expand...

After you read what I wrote up there, read this:
No, you wont lose more weight by adding weight exercises to your training...
It's perfectly healthy just to do cardio...
It's healthy to do weights... but it wont help you losing way.
It even can make you gain weight! Muscle weighs more than fat!
Don't get fooled by your weight... there is a machine that sees your fat mass and muscle mass... you should follow that machine.
For example... your weight may increase... and you think you are fatter... but you could have lose fat and gain muscle and then, you have more weight but you are less fat!
So, resuming:
Cardio burns fat and makes you lose weight
Weights works your muscles and do nothing about the fat
It's good to do weights to tonificate your body while you're losing fat with cardio (many people lose weight but get flacide).
If you decide to do both things one next to the other... it's better to do first the weights to consume the sugar in your blood because when you turn to cardio you will start to consume fat much faster!

;)
 
Polka said:
Weight training WON'T make you burn fat!
The exercices you must do to burn fat are the aerobic ones (aka cardio or wtv that put you moving with an acelarate heart beat).
Cardio will make you lose fat, cardio won't make you gain muscles or lose them in a large scale...
Your muscles can be very fit and hard and it wont matter because you could still have fat covering them... Abdominal exercises wont make you lose the fat on your belly... weight is lost in a general way, not localized and dont let anyone tell you the opposite because there aren't any studies who comprovate that local exercises can make someone lose fat in that area...
You will only lose muscles if you're following a bad diet.
Click to expand...

You will lose musle if you eat a caloric deficit and NOT supplement this with weight training. Your body makes up for an energy deficit by catabolizing tissue. This includes fat AND muscle.

By lifting, properly I might add, it will send the right biochemical signaling muscle maintenance.

I saw another of your posts and it seems that you are hung up on the idea that fat loss occurs DURING exercise. Like, steady state cardio is the most optimal weapon in our arsenals to use for weight loss.

What if I told you this. Cardiovascular conditioning aside, if I could pick only one exercise for weight loss, it would be weight training.

Why?

1. Muscle maintenance

2. There is some cardiovascular conditioning involved with weight training.

3. Fat oxidation is NOT the key to weight loss. Total energy expenditure during the day is key. Steady state cardio does little to raise EPOC. A high intensity bout of resistance training does amazing things to EPOC.
 
Polka said:
Bread is not the problem, the problem is what people put in there ;)

Of course bread must be eaten with moderation, it has calories! Now... bread being fattening is one of the major myths at nutrition...
What people CAN'T eat is WHITE bread, white rice, or any other refined cereal...
Refined cereals is just "eat and get fat" because of a mecanism that I won't explain here because it would take me more time than I've...

I guess people follow too much some messy studies and setences like "someone told me that...".
Don't let them tell you a thing! If someone wants to know smt about this, they MUST talk to a person who knows what he/she is talking about...
Click to expand...

So, are you saying that even if you are in an energy deficit, eating the wrong foods can make you gain weight?
 
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