Cardio certainly has its place in every fitness program but it should be a part of a balanced program including cardio, strength training, and a healthy diet. It kills me when people think cardio is the only way to achieve your goals and lose body fat!
The key to losing body fat and keeping it off is a combination of all three components, not just cardio.  Doesn’t it kill you when you see women killing it with the cardio and are avoiding the weights, afraid of putting on too much size and muscle!?  Lean muscle is the driving force behind your metabolism and the only way to increase your metabolism or burn more calories at rest, is to increase lean muscle through strength training. Do people even understand the type of weight you have to push and the amount and type of calories you have to ingest to put on even an oz of muscle!!!?
So in order to truly rev up your metabolism and get rid of body fat you have to incorporate the weights with your diet and cardio.  It is not one or the other but a combination of both!! It really isn’t rocket science!
The more lean muscle mass you have, the less fat you will have. The reason for this is that muscle actually burns fat. Muscle helps the body burn calories for hours after a workout. It has been proven, in studies, that those who lift weights have less body fat and a higher metabolism than those who only do cardio!
Not only will more muscle decrease body fat but will keep your strength up and therefore less likely to get injured.   Of course, that doesn’t mean you should over do the weights because this can also injure you. But, if you are active in other sports, it is smart to lift some weights so your body is stronger and can perform longer and more efficiently without getting injured.
Have you heard of “skinny fat”? That is a perfect example of losing weight with cardio without the muscle tone.  You definitely will see the numbers drop on the scale, as you decrease what muscle you do have and are not adding muscle with weight training, but that is not the goal.  The goal is your shape, how you look and how you fill out your clothes.  You want to be tight, toned and curvy in all the right places.  Sorry but only doing cardio is not the key to toning!  The best way to change this is to shape your body through building muscle. This will tighten, firm, tone, and target those trouble spots that you just can’t seem to get rid of.
Weight training also fights osteoporosis.  Doctors always say that one of the best ways to fight this debilitating bone loss is to do weight-bearing activities, which increase bone density. Muscle has also been shown in major studies to fight the onset of type two diabetes, build the heart muscle to fight heart disease, and even help those who suffer from arthritis to be more symptom free.
Muscle also supports overall immunity. This is because muscle supplies the immune system with the disease-fighting amino acid glutamine. So, the more muscle you have the more glutamine is supplied to the immune system.
Cardiovascular activity is not the ONLY way to lose weight and keep it off.  You have to incorporate the weights and of course diet!! No secrets here…
Not only will strict and intense cardio with no weights decrease your results of losing the weight you want to lose and keeping the tone you want to keep but it can hurt your joints, internal organs, immune system, immune system and overall motivation when you don’t get the long lasting results you want.
But there is one thing that cardio doesn’t kill: your appetite. The more cardio you do, the hungrier you get. You burn a few measly calories, and then you eat twice as many afterward. The result? More weight gain and usually lots of it.  Think about it.  When you are doing endless hours of cardio, how hungry are you…?  It takes the right person to be able to constantly fight that hunger with always grabbing the right foods.  This can be scary, if you don’t know what food to grab in a time of pure hunger insanity!  Cardio is definitely a key component but not the only component!! You need a combination of all three: cardio, weights,
A few key pointers.. exercise is essential to weight loss. Without it, you are doomed to fail. Don’t think I am saying to not do any cardio but you must incorporate all components! You must exercise, but you must do the right kind of exercise to see and feel the results you are looking for. By committing to a mere eight weeks of the right exercises, in the right order, consistently, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve and maintain.  Be patent, realistic, follow all steps properly by incorporating ALL three components and after 8 weeks, if you don’t see your body changing and moving in the right direction, then we will talk!
That weight training and added muscle will speed up your metabolism and that muscle burns ten to twelve times the calories per pound each day that fat does. You’re boosting your metabolism not just during exercise but all day.  Hence, why when you are working out and training hard, you are ALWAYS hungry… The goal is to keep your metabolism revved up!
Strength training in combination of all other components, is the key to weight loss because it is the only way to maintain and build lean muscle, which boosts your metabolism.
give yourself 8 weeks and get back to me!
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No Secrets…