Weight loss - combining cardio with weight training?

crótach

Hi folks,

I've piled on a bit of weight recently and need to lose about a stone. I run about 3 times a week and I'd normally get away with almost anything, but stress has added more comfort food to my diet recently and it's beginning to show

I was thinking of upping my running, but I'm afraid of picking up injuries as this happened to me the last few times I went for longer distances or more often.

Right now I'm aiming for running 3 times a week (4 miles each) and going to the gym 3 times a week, leaving me sunday to relax and enjoy the good stuff.

Is this too much? Does weight training work with this regime, or will I end up losing muscle instead? Should I complement my diet with a protein drink on gym days?

My normal working day diet (now) looks something like this:
7:30am:Large bowl of porridge with honey and a large coffee (latte low fat milk)
11am:Apple or banana
2pm: Sandwich (ham cheese and coleslaw or ham cheese and onion)
4pm: Some fruit and yoghurt, or some cottage cheese with onions
7pm: Large salad
8-9pm: A bit of fruit

I got rid of beers and chocolates and will keep Sundays to enjoy a big juicy steak and some nice wine.

I normally go through 4-5 liters of water a day.

Lukekul

I certainly wouldn't be an expert on this but I reckon you probably need a bit more protein in there to keep the muscle up.

Oh and cheese/coleslaw wouldn't be great for weight loss.

electric69

You might be better off having a 5day split: mon, wed and fri - cardio
tues and thurs- weight lifting

Your diet isnt great really.You are getting a lot of sugars from all the fruit.one piece a day should be enough. If you want a snack eat something like Almond nuts.The porridge is a good idea.Try drink black coffee if you can,its a good kick start for your metabolism.For your sandwich, no white bread,whole grain bread only, ham is high in salt so your going to get a bit of water retention from eating too much of it, instead of ham eat plain turkey breast or plain chicken breast.cheese and coleslaw arent great either, swap the cheese for cottage cheese and instead of cloeslaw try some egg mayonaise(make your own and only use a very small amout of low fat mayo).

crótach

Well, I can tweak the diet a bit, sometimes I go for tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches.

But I guess my main questions are should I take a protein supplement and does weight training add to the fat loss or will I just end up losing muscle?

My reasoning so far is that any training is gonna use up calories, and as long as there's a deficit in the food intake they'll have to be made up from the fat (or muscle) in the body.

I'm not a hardcore lifter or anything, in fact I hate gyms and prefer wide open spaces, but I can't be out running every day - my body won't take it

Almond nuts are a great idea, I love em and always thought they'd be high in fat/calories, so I'm trying to stay off them.