How does your metabolism work?
So, for beginners, you first need to explain how our metabolism generally works and how the process of burning subcutaneous and visceral fat occurs in the body. In general, this is the topic that comes first in all books and manuals on weight loss.
I’m not going to delve too deeply into this topic and will try to explain as simply as possible how exercise actually affects weight loss.
You probably already know that your body burns calories throughout the day. Yes, many people perceive calories as something terrible, like little monsters that make a person gain fat, but in reality it’s not like that. Calories are fuel for your body, without which you simply cannot live and function normally.
Yes, yes, calories supply our entire body with energy and our body burns calories even when we sleep, sounds good, right?
But when you consume more calories than your body needs, it simply starts storing them for “emergency” situations and this is how people gain weight.
In other words, the process of losing weight occurs when we spend more calories than we consume.
Burn more calories!
And this immediately begs the question: which workouts burn fat better?
In fact, there are a huge number of factors that you should consider. It's your age, genetics, health, medications you take.
So, most of the calories your body consumes so that you can simply exist and this is called the basal metabolic rate. In other words, this is the amount of calories that we need to survive and you spend this amount even when you just sit and do nothing.
So, the main factor in your metabolic rate is your body weight. Now I’ll explain, muscles consume more calories than regular fat. For example, for every 500 grams of muscle there are somewhere between 5-10 calories, while fat burns only 2-4 calories for the same amount.
The number of calories you burn during exercise is actually not that significant, as it depends on a huge number of factors, such as: your physical fitness, type of workout, location and intensity of exercise. Moreover, training only burns about 10-20% of calories, while the metabolic process requires about 70% of the total calories, the rest comes from processes such as digestion, etc.
So we'll discuss why this matters below.
Cardio
The truth is, cardio burns tons of calories.
Exactly how many calories does one cardio workout burn? It depends on what exactly you are doing and at what intensity, but even on average, one cardio session shows some pretty nice numbers. So, for example, a 35-year-old man weighing 80 kg burns about 400 calories after a thirty-minute run of 9 km. Which at first glance is pretty good, right?
And this is probably why most people prefer cardio training.
But the problem is that such a run does not do anything for your metabolism, I would even say it does not do anything good.
If you're interested, here's a whole article about how many calories different types of exercise burn and how many you can burn in one hour.
Remember earlier we discussed how muscles help burn calories. However, simply losing fat will not help you increase your metabolism.
Moreover, long-term cardio activities lead to the production of the hormone “cortisol” and when this hormone is present in the body for too long, our brain begins to think that the body is in danger and takes various protective measures.
For example, it switches to storage mode, and any thing you eat becomes even more high-calorie.
So, sometimes cardio can be detrimental to your weight loss journey.
Power training
So, when it comes to weight training, how many calories does it burn and can you lose weight from strength training?
Not as much as you expected to hear. The average person, 35 years old and weighing 180 pounds, burns about 240 calories during a thirty-minute intense workout with additional weights.
If you look at these numbers, you'll probably think that my above arguments for strength training simply don't make sense. And how can cardio with their performance be worse than strength training? The answer is quite simple.
It all comes down to the level of your metabolism again. As I said, it is he who is responsible for most of the calories burned by the body, while training accounts for a smaller part.
Thus, to achieve long-lasting results, you need to change your metabolism, and muscle mass plays a major role in this.
We said above that we lose it due to cardio, while strength exercises help build it up.
Even though strength training doesn't burn as many calories, it helps speed up your metabolism. Plus, the body continues to burn calories even after such a workout.
Best fitness for weight loss
Ideally, a combination of cardio and strength training. Let's take a closer look at why it is worth making a choice in favor of one type of load or another.
Strength vs. Cardio
The difference between fat-burning cardio and weight training is how the fat is burned. Doing resistance strength exercises burns fewer calories in the same amount of time than doing cardio. But as a result, the total number of calories will exceed the amount you can burn with cardio.
Moreover, after cardio exercises this process stops, and after strength loads it continues for another 36 hours. Just think: every hour your body burns an additional 10 calories without any effort. Now imagine how many calories you will burn in a month! Not bad, right? It might be worth checking the box next to strength training if your goal is to lose weight.
What about cardio? With moderate aerobic exercise, you can burn an additional 40-80 calories. For a long-term cardio workout at a moderate pace, you will burn somewhere between 500-800 calories, depending on the duration. This is quite a lot, and, of course, such cardio exercise is useful for losing weight. But to lose 0.5 kg of fat you need to burn 1,750 calories.
Now calculate how long you will have to train on a cardio machine to achieve this volume? 2.5 - 3 hours. This kind of mental toughness is rare among beginners. Moreover, this approach makes sense provided that you do not gain back the calories burned with additional food. Only in this case will the process of losing weight continue.
