Whether you are looking to lose weight, improve your overall fitness, or just look smoking, the best workout routine includes both cardio and weight resistance training. Cardio activity such as running, biking, rowing, or getting on the elliptical machines gets your heart rate elevated, improves your lung capacity, and torches calories. Conversely, weight training stresses the more fast twitch muscle fibers and builds muscle tissue, leaving you toned and stronger. Together they create a powerful fitness routine, but if you rely only on one or the other, your workout routine may leave you wanting for more.

While sustained cardio activity burns more calories immediately and will help you lose pounds and body fat, weight training kick starts your metabolism so much so that you will still be at an elevated calorie burning rate for hours after you have finished exercising. This is why you may end up burning more calories throughout the entire day after a weight session than if you had done only cardio. Your metabolism will be higher over the course of more hours. Still, you can't only do weight training as the calorie after burn effect of an elevated metabolism will only take you so far. In order to successfully shed pounds of fat you need to do enough cardio exercise to burn the necessary calories.

Doing at least 30 minutes of cardio in your target heart rate zone five days a week and then supplementing that with three days of weight training will not only yield you the weight loss results you want but will get you in the best possible shape.