One of the perennial questions about exercise for weight loss is whether to concentrate on aerobic exercise or weight training. In years past, those seeking to lose weight focused on cardio and avoided resistance training. After all, gaining muscle can mean gaining weight.
What Is Strength Training?
Resistance training—helps you build muscle and make muscle stronger. Strength training means moving your body against resistance. Resistance may include tools such as dumbbells, barbells and weight plate, resistance bands, or kettlebells.
You might also simply move your body against gravity. Bodyweight exercises such as lunges and push ups are highly effective for building strength.
Benefits for Weight Loss
Weight training burns calories, just like other forms of exercise. You'll usually burn fewer calories during a traditional weight training session than you would during a vigorous cardio session. But there are other ways that resistance training helps you to reach your weight loss goals.
Muscle has a slightly higher metabolic rate than fat, so having more muscle helps you to raise your resting metabolic rate (energy expenditure).
But weight training is important to help you maintain muscle—especially if you are dieting.
What Is Cardio?
Cardio is also referred to as aerobic activity because during this type of activity, your body uses oxygen to turn glucose into fuel. Aerobic means "with oxygen." You'll notice that your breathing becomes deeper during cardio or aerobic activity because your oxygen needs increase.
Benefits for Weight Loss
The main advantage of steady state aerobic exercise at moderate intensities is that you can do it continuously for much longer than the intermittent task of lifting weights.
Researchers have also found that moderate intensity activity, such as brisk walking, produces health benefits without a high risk of injury.9 For many people, a session of moderate intensity exercise is more approachable and attainable and therefore a more realistic approach to exercise than heavy weight lifting (which requires knowledge about the use of equipment) or vigorous aerobic activity.
If you don't have a lot of time to work out, you can burn more calories in a shorter period of time with HIIT.
Another benefit of HIIT workouts is that you can mix resistance training and aerobic movement in circuit training sessions to provide that extra boost.
For example, your workout might include intervals of jumping jacks and intervals of burpees. Both movements are intense enough to keep your heart rate elevated, but the burpee provides the additional benefit of resistance training using your own body weight.
If you participate in HIIT workouts (either just cardio or combined cardio and resistance training) you may be able to benefit from excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC. When you work very hard during exercise, your body continues to use more oxygen in the hours after you finish your session. This increase in oxygen consumption (sometimes called the "afterburn") results in a higher caloric expenditure for up to 14 hours after exercise.
Both resistance training and cardio workouts (whether steady state or HIIT) can help you to burn more calories each day and reach a caloric deficit to lose body fat. And if you structure your weight training in a circuit style workout to keep your heart rate elevated, both weight training and HIIT workouts may be able to help you to burn more calories, thanks to EPOC.
BEST CHOOSE BOTH CARDIO AND WEIGHT TRAINING !!!
For some people, combining weight training with cardio into a comprehensive program means doing cardio some days of the week and doing weight training on others. Others prefer to combine both activities into one workout.
How to Get the Best Results
Use these five guidelines to build your exercise and weight loss workout program and lose fat.
Combine resistance training with continuous movement in a circuit training program or a similar anaerobic training program in which you work out on progressive workstations at a moderately high intensity.14
Don't forgo rest and recovery. Take time off for total rest or active recovery on the days after vigorous workouts. It is during the recovery phase that your muscles rebuild and become stronger. Rest periods also give your body and brain a much needed break from exercise.
Find exercise that you enjoy. Your program is likely to be more sustainable if you enjoy the activities that you have chosen. If you are not a person who naturally gravitates to exercise or to the workout environment, take some time to try different types of activities in different settings. Perhaps a play ground boot camp is best for you. Try barre workouts or a spin class or home workouts with a neighbor.
Fuel your body well. Your nutritional plan will play a substantial role in reaching your weight loss goal. Make sure that you are consuming adequate calories and getting the protein, carbs, and healthy fats that you need. A registered dietitian can help you develop a personalized plan.
Lift heavier weights. Your weights workout should be challenging. Low reps and high weights build muscular strength, while high reps with low weights tone and build endurance. Both are valuable. Aim for a weight/rep combination that gives you enough intensity for a vigorous workout, with minimal rest intervals.
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