Which of these programs should I do??

[JennaRock]

Ok, so I am starting out in the bodybuilding lifestyle again and I've read a lot of posts and articles but I can decide which programs would work best for me. Can you help? Right now I am carrying a lot of extra fat, about 28% to be exact. I'm 4'10 and 122lbs.

1) I like Body-for-life which is one day upper, one day cardio 20min, one day lower, cardio, and repeat (with rest of course). I also like the sets of 12, 10, 8, 6, 12, & 12 (with increased weight).

2) However, my husband who's been a pretty avid bodybuilder believes in isolating 2-3 muscles per workout session. He likes to do reverses I believe. Also, he suggests I build and then cut. We both agree I have a body type that makes building fairly easy and cutting difficult. I'm too scared to build and look "chunky" as he describes before the cutting.

3) Yesterday, I found a good workout which seems like a happy medium but it seems like an exhausting amount of cardio.

Monday - chest, biceps, cardio
Tue - Legs, abs, cardio
Wed - Shoulders, cardio
Thur - Back, triceps, cardio
Fri - Legs, abs, cardio
Sat - cardio
Sun - Rest

Let me know what you think. I have both fat to lose and muscle to build. Thanks.

[tmclssns]

As I answered to the 6-pack questions. In theory (or for maximum gains) you should "bulk" first, thus make sure your muscles can grow easily with enough fuel / nutrients and after your "bulk" period, you start cutting, taking away the fat and trying to maintain muscle mass.

I have found that it is however (to a certain degree) possible to lose fat and get some quality muscle tissue (but it will never compare to a seperate bulk/cut program).

My current schedule is something like:
Monday - chest, triceps
Tuesday - back, biceps, shoulders, cardio
Wednesday - legs, abs, cardio
Thursday = Mon.
Friday = Tue.
Saturday = Wed.
Sunday - rest

However I usually mix things up a bit - but I don't work out biceps and back on the same day because you usually fatigue your bicep muscles a bit by doing back exercises.

As to sets I do a warmup set of 10 reps and then do the 12,10,8,6 with increasing weight.

Cardio is performed 20 minutes HIIT and 20 mins. target HR zone for fat loss. Sometimes I do it 3x / week, sometimes four (depends on the available time.)

However - between all the cardio and weight training I think one of the most important aspects we usually forget is food. I had been doing a program on/off for a few months without any real results. However when I started monitoring my diet, I started planning things up (5 meals a day), added lots of chicken, eggs and protein shakes and suddenly I was losing weight, getting more definition in two weeks with the same program I was doing before for months without results.

I also found that it's easier to build muscle / lose weight when you're "overweight". I was 24% BF. So I was gaining muscle mass and losing fat. However when you get to a certain level of % BF, it becomes more difficult to do both at the same time and then you should really look into bulking/cutting periods.