so i want to loose weight, and I dont want to gain any muscle at all. Ill focus on that when i get rid of the fat and crap like that. Is pure cardio a good way to loose it or are weights also included?
The key to fat loss is to focus on the total calories you use throughout the day. Over time, you lose that body fat by simply using more calories than you consume - in other words, you have to create a '
calorie deficit '.
And, to create that ' calorie deficit ' you can simply try to reduce your caloric intake, increase the calories you burn by being more active in general, increase the calories you burn by engaging in some sort of cardio, increase the calories you burn by engaging in some sort of resistance training and or some combination of all 4. So, cardio is just another way to burn calories. And the more ' effort ' - i.e. frequency, duration, intensity - you put into cardio, the more calories you burn.
As far as using weight training to ( simply ' maintain ' - i.e. "
dont want to gain any muscle " ) help create that ' calorie deficit ' goes, there are probably 2 relevant issues you should keep in mind.
First, with respect to the short term, there are the calories you expend while actually completing a 45 - 1 hour weight training session itself. And in terms of long term fat loss, the more calories you burn the better...regardless of how you burn them. So, just doing 60 minutes of weight training is simply another opportunity to burn calories.
Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, is the fact you get a post workout burn of calories as a result of weight training. It's pertaining to the whole issue of EPOC ( excess post-exercise oxygen consumption ) and that fact that your metabolism is elevated after you do weight training - i.e you're burning more calories ( than you would otherwise ), possibly for as long as 36 + hours after a weight training session.