I just found out that I'm diabetic about three months ago and the Doc said I need to drop about 40 pounds. So, for the past 6 weeks I've been working out 6 times a week. My workouts consist of about 30 minutes of weight lifting (2 muscle groups, 5 sets of 12 - 15 reps) and 30 minutes of cardio at about 70 - 75% of my max heart rate. I've drastically changed my eating habits. Doing these things I've gotten my blood sugar under control and no longer need to take the medication (I am type II).

I lift and do my cardio in the mornings. I would like to add a second cardio workout to for 3 - 4 of the days in the evening but I don't know if that would be too much training. I obviously don't want to over-train. What do you think? Am I ok to add another cardio work-out?

I'm not new to working out. I've done a number of BFL 12-week stints with great success. I've just lapsed back into old habits.

To be blunt and honest, I would say that there is no need to add anything else to your workout. Weight loss is going to be determined by your diet. You need to eat less than your body needs every day. You still need to work out to retain your muscle mass while you're losing weight, but it is my experience that the workouts I've done have contributed very little if at all to the amount of weight I've lost.

In your case, I'd say that adding more cardio is probably not going to lead to a significant increase in weight loss if you have control of your diet.

I agree with MAR. I don't see any reason to add more working out. I mean if you just love cardio and want to go an additional time, then I don't think it'll hurt anything, but it's certainly not necessary and probably won't give you much more weight loss benefit.

Thanks to both of you for your responses. Mar, I do want to lose weight but I also want to add as much muscle as I can. The wife and I are going on a cruise in a couple months and I don't want to be embarrased to take of my shirt!!

I finally do have my diet going well (I've actually been able to quit the blood sugar medicine after about 3 months. I eat high quality proteins and carbs (a little less on the carbs) and low fat. I try to eat around 2200 calories per day and based on my rudimentary measurements I'm burning around 1,00 doing my cardio and weight lifting. I asked a trainer the same question and he confirmed what you have said about the cardio. He also said that if I could handle it that a second workout lifting weights would be very beneficial as long as I didn't work the same muscles in the same manner as the morning workout - meaning that in the morning I could do low reps - high weight and in the night do high reps low weights. I'd never heard this before. Sound reasonable?

Thanks again for your responses - very helpful.

p.s. No, Kara, I hate cardio!! The only reason I can stand it is because I get the right music pumping through the MP3 player. I wouldn't do it otherwise. Cardio sucks!!!

I recommend checking out the stickies for some posts by the member "steve" on energy balance. Basically, though, you can't really lose weight and gain muscle at the same time. Losing weight requires a calorie defecit, while gaining muscle requires an energy surplus. When you lose weight, you lose fat AND other tissues, including muscle. Lifting while losing weight is meant to force your body to preserve as much muscle as possible. When you're trying to gain muscle (i.e. eating in a surplus), you will gain weight, but that weight will include fat.

That being said, if you've never lifted before, or haven't lifted in a very long time, you will be able to get much stronger and possibly gain some muscle even if you're eating in a defecit to lose weight. I started lifting for the first time in years in july - I workout 3 days a week, alternating between these 2 workouts A: Squats 3x5, Bench 3x5, Assisted Pullups/chinups 3xF, B: Squats 3x5, Standing Overhead Press 3x5, Seated Cable row 3xF. I use the same weight for all 3 sets, and each workout day I increase the weight lifted by 5lbs. My full squats have gone up 80lbs since I started, bench has gone up 45lbs, and Overhead press has gone up 35lbs. Takes me only 45mins per workout, 3 times per week. I've also lost 10-20lbs during this time frame. I don't know if I've gained muscle mass per se, but I can tell when I feel my pecs or my arms that my muscles there seem bigger, stronger, and more defined.

Be wary of trainers. They don't always know what they're talking about, and some tend to tell you only what you want to hear so you'll buy the sessions - you're more likely to buy the sessions if they tell you what you want to hear vs. whats correct or best if its not what you wanted to hear.

I wouldn't say its necessary to lift weights twice in the same day, even if its different body parts. As you can see from what I posted above, its possible to make lots of progress quickly without spending hours in the gym every day. I'm not saying you should go out and do my routine exactly as posted, but I would recommend you stick with free weights rather than machines, and do lifts which incorporate compound body presses (squats, bench, deadlifts, overhead press) and pulling movements (pullups/chinups and rows), and ignore stuff like bicep curls and trcep extensions and other excercises that only work small, weak muscles - those muscles will strengthen and grow just fine without isolated work. Don't believe me? Go bench press and follow it with assisted pullups - I guarentee you'll feel the burn in your biceps. I would also recommend higher weights and lower reps if you want to build strength/muscle. Something like 3-5 sets of 5-8 reps seems like a good range to work in. More reps/lower weights is good for muscle endurance (workout longer before fatigue), but you wouldn't be pushing your muscles as hard to encourage your body to adapt to heavier weights by getting stronger/building muscle.

There are some stickies around (also by "steve") that go into much more detail than I have posted. I recommend trying to find some of them.

Ditto this - there are trainers and then there are trainers. Those who are affiliated with chain gyms are often simply there to sell services and time and won't give you good advice.

Yeah, I hear you about the trainers. I don't have one I've hired. When the trainers look worse than I do (read fatter) I don't care to waste the money. I generally don't think they're worth it anyway.

Mar, thank you for this in depth response. Its tough to know the best way to work out when there are so many different views out there. So a reasonable response such as yours is quite helpful.

No problem, just hope I helped. But don't forget the most important thing is to find what works best for you - there is no 1 solution for everyone.