Cardio Before or After Weights: What’s Best for Your Workout?

For many people, the ultimate goal of working out is weight loss, but it's important to recognize that focusing on fat loss rather than just the number on the scale is a more effective and healthier approach.

Similarly, for those focused on muscle gain, understanding the balance between cardio and strength training is crucial to maximizing results.

So, should you do cardio before or after weights depending on your goal? Let’s explore.

The Hint app offers the Pro Workouts feature, available exclusively to Hint Pro and Hint Premium subscribers, to help you track both your cardio and weight training sessions, monitor calories burned, and optimize your routine for fat loss or muscle gain.

Why Aim for Fat Loss Instead of Weight Loss?

When people talk about weight loss, they often focus solely on reducing the number on the scale. However, this can be misleading.

Losing muscle mass along with fat can slow down your metabolism, making it harder to burn calories in the long run.

Focusing on fat loss while maintaining or building muscle will lead to better body composition, improved strength, and a more toned appearance.

Here’s why fat loss should be your focus:

• Maintains Muscle Mass: Retaining lean muscle boosts your metabolism, helping you burn more calories throughout the day.
• Long-Term Results: Fat loss promotes sustainable changes in your body composition, leading to lasting results, while quick weight loss can often result in regaining the lost weight.
• Healthier Approach: Losing fat while maintaining muscle leads to better physical function, strength, and overall health.

If your primary goal is weight loss, shift your mindset to fat loss by incorporating a combination of cardio and weight training into your routine.

Cardio Before Weights: The Benefits and Drawbacks

Doing cardio before weights can be effective for those who want to prioritize cardiovascular fitness or burn more calories upfront. If fat loss is your goal, starting with cardio can help jump-start the calorie-burning process.

Benefits of Cardio Before Weights

1. Boosted Calorie Burn: Cardio elevates your heart rate and burns more calories during the workout, helping create a calorie deficit for fat loss.
2. Improved Endurance: Starting with cardio ensures you have the energy to perform aerobic exercises at your best, which is ideal if endurance is a goal.
3. Active Warm-Up: A moderate cardio session can serve as a dynamic warm-up, preparing your muscles for the strength training that follows.

Drawbacks of Cardio Before Weights

1. Reduced Strength Performance: Starting with cardio may leave you fatigued, which can affect your strength performance during weight training, limiting muscle growth potential.
2. Fatigue: Doing intense cardio first can leave you too tired to perform well during weight training exercises, impacting your strength and form.

Cardio After Weights: The Benefits and Drawbacks

If your goal is muscle gain or fat loss while preserving muscle, doing cardio after weights is often the better option. This approach allows you to prioritize strength training when your energy is highest.

Benefits of Cardio After Weights

1. Maximized Muscle Growth: Starting with weights allows you to lift heavier and focus on building or maintaining muscle, which is essential for boosting metabolism and achieving fat loss.
2. Enhanced Fat Burning: Weight training depletes your glycogen stores, so when you start cardio afterward, your body is more likely to tap into fat stores for energy, optimizing fat loss.
3. Better Strength Focus: If muscle gain is your primary goal, doing weights first ensures you can give full effort to lifting without being fatigued from cardio.

Drawbacks of Cardio After Weights

1. Cardio Fatigue: After an intense weight session, you may feel too tired to perform high-intensity cardio, which could limit calorie burning.

More Calorie Burn with Cardio vs. Weight Training

For those focused on fat loss, cardio generally burns more calories during the workout compared to weight training. Activities like running, cycling, or swimming elevate your heart rate for sustained periods, leading to greater calorie expenditure.

However, weight training provides long-term benefits by building muscle, which increases your resting metabolic rate, meaning you’ll burn more calories throughout the day.

For optimal fat loss, a combination of cardio and weight training is ideal. Cardio helps create a calorie deficit, while weight training ensures you maintain muscle mass, leading to better body composition and lasting results.

What Should People Interested in Weight Loss Do?

If you’re focused on weight loss, aim for fat loss by balancing cardio and weight training. Here’s how:

• Incorporate Both Cardio and Weights: Use cardio to burn calories and weight training to preserve muscle mass and keep your metabolism high.
• Focus on Nutrition: Achieving fat loss requires creating a calorie deficit through a balanced diet and exercise. The Hint app offers a personalized weight loss diet plan to help you monitor your calorie intake and ensure you’re fueling your body properly.
• Track Your Progress: Use the Hint app’s Pro Workouts feature to log your cardio and weight training sessions, track calories burned, and monitor your fat loss progress.

With the Hint Pro and Hint Premium subscriptions, you can access advanced nutrition tracking, set calorie burn goals, and get personalized diet plans that support fat loss. With Hint Premium, you also gain access to unlimited consultations with dietitians to further refine your approach.

What Should People Interested in Muscle Gain Do?

If your goal is muscle gain, the focus should be on prioritizing weight training and ensuring that your body is properly fueled. Here’s how to approach muscle gain:

• Prioritize Weight Training: Perform weight training at the beginning of your workout when your energy levels are highest. This allows you to lift heavier and stimulate muscle growth.
• Include Cardio Sparingly: Cardio is still beneficial for overall cardiovascular health but should be kept moderate if your goal is muscle gain. Too much cardio can interfere with muscle recovery and growth.
• Optimize Nutrition: Ensure that your diet supports muscle gain by consuming enough calories and protein. The Hint app can help you track your macronutrient intake and ensure you're meeting your nutritional needs for muscle building.

By using the Hint app’s Pro Workouts feature, you can track your strength training sessions and monitor your progress. With personalized diet plans available through Hint Pro and Hint Premium, you can ensure you’re eating the right foods to support muscle gain.

Hint Premium subscribers also have access to unlimited dietitian consultations to fine-tune their nutrition for optimal muscle growth.

Conclusion

Whether your goal is fat loss or muscle gain, understanding the role of cardio before or after weights can help you design a more effective workout routine. For fat loss, a combination of cardio and strength training is ideal, while for muscle gain, prioritizing weights is key.

The Hint app’s Pro Workouts feature allows you to track your cardio and weight training sessions, ensuring you stay on top of your fitness goals.

Combined with personalized diet plans and advanced nutrition tracking, available through Hint Pro and Hint Premium, you can optimize your workout and nutrition strategy for better results.