Weight training or cardio – which one should I do first?

I am looking to lose weight and have recently joined a gym. Till now, I have been doing weight training after doing 15-20 minutes of cardio. However, I wanted to know what is better for weight loss- cardio before weight training, or cardio after weight training?

People who are looking to lose weight are often told to focus only on cardio, but this is a mistake. Doing weight training will break down your muscle tissue, which in turn will make you continue burning calories long after your workout.

According to celebrity fitness trainer Vinod Channa, who has trained clients like John Abraham and Shilpa Shetty, ‘An hour of weight training can help you burn as much as 900-1000 calories, whereas an hour of cardio will burn around 300-400 calories*. For weight loss, I think you should do weight training first, then do cardio. This will ensure that your energy when you are fresh is used in weight training.’

*The number of calories you burn doing a weight training or a cardio session, depends a lot on how intensely you do it.

Another advice we would like to give you is to do HIIT instead of normal cardio, as that can accelerate your weight loss efforts. What you have to do is to alternate the intensity at which you do the workout. Here are a few guidelines you can follow:

1. Start running on a treadmill at a normal pace(say 3 to 5 km/h*) for 3-5 minutes.
2. After that, you can increase the pace to 10 km/h and run for a minute.
3. After a minute, reduce the pace to 6 km/h and jog for two minutes.
4. Finally, increase the pace once again to 10 km/h and repeat the routine as many times as you want to.

*You can alter the speed of this routine depending on your fitness level. Also, you can do this routine on an elliptical trainer or an indoor cycle too. 

---

For more articles on Fitness, visit our Fitness section. For daily free health tips, sign up for our newsletter.

1. Prev:10 obvious signs you are putting on weight
2. Next:Lose weight with kapalbhati pranayama