As for interval training and sprints (running short distances against time), everything is a little different. They're similar to strength training in terms of their impact on your metabolism and the stress on your legs, so seriously consider adding sprints to your program.
What is better Cardio or Strength training for weight loss?
So, we figured out that cardio exercise is not the best choice for weight loss, but if strength training is so effective, then the next question arises: “what physical activity is better to choose for weight loss?”
It's no secret that cardio is quite simple to do; you just take a jump rope and jump until exhaustion. All training is over.
But with power ones everything is a little more complicated, because there are a huge number of different schemes. For example, training in the gym, on machines, with your own weight, with free weights, etc. And at first it’s even a little scary.
But here's the thing, your body doesn't care what equipment you use or whether you use it at all. Yes, I agree, each type of training has its pros and cons, but when it comes to weight loss, all of them are not so important.
All that matters is to constantly challenge your muscles, in other words, you shouldn't let them relax by adding intensity or maybe new exercises.
As already mentioned, it doesn't really matter what type of exercise you choose. Typically, exercises are divided into two types: exercises for one muscle group or several.
Exercises for all or several muscle groups include push-ups and squats, well, as you might have guessed, such exercises usually involve several groups at once.
While the second type focuses on only one muscle at a time. By the way, exercises for biceps.
So, it is not difficult to understand that for health and for weight loss, exercises designed for all muscle groups will be more effective.
Moreover, push-ups burn more calories than biceps-only exercises.
Workouts for weight loss and health
And the last aspect that we will consider in our article is health. Cardio wins here unconditionally. It is this type of exercise that has a beneficial effect on health and aerobic endurance. Of course, strength training is extremely beneficial, but cardio brings great benefits to the cardiovascular system. Therefore, you should not completely exclude cardio exercises from your program; the best option is to alternate cardio and strength training for weight loss.
It’s not for nothing that advanced bodybuilders train according to a strength program on their main days, and on rest days and even before their main workouts they do cardio, for example, on special cardio machines for weight loss.
It's time to say goodbye to the stereotype that cardio exercises contribute to weight loss, and strength exercises only lead to muscle growth and weight gain. More often than not, fat loss and muscle gain have more to do with diet and routine. Set a goal and stubbornly move towards it, and then the question “What is best for losing weight?” will not stand in front of you.
It’s simple: healthy weight loss is a complex of strength and cardio training, diet, taking sports supplements and sleep. Maintaining this balance will bring you ideal shape and good health!
Long term weight loss
We are not interested in losing weight only for a certain period, so we need to stabilize our metabolism and build muscle mass.
Training for all muscle groups will greatly help us with this, since it is thanks to them that our body begins to use more calories.
Another question that may interest you is the intensity and duration of training.
In general, there is no reason to exercise more than three days a week. Each workout should last about 30 minutes on average. This is all.
But during this workout you must give your best, loading your muscles to the fullest. And this begs the next question: “What weight should I work with?”
As I said above, you can get a great workout with your own bodyweight. After all, the main goal is to challenge your muscles, in other words, they must be in good shape so that the body receives a signal that muscle mass should grow.
No matter what you choose, you should do no more than 10 reps per set. If you use only your own weight, then you can simply choose exercises of increased complexity.
Strength training and weight loss
If your goal is to lose weight, then it is better to give preference to strength training, focusing on all muscle groups.
After all, strength exercises will help you not only lose extra pounds, but will also put your metabolism in order, moreover, your body will not have problems with hormones, and the level of cortisol in the blood will decrease.
And in the end, the result you get will pleasantly surprise you. If you still have questions about what is more effective, cardio or strength training for weight loss, ask your questions and share your opinion in the comments. In the near future, an article will appear on the site about combining these two types of loads in order to get the fastest possible results.
Strength training and global body restructuring
Another advantage of strength training over cardio in the question “which is better for losing weight?” is that weight training allows you to change your body shape. As a rule, cardio exercises help you lose weight not only through fat, but also through muscle, so in the end you will simply become visually smaller, but the essence and proportions will not change. And with the help of bodybuilding strength exercises in combination with a low-calorie diet, you will not only burn excess fat, but also emphasize your shape.
Many women avoid weight training, choosing pink dumbbells that weigh no more than 2-4 kg. Their main reason is the fear of acquiring large muscles, like men. This is a common misconception. The fact is that the female body has significantly less testosterone to develop similar muscles naturally. For more information about why girls also benefit from strength training, read our articles “What are the benefits of exercises with dumbbells for girls” and “Why do women need powerlifting”
So what is better for your figure: cardio or strength training? Resistance exercises increase your metabolic rate, burn more fat, and sculpt your body. As you can now see, most women are afraid of what they actually have to do. Girls who are reading this article now, aren’t you making the same mistake?
