Fat Loss - Cardio

mayosteve99

Hi There, so i really wanna lose 1.5 stone. I have been doing a bit at the gym over the past weeks.

I would like advice on the best way to lose weight/fat. Im not too bothered about doing weights or gaining muscle, just wanna lose fat/weight.

I was think 20 minutes of HIIT on the threadmill. Usually do intervals of 1.5 minutes 8km/h speed followed by 30 second sprints 15km/h speed.

Also do 10 minutes of Cross trainer HIIT. After which i would be F**ked..

I was thinking of doing this 4 times a week.

What do ye think??

Thanks,

Stephen

**Timbuk2**

Read the stickies at the top of this forum - they are really useful!

Also, make sure your diet is in order. People will probably disagree with me, but diet is more important than exercise for weight loss. From my past weight loss experience, you can not go to the gym all week (e.g. due to illness) but eat right and still lose weight, but if you go to the gym all week and eat crap you will still gain weight (unless you are making a marathon effort at the gym).

I think it's about 70% diet and 30% exercise, but most probably wouldn't agree with me. My main advice is to make changes to your diet, rather than cut anything out. It's much more sustainable in the long-term, and prevents hunger (you don't need to be hungry to lose weight!) - e.g. if you drink coke, change it to water, if you eat a cereal bar at work, change it to an orange.

It can sometimes be hard to find motivation. I always found motivation by looking at pictures of myself in the past, where I was skinnier. Also, once you start to lose weight, seeing results will motivate you. You might be surprised how easy weight loss is if done correctly. Some like the scientific approach, but I think it's far from necessary to go to the extremes of counting calories etc.

mayosteve99

Thanks For that but I read the Stickies, My diet would be fairly good, only really lacking veg.

Im wondering what would people advise to do cardio wise, should I do weights or should i stick with just the cardio & HIIT. Would rather just do the cardio & think it could be better for weight loss!

**Timbuk2**

Ideally both, but if you're stuck for time, then cardio would be the most beneficial for what you want. There are so many ways of doing cardio exercises, e.g. HIIT or cardio over a long period of time with less intensity. HIIT is probably the best, because as far as I know, high intensity exercise burns calories even after you stop exercising.

Small changes, such as the stairs instead of the lift, and walking/cycling to work instead of driving (or getting off the bus one stop early) can make a big difference.

Keeping a log of food and/or exercise is a good motivational tool and it can prevent you from making bad food/exercise choices.

cc87

Try posting up your typical diet up, a lot of the time when people think they have a good diet they really dont. If you dont want to post up your diet id suggest keeping a food log as people usually dont realise how much snacks they really eat during a day.

In another thread, one of the more experienced trainers here said that HIIT followed by long slow cardio is the best for fat loss. He backed it up with science as well.

Patdusty2010

Hi,

Do HIIT training like running sprints,skipping,climbing stairs,rower intervals and try and end your day on a calorie deficit.

In my gym I see some of the same people in the gym 'tipping along' on their machines not really working up a sweat. Fair enough if they want to do this but they more than likely won't see results..Sure the other day a girl was reading a book on the bike..

For me once I 'discovered' HIIT training I have never looked back.

keane2097

I'm pretty sure most of the best posters on here say lifting weights is a key component to efficient fat loss...

Transform

keane2097 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure most of the best posters on here say lifting weights is a key component to efficient fat loss...

Do ALL of this - shed fat fast - just doing intervals alone is a sure fire way of burning out after a week or two. If your diet was that good you would not be 1.5stone overweight (granted it might be good now and was not good in the past).

Body weight metcons can have just as great a metobolic boost or fat burning effect as straight intervals and a mixture of both i find works best (i personally would add in more straight strength stuff but that might be a time factor for you)

http://thetransformationcatalyst.wordpress.com/2010/06/04/shed-fat-fast-the-guaranteed-summer-plan/

mayosteve99

Thanks for all The info.

Thinking About the HIIT, I don'r want to burn myself out. I was thinking of Doing HIIT 3 times a week. Monday, Wednesday & Fridays. And also using weight machines on tuesdays & thursdays. ( I don't have access to the gym on weekends)

My Weights routine would be:

Leg Curl 3X12 35KG
Chest Press 3x12 35KG
Leg Extentions 3X12 37.5KG
Shoulder Press 3X12 20KG
Seated Row 3x12 35KG
Triceipts press 3X12
Leg Press 3X12 40KG

I was given this by my gym instructer . Would this make for a good program allong with HIIT?

Also CC87, can u expand? Do you mean it would be better to do HIIT & slow cardio only? how many times a week?

Thanks!!

rjp123

Try to get away from using machines for your weights workout. In my opinion you are not getting the best out of your time spent doing the weights. Try to focus more on compond lifting techniques such as squat, dead lift, overhead press, pull ups, benches, cleans , dips, rows etc. It'll be far more beneficial for you and will probably save you time compared to the 'going through the motions program below' You should be pushing weights and pulling weights using compound lifts which work
several major muscle groups at the same time as well as bringing your stabiliser muscles more into play (which are not worked in
machines). Your program over emphasises pushing and I would steer clear of your trainer if this is what they are producing. Sheeite!

reccakeys

Hello!

I am seeking information how to gain weight. But I am here now in this thread which is really inverse to my problem, and because of that something enter into my mind. What if we should exchange our body?:) LOL...

I have learn such wonderful information here about how to lose weight. I will keep the URL in this thread for future use...

Thanks Guys

keane2097

rjp123 wrote: »

Try to get away from using machines for your weights workout. In my opinion you are not getting the best out of your time spent doing the weights. Try to focus more on compond lifting techniques such as squat, dead lift, overhead press, pull ups, benches, cleans , dips, rows etc. It'll be far more beneficial for you and will probably save you time compared to the 'going through the motions program below' You should be pushing weights and pulling weights using compound lifts which work
several major muscle groups at the same time as well as bringing your stabiliser muscles more into play (which are not worked in
machines). Your program over emphasises pushing and I would steer clear of your trainer if this is what they are producing. Sheeite!

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