Thanks very much for the kind words, and glad you find me to be an ass.

I mean asset!!!

First, congrats on your weight loss to date. You should be extremely proud!

How exactly did you go about losing that weight. And are you still losing? Plateaued?

Nutrition is still the primary focus. Of course exercise is important too, it just sits in the backseat when compared to your nutritional strategy. I am glad to hear you bumped up your cals. That actually isn't too far off from where I would like you to see, speaking in terms of caloric intake. How has the ramp up treated you? Any weight gain?

You are doing a lot of LISS (low intensity, steady state) cardio. I would rather see you throw in a session of HIIT (high intensity interval training), if you are conditioned enough to do so. If not, stick with one to two sessions of regular interval training until you are conditioned enough to add in some HIIT.

Also, do your cardio AFTER you train with weights.

Ideally, you should be doing one session of HIIT per week (and this is specific to you and no one else reading this) and one to two sessions of LISS per week.

With regards to weight training, I am really not a fan of machines. They just aren't optimal, and in some instances, can be detrimental. And high rep stuff sucks. I imagine you are doing it thinking high reps "tone." This is very important for you to understand: There is no such thing as toning through direct stimulation exercises. Actually, I like to say, "There is no such thing as toning, period." You mentioned you do hip adjunction machine. I think you mean, hip adduction. And I bet you are doing that to "target" your thighs. Right? If so, that is not going to work. The only way to firm up, tone up, or whatever else you want to call it is to lose more fat. Doing so exposes the muscles you have under the subcutaneous fat.

You see, weight training either builds muscle, or it doesn't. And fat does not turn into muscle. And muscle, even if you are building more, will remain under the fat until you expose it through fat loss. AND, you can't build muscle unless you are in a caloric surplus. AND, you can't lose fat unless you are in a caloric deficit.

Haha, a lot of lessons to be learned in just a few short sentences..... so let this sink in and then, ask some more questions. I am sure you will have more.

thanks for bringing all that that into light for me .. i have been miguided so far as to what im trying to achieve - by various people who claim to know.
so by doing cardio after weights - what is the added benefit from doing cardio then weights?
and also the high rep low weight or low rep high weight thing - is that a load of bull? what is truth about it...?

You are welcome. And also, I should add, I don't claim to know anything. I don't like to consider myself an expert. I still learn something new every single day. It is those that claim to have "the answer" that you should be watching out for. Pretty much everything you see me speak about will be based upon one of two things; empirical and/or scientific evidence. I am not a fan of straight-line thinking. This only short-changes anyone who abides by it.

Why cardio after weights. One reason is this. We have 3 primary fuel sources to function. 1. Phosphagen System 2. Glycolotic System 3. Oxidative System.

Weight training taps into your phospagen and glycogen systems. Cardio taps into your glycogen and your oxidative systems. It isn't that cut and dry, but for purposes of this conversation, this will suffice. It is better to go into your resistance training session fully replenished of glycogen. Weight training does not actually use all that much glycogen relatively speaking when compared to what some assume. But it is a primary fuel substrate. Having your glycogen fully replenished for cardio is not as important and some would argue it is actually optimal to do cardio with a depleted glycogen level, leaving more oxidation of fat to be had. Personally, I like to split my cardio sessions and weight training sessions up, if possible. I have found this to be most optimal.

With regards to your second question, I am not too sure what you are asking. Define high reps and define low reps. To me, high reps = 12-15 and low reps = 1-6. Everything in between serves a purpose. Going much beyond is really futile in my opinion, unless you are training specifically for some sort of muscle endurance, which I have a hard time believing anyone around here is.

What rep range you choose is very goal dependent, but should remain within the confines of logical selection.

Sophie by doing 20-30 minutes of cardio after weights your body is already burning stored body fat so during these 20-30 minutes you will burn fat instead of carbs, i assume your fueling up before weights right?

One reason to not do cardio before weights is your body needs the glycogen and carbs to lift effectivily if you rob your body of this energy source by doing cardio first how do you think you will perform lifting weights after cardio? There is little benefit from doing cardio then weights.

To see greater results perform cardio 4-6 hours after your weight sessions or on seperate days this helps with recovery.

I suggest this to all my clients (i am a sports nutritionist) and it works very very well, email me any time if you want help.

Very much in line with what I said in my above post.

I don't think we need any "off the board help" though, through email. There is plenty of it right here. I like to keep it public so ALL can learn from it. Not being arrogant, so please don't take it as so. You are welcome in my journal any time, really. The more knowledgeable people around the better IMO.

okay thats kind of cleared it up for me
so if i am looking to just lose fat at the moment then is there a point in me weight lifting .. should i just do cardio?

Hi, Steve. Hope you had a great weekend -- and picked up lots of new tips to keep feeding us!

I got the DOMS big time after my first squats 4 days ago, but they're all gone now. Good thing, because today I'm doing deadlifts for the first time!

Have a great week.

Weight training is extremely important while dieting. Losing weight is a function of energy balance? More energy out than in equals said weight loss. Right?

Well, for optimal, sustainable, permanent weight loss, I like to find a plan of attack that allows you to eat as much as possible while still losing weight. This means, you need to choose your exercises wisely.

Many think aerobic exercise is the best calorie burner. In reality, your body gets efficient at SS cardio and it becomes a chase to run, ride, swim, or whatever have you, more and more. Anaerobic exercise instead, such as HIIT and resistance training, actually burns more calories in the long run when you look at larger chunks of time then the specific time allotted for exercising.

This said, weight training is important.

However, and maybe just as importantly, weight training serves as the biochemical trigger to reserve muscle mass while dieting. While in a caloric deficit, your body is going to make up for the deficit by burning tissue. You want fat to be oxidized. You do not want muscle broken down. So weight training helps aid muscle maintenance.

I advocate full body training sessions consisting of big, compound lifts, using heavy weights, relatively speaking, which dictates your rep range, which would be lower. Think 4-6.

I warned ya, LOL. I think anyone who I converted over to a 5x5 routine has experience DOMS had they not been used to it from prior experience.

Hope things are going well Tom. Thanks for stopping in.

thankyou

Damn, wish I could have went this year.......

Would have loved it if you were there Lee! Next year maybe? I think I will go again next year. I was impressed with how fun the city actually is.

Columbus is a pretty fun city most of the time Sorry I missed you this weekend!

Hey Steve!
Good to read that you had a great time in Columbus. I'm a big fan of the Oxygen Magazine and I'm thinking about going to one of those expos. The Arnold one sounds like one of the bigger ones out there. Isn't there one called Olympus or something? That's the one that ESPN shows right?

I started the 5x5 weight sessions you suggested and my problem is that I'm not sure if I'm putting on enough weight. I know that you suggested that I start at 50% of my 1 rep max and then increase 10% for 5 weeks, but I didn't get sore with my first session. I'm planning on lifting tomorrow and wanted to know what your advice would be for my next session. Should I start with the same weights or increase for this week? I've only done 1 session since we last talked.

Also, what is DOMS?

thanks and welcome back!

I am sure the city was more alive considering both the Arnold and UFC were there. But I enjoyed it!