CARDIO vs WEIGHT TRAINING, What's better for Fat Loss?

Many people who’ve decided to LOSE WEIGHT find themselves stuck with a

tricky question — should they do cardio or lift weights?

They're the two most popular types of workouts, but it can be hard to

know which is a better use of your time.

Many scientists have researched how many calories people burn during

various activities. Based on this research, you can use your body weight to

estimate how many calories you will burn during different types of exercise,

including cardio and weight training.

For most activities, the more you weigh, the more calories you will burn.

If you weigh 160 pounds (73 kg), you will burn about 250 calories per

30 minutes of jogging at a moderate pace

On the other hand, if you weight trained for the same amount of time,

you might only burn around 130–220 calories.

In general, you’ll burn more calories per session of cardio than

weight training for about the same amount of effort.

Although weight-training workout doesn't typically burn as many

calories as a cardio workout, it has other important benefits:

For example, weight training is more effective than cardio at building

muscle, and muscle burns more calories at rest than some other

tissues.

Weight training is important to help you maintain muscle—especially if

you are in Calorie deficit. When you lose weight by restricting

calories, you are likely to lose some muscle mass. Ideally, you want

to lose the fat but hold onto the muscle.

Research has shown that you burn more calories in the hours following

a weight training session, compared to a cardio workout.

In fact, there are reports of resting metabolism staying elevated for

up to 38 hours after weight training, while no such increase has been

reported with cardio.

This means that the calorie-burning benefits of weights aren't limited

to when you are exercising. You may keep burning calories for hours or

days afterward through After Burn effect.

After-burn Effect:

The after-burn effect, also known officially as excess post-exercise

oxygen consumption (EPOC), is a physiological reaction to intense

physical exercise and sport which allows the body to consume more

calories for several hours after coming to rest.

It is the amount of oxygen required to return the body to its resting

state (follow us for detailed blog on EPOC)

This resting state includes:

• restoring oxygen levels

• removing lactic acid

• repairing muscle and restoring levels of ATP (a molecule that provides the body with energy for processes like exercise)

What Has the Biggest After-burn Effect?

STRENGTH TRAINING ensures the greatest after-burn effect. Circuit

training and high-intensity training (HIT) consume the most calories,

but also have the longest recovery time. At very high intensities,

metabolism stays elevated for up to 48 hours

Endurance training has a lower and shorter after-burn effect, but more

calories are consumed during the workout.

After-burn Effect of Endurance Training

Depending on the level of intensity, you can expect to see the

following percentages after endurance training:

In the aerobic RECOVERY zone (60–65% ), there is practically no after-burn effect at all (approx. 0–5% of the amount of energy used

during exercise).

In the middle zone (75–85% ), it is approx. 5–10%. You can hope to achieve approx. 10–15% with intensive intervals.

After-burn Effect of Strength Training

You can expect to see the following percentages after approx. 60

minutes of strength training:

Weight training with medium intensity (= max. repetitions for the last

set) approx. 5–10%

Strength training with high intensity (each set at maximum

repetitions) approx. 10–15%

Strength training with very high intensity (each set pushing to muscle

failure, e.g. HIT or circuit training) approx. 15–20%.

CARDIO vs WEIGHT TRAINING

Studies have demonstrated that after a weight-training workout,

metabolism can be boosted for up to 38 hours post-workout. This means

that rather than burning, say, 60 calories an hour while sitting and

watching TV, you're burning 70.

While you may not think that 10 extra calories is a big deal, when you

multiply this by 38 hours, you can see what a huge difference it can

make in your daily calorie expenditure( you know the difference it makes

monthly).

With cardio training, you might get an extra 40-80 calories burned

after a moderately paced session, but this will depend upon the exact

intensity and duration of the workout. In order to generate a high

amount of post-calorie burn from aerobics, you'd have to be doing it

for a very long duration of time.

The second factor to consider in the fat-loss war is long-term

metabolic increases. While it's great to be burning more calories for

38 hours after the workout, that's not going to help you two weeks

from now, unless you are consistent with your workout program

What weight training will enable you to do is build up a larger degree

of lean muscle mass, which then basically serves as a calorie-burning

powerhouse in the body.

When you calculate your basal metabolic rate, which is how many

calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day and did

absolutely nothing except breathe, one of the factors that goes into

this is your total body weight. The most accurate equations will also

take into account lean body mass, which represents your muscles,

bones, and organs.

The more muscle you have on your body, the higher this rate will be

and the better the calorie-burning results you will obtain.

Since muscle tissue is fairly stable (as long as there is some

stimulus on the muscle and you are consuming enough protein, it won't

be lost), this proves to be an effective long-term strategy for losing

body fat.

This is the primary reason males can typically eat more than females

without gaining weight—they have more lean muscle mass on their body,

thus they are burning more calories around-the-clock.

MY TAKE:

It's time to break free from the thinking that cardio equates to fat

loss and weight training equates to building muscle and weight gain.

It's simply not as clear cut as that. While doing cardio can help your

fat-loss goals, in a lot of ways weight training is more effective and

will also give you a more toned body shape.

While lifting weights can help you build muscle mass, that muscle mass

will in turn help you lose fat mass. And if you just want to lose fat

and don't want to get hugely muscular, don't worry, that takes a lot

of concentrated effort and won't happen just by showing up to the

weight room a few times a week.

Cardio is more effective than weight training at decreasing body fat,

Weight training is better than cardio for building muscle.

A combination of cardio and weights is the best for improving your

body composition and At MANAlifestyle.in I understand the importance of

catering to your individual needs. Our comprehensive fitness programs

prioritise the integration of cardio and weight training to help you

unlock your maximum potential. It's time to embrace the transformative

power of a well-rounded fitness routine and achieve the results you

desire. Join us at MANA and start your journey today!