Exercise scientists call this afterburn effect "excess post-exercise oxygen consumption," or EPOC. However, you need to be able to sustain that intensity, which means a lot of hard work. The main advantage of aerobic exercise at moderate intensities is that you can do it continuously for much longer than the intermittent exercise of lifting weights. It is this non-stop movement that gives cardio an inherent advantage in energy expenditure during an exercise session. You can mix weights and movement in circuit training sessions to provide that extra boost, but movement is the key.
That's why most comparisons show cardio to be superior to traditional weight training for energy expenditure. Cardio is the best exercise for cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory heart and lung fitness. Use these five guidelines to build your exercise and weight loss workout program and lose fat.
Do high-intensity cardio for shorter elapsed times, or try high-intensity interval training. High-intensity exercