If you want to lose weight, you’re probably wondering which type of exercise is most effective: cardio or strength training. There are several factors to consider when deciding which of the two training methods to prioritize.
However, before weighting the horse factors, it’s important to first analyze your goals and what they mean for your body composition and weight.
Difference between weight loss and fat loss
Both aerobic exercise and strength training are effective for weight loss, but aerobic exercise often has a greater impact on weight gain. However, this can be misleading. Weightlifting builds more muscle, which weighs more by volume than fat.
So, if you commit to strength training for a period of time, you may find that your weight remains about the same, even though you’ve lost fat and gained muscle (which contributes to a more toned physique).
Additionally, the percentage of muscle mass begins to decrease with age, starting as early as age 30. You should also know that this is one of the main reasons why people’s metabolism slows down and they gain weight over the years.
Building and maintaining muscle mass with strength training can slow muscle loss and keep your waistline toned. A landmark Harvard University study of more than 10,000 men found that those who did 20 minutes of strength training per day gained less visceral (deep abdominal) fat over 12 years than those who spent the same amount of time doing aerobic exercise.
Aerobic training or strength training: which burns more calories?
The number of calories you burn during a particular workout is determined by a variety of factors, including:
- your weight
- the duration of your workout and its work-to-rest ratio (i.e. how much you’re moving);
- your fitness level
- your effort level
To quantify how hard you work during exercise, scientists use a system of “metabolic equivalents” or METS.
Benefits of aerobic exercise to burn calories
On the METS scale, a low-intensity bike ride is a 6, a 12-minute mile run is an 8, and strength training is usually a 6. Therefore, aerobic exercise is superior to strength training in its ability to burn more calories during a workout.
For low-intensity steady-state (LISS) aerobic exercise, a greater percentage of calories come from fat. The reason is that when exercise intensity is low (60-70% of maximum heart rate), the body preferentially uses aerobic metabolism, which breaks down fat for energy.
With that in mind, it’s clear that you burn more calories per minute during aerobic exercise than during strength training. However, the calories you burn while working out are only a small portion of the total calories you burn from your workout.
When you recover from strength training or other high-intensity exercise, your body can maintain a calorie-burning state for a long time after you’ve finished exercising.
Benefits of strength training to burn calories
High-intensity, short-duration exercise (think high-intensity interval training, or HIIT) can burn more calories thanks to what scientists call excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Also known more simply as the “afterburn effect,” EPOC is made up of all the extra calories your body burns when recovering from exercise.
Simply put, recovery from high-intensity exercise takes much longer than recovery from low-intensity exercise, and that recovery requires energy. That’s why a 20-minute HIIT workout will ultimately burn more total calories than an hour of running.
Additionally, muscle is one of the most important factors influencing your basal metabolic rate (the calories you burn to maintain basic bodily functions) and your overall metabolic rate (the calories you burn throughout the day from all activities, including exercise). Essentially, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn on average to maintain that muscle.
How to combine cardio and strength training for weight loss
As it turns out, the best workouts for weight loss tend to be based on lifting and high-intensity aerobic exercise. However, you can do low-intensity aerobic exercise as part of your weight loss plan. The more you move your body overall, the more fat you’ll lose (as long as you adjust your diet as well). It’s that simple.
Additionally, low-intensity steady-state cardio (also known as Zone 2) can help your body recover between intense strength training sessions, which can help you perform better during strength training and burn more fat as a result.
Finally, it’s important to remember that exercise adherence and consistency trumps all other training variables when it comes to weight loss. So whether it’s cardio, weightlifting, or something else, prioritizing forms of exercise that you enjoy and do consistently will increase your chances of reaching your weight goals.
