Finding balance between weight lifting and getting steps in

[pete6032]

When I was younger and had no obligations it was not a problem to get 10,000+ steps in and then spend 45-60 mins at the gym each day. Now I am in my late 30s and have plenty of obligations between career, family, house projects. I don't have the time to do 10k steps and go to the gym. Due to my schedule I can do about 1 hr 15 minutes of exercise per day. I've been splitting it mostly like 30 minutes at the gym and 30 running and 15 walking, which, along with other misc. walking around the house, gets me to about 7,500 steps.

I am trying to lose about 5 lbs. I'm not overweight but definitely not in as good of shape as I was before COVID. What is the best way to find balance between weight lifting and getting steps in?

 

[RPD]

It's not that hard. I usually walk 2 miles on my lunch and while I don't have a step goal, if I go look at days I do that walk, I get 10-12k a day, takes about 40min to do the walk. Otherwise you can run on a treadmill in the gym for (typically I can easily do 8min miles for 3 miles) then use the rest of your time to lift.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I am trying to lose about 5 lbs.

That's not a lot.

Squats is the answer if you ask me. The back leg muscles are the strongest in the body so they burn a lot more calories and they also don't tire that easily. I saw one YT video where someone was narrating instructions about squats while a guy did squats for the entirety of the 20 minutes of the video. Previously I was doing squats every night before bed to avoid gaining weight. But then I discovered it is a lot easier to just take Phase 2 carb capsules one hour before my largest meal of the day (dinner around 7 to 9 pm) and I just eat fruits and dark chocolate and some wholemeal biscuits for breakfast. So far not gaining weight so feeling very grateful.

The only "exercise" I get is walking about 50 minutes from work to home in the evening.