I am wondering if doing cardio or lifting weights is more beneficial than the other to cutting fat?

I am a 21 year old male and currently I am fairly skinny (5'11", 145 lbs.) And I am trying to both gain muscle and cut fat with my workouts. I dont have much fat on me otehr than my stomach and pecs (which I am trying to cut). I am not sure if I should be spot training and doing crazy amounts of situps and bench presses to cut this fat, or if lifting weights all over my body will cut this, or if running will cut this faster. Thanks...
Answer:
Your body is burning glycogen while you are running or jogging. During low intensity exercise your body burns calories from fat. This makes it seem like a better idea to do low intensity exercise doesn鈥檛 it!? Well I recently read an interesting article about this very thing. Although there are calories burnt from glycogen while jogging/running, there are still a lot of fat calories burned as well. Also, when you burn excess glycogen you decrease the amount of glycogen that will be converted into body fat, when you leave it unused for energy. When running/jogging you also get your metabolism going and it continues to burn body fat for a period of time after you are finished working out. This definitely doesn鈥檛 happen with low intensity cardio or aerobic workout. My conclusion yet again: Jogging is an excellent way to keep you in top shape! This is a post I recently wrote on my personal health %26 fitness blog. I am going to school to be a personal trainer. I have some other suggestions on my blog for getting rid of stomach fat %26 getting that flat stomach everyone wants. Feel free to leave comments or questions %26 I鈥檒l get back to you soon.

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running will cut the fat better...and if you do all that you will feel better, have more energy, and look better.

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You can't do both at the same time. And you can get fat loss benefits from both muscle gain and aerobic activity. Muscle is a more efficient calorie burner than fat so it can help you to lean out. Cardio really just burns calories and helps cut into your fat stores. Ultimately you have to do cutting and bulking in different phases. If you watch your calorie intake closely on a bulking diet, you can gain bulk with minimal fat gain. Once you reach you goals, which I would think would be over 160 lbs for you, you can start focusing more on that chiseled look. If you try to do both, you will most likely end up frustrated and spending more time than necessary to reach your overall goals.

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Personally, I think cardio is the best way to go. You may need to trim down on caloric intake too. It's hard for me to image you have more than 5 or 6 percent body fat. I'm 5'11" and weigh 211. I'm at 23% right now. You might try calipers too. That is a very accurate way to gauge your body fat and you can pick caliphers up for 5 dollars. 15% is considered acceptable for males.

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if you want to build muscle and cut fat out, weight training with more protein in your diet is the way to go. It is a ton faster and more result driven than running. If you are looking to lose weight because your 200 pounds over what you want to be you want to run but it sounds like you want to tone up. Doing a weight program that focuses on one area per day for five days a week and keep moving by doing supersets will get you rapid results. You will feel the difference right away you will see the differnce within a couple weeks. You should be tired after each workout and only work out for an hour max recommended 45 minutes. And if you are sore the next few days it means you have started to accomplish your goals.

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