I want to lose about 60lbs of fat, should I be doing low intensity fat burning or high intensity cardio exercises? Also, I don’t want to put on too much muscle being that I am a female, are there any muscle exercises that will increase metabolism but not too much musle size. Thank you!
you can do both.
however, long, slow, low-intensity cardio is generally overrated. the amount of fat you burn during a long, slow workout is usually very low, and most people simply get hungrier and overeat. high-intensity cardio, like sprint intervals, raises post-exercise oxygen consumption, meaning it burns fat throughout the whole day even after you stop your workout.
heavy weightlifting, like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses, helps you retain muscle so you lose fat and not muscle mass, and it also increases your metabolism. (lots of light "toning" exercises actually do make your muscles bigger without making them stronger or burning calories.)
whether or not you put on muscle is determined by a) your hormones, b) your diet, and c) what you do in the weight room. note that weightlifting is the LEAST important aspect of it. since you are female and therefore have low testosterone, you CANNOT gain lots of muscle unless you take steroids and forcefeed yourself protein and calories.
stop worrying about it. try the sample routine below. weightlifting will help you shed pounds.