My friend and I have been discussing getting into a gym and for a while now. However, He is in a mind set that he should loose 30-40 lbs through cardio and diet before attempting to get under weights and weight train (he’s a fairly big guy 350lbs+ at 6’4’').
Would their be any advantage at all to this? Could it possibly be harmful or detrimental for bulking up once he does loose the weight? Or does it really matter at all?
Well I’ll tell you right now he’ll probubly burn out before he loses that much weight. My friend is 380-400lbs 6’7" he tries every year to go to the gym, burns out on cardio. I try to talk to him but he doesnt listen, just does cardio and a little machine work…doesnt help that hes a pussy either but thats neither here nor there.
Anyway the best thing for him is going to be combine the cardio and the weightlifting with a healthy diet. If anything you should choose to just lift and work on your diet rather then just do cardio.
When I started lifting I was 220 with very little muscle. Started a powerlifting routine with a friend of mine and started losing weight. Once I saw some results I was motivated more and added a little cardio and lost more weight, then finally changed up my diet a little and got down to 180 eventually. The point is theres plenty of ways to do it, you just have to make sure you don’t burn out and give up in the beginning, build momentum and motivation to keep going and do better. I woulda burnt out if I had just started with cardio and no lifting. Cardio fucking blows, everyone knows it. Lifting Heavy shit was awsume, I loved getting into the gym and deadlifting. Hes gotta find something like that so he keeps going.
Tell him to start lifting and he’ll lose the fat. Don’t forget to make him squat and stick to compound movements. Those will burn his calories.
I myself started at 6’4" and 350 pounds. With weight training, smart dieting, and cardio, I am down to 285. I have a long ways to go, but it’s a start.
While diet will be the number one factor in losing weight, weight training is critical. Your friend should have muscle while dieting down. If all he does is diet and cardio, he will lose weight, but will not look good. There will be a lot of loose skin.
As for weightlifting, keeping the rest periods short (30-45 seconds) is key for fat loss, just make sure he is using decent weight with proper form.
I don’t understand, weight training is a lot more fun than cardio, to me anyways. I think your friend needs to do both weights and cardio.
lots of people make the mistake or running to get fit rather than get fit to run. get your mate down the gym and start working out with the weights, big compound excercises combined with a little cardio. trying to do large amounts of cardio can be very dispiriting for larger guys starting out and lifting is much more fun, and gets better results.
remember resting metabolism is increased after excercise:
coupla hours after cardio
coupla days after resistance training
this means that while your recovering calorie consumption is increased for longer.
this formula is much better for losing fat and keeping muscle. cardio alone loses mass, not just fat.
make sure you sort out decent nutrition to go with it.
research the many excellent articles on this site.
cheers ali.
Yeah, like the previous guy sort of mentioned, its not very good for the ole joints to just start running your balls off. You need to condition the body for it, injury could follow.
Lifting weights will help burn fat. Plus on a brighter note… when you lose all that chewed bubble gum you won’t be a flabby skinny dude. You will look fit.
one thing i noticed when i started was if you start trying to progress too quickly your prone to get injured. being that far out of shape you’ll need to start slow and certainly take advantage of back off weeks. i read somewhere that your tendons and legiments don’t progress as fast as your muscles. if you think taking your time is annoying just think how annoying it is when you have to quit for a month or two due to injury. good luck to you guys.
He doesn’t need to do cardio. To put it bluntly: he needs to stop eating like a fat guy, then he won’t be a fat guy. He needs an eating plan.
If he wants to maintain any muscle at all, he has to lift. Otherwise, he’ll end up being 200 lbs and still look fat and out of shape with his shirt off.
[quote]undeadlift wrote:
Tell him to start lifting and he’ll lose the fat. Don’t forget to make him squat and stick to compound movements. Those will burn his calories.[/quote]
Yep. Won’t be able to help it unless he goes on a mission of eating twinkies and ice cream to prevent it.
First, hi, I’m new here. Been checking out the site for a while and just decided to join. I’m not exactly new to weight training but I’m just getting back to it.
While I’m no expert, I wouldn’t tell anyone, especially someone who needs to lose that much weight, that they don’t need cardio. I would have to say that at 350 lbs. his heart is probably not in very good condition and some light cardio would do him a lot of good. But I do agree that the weight training will the best way to get results, along with a proper diet.
But yeah, he needs cardio. He doesn’t need to spend hours on a treadmill but something low impact, like the elliptical, will do his heart a lot of good if he doesn’t go crazy. There’s more to it than just building muscle and looking good.
Anyway, this is a great site and I think I can learn a lot here.
Well he certainly shouldn’t go JOGGING at that weight, that’s just asking for pain and injury and all things bad and bound to put him off excercise forever. Why don’t you let him try his cardio for a few weeks, elliptical machine or stationary bike for instance, and then see how he feels about it? If it works, great! If it doesn’t, well then you’ve just proven that he needs to add lifting aswell. Or convince him to lift once or twice a week and see how he feels about that.
But really, pretty much anything he does will improve his health so just get him moving whichever way you can, IMO!
Have him check the gigantic anabolic diet thread. Of course this whole discussion is meaningless if he hasn’t bottomed out in self disgust to the point where he’s willing to change the entire way he lives.
definately nutrition is key. without that your not going to get nearly as much out of it. secondly, cardio would do him great. he just has to do a bit of both cardio and weight training and find his sweet spot. i would suggest doing a bit of cardio when he wakes up. it will help raise his metabolism. eat more often with healthy small meals and do some weight training at night a few days a week. do plenty of reading on this sight to see what’s the right way to lift weights for his goals. and it’s very important to be mobile on your days off. go for walks, go hiking, walk on a treadmill, play basketball, whatever, but be mobile on your days off. g2g, but good luck…