[blackraven]

Originally Posted by Aquila King

Don't get me wrong, it will definitely burn calories and help you to lose weight. And it's certainly useful for staying in shape. But if you're trying to lose weight, the best thing is to build muscle.

Now, if you don't really want to build any more muscle then yeah, stick with cardio. But what people don't seem to understand is that fat is basically your body's fuel, while muscle is the engine. The bigger the engine, the more fuel you burn through at a faster rate. Therefore by building muscle, you burn fat a lot quicker.

Trust me on this, I've been overweight for years now (and it got even worse over a year ago when I went on some medication). I spent a long time doing cardio workouts, running on a treadmill, very slowly getting results. But any real weight loss was barely noticeable. It was when I got fed up with it all and started pumping iron that I'm now finally getting results and fast!

It just seems to me that people greatly over-emphasize so many cardio workouts for losing weight, when they'd really be better off doing some push-ups or something to build muscle.
Idk, that's just my 2 cents worth for the day.

Aquila King - I think both cardio and weight training (as well as flexibility) are all equally important. Cardio is the best way to get ones heart rate elevated for a sustained amount of time which is good for ones heart, circulation, blood pressure and brain chemical all firing away. Weight training on the other hand helps one battle the signs of getting older, which usually starts with a lose in muscle mass. It's imperative to keep strength training up every year to continue to be strong all over and prevent such thing as osteoporosis. Then there is flexibility where working on being limber helps to keep joints from stiffening up. I think exercise has to be approached from a holistic approach in order to reap the best benefits from it.