BARBARA, arts, educational & cultural consultant: If you want total fitness, you need an all inclusive plan. It must include a healthy food plan, regular cardio-respiratory workouts (aerobics), weight training (anaerobic) and activities for relaxation and stretching.

Getting back to your weight training vs. aerobic question, I'm not an expert, but I'll share my recent experiences.

I'd been weight training for several months, and I was noticing a big difference. My weight was in a constant state of redistribution. My huge hips and buttocks were smaller and firmer, my back and waist were slimmer and my legs and arms were starting to look quite athletic as the fitness genie in me began to emerge.

The problem was, I was still too heavy for my height and body type. That's because my plan of weight training alone was incomplete.

In fact, no amount of weight training will result in weight loss. Only aerobics and dietary changes can do it.

Cardio-respiratory or aerobic fitness is your body's ability to use oxygen to produce energy, according to “I Need to get in Shape, Now What?!” by Carol Leonetti Dannhauser and Susan Michaelson Warren.

Aerobic exercise is continuous and rhythmic physical motion using large muscle groups, the book says. It challenges your circulatory and respiratory systems, keeping your heart pumping at an elevated, steady rate for an extended period. Aerobic exercises make your heart stronger and more efficient. They also help you maintain or lose weight.

Aerobic fitness is what gives you the energy to do an activity for a prolonged period - walking two miles or swimming 10 laps.

Anaerobic fitness, on the other hand, is how well your body draws stored energy that doesn't require oxygen. It's what you use for short bursts of activity such as running to catch a train or weight training. Regular aerobic exercise helps increase your anaerobic fitness.

Aerobic exercise is constant motion and low intensity. Walking, cycling, jogging, swimming, cross-country skiing, dancing, gardening, housekeeping and aerobic classes are examples.

Anaerobic exercise is short time periods with high intensity and high resistance. Examples include sprinting, racquetball, downhill skiing, softball, soccer and football.

To greatly improve health and heart fitness, plan intense aerobic exercise for 30 to 60 minutes, three to five times each week. You can break up sessions into two 15-minute sessions.

A variety of aerobic choices exist today including step aerobics, kick aerobics, water aerobics, traditional aerobics and more. If you have ever thought, I could never jog, cross-country ski or dance, then I recommend water aerobics.

Water aerobics has taken aerobics to a higher level. Water is 12 times stronger than air or gravity. So, an hour of water aerobics is 12 times more beneficial than some other forms of exercise.

The aquatic workout improves cardio-vascular fitness (heart and lungs); improves motivation and self-esteem; allows one to exercise all the muscles and joints in the body at once; reduces tension and stress; increases strength, muscle toning and flexibility; and aids in weight loss.

In addition, water cools the body during your entire workout; anyone can do water aerobics; water makes the body buoyant, reducing joint and muscle stress and strain; and you don’t have to be a swimmer - floatation devices are welcome - to do it.

I began water aerobics recently with some friends at my local "Y", and I love it. We meet for one hour, twice a week. We do jogging, swimming and skiing motions along with calisthenics, cross-country, and weight workouts all under water. We use flotation devices, rubber balls and aquatic noodles. When the session ends, I feel revived and refreshed.

I say try some form of aerobics along with a healthy food plan for weight loss. Make sure your aerobics choice is fun for you, so you have a better chance of sticking with it.

You'll really like it and I know you'll like the results.

There is lots of new equipment available for water aerobics. Ryka, an athletic shoe company specializing in women's shoes, sells aquatic sneakers. Check the Internet for sources. Some helpful sites include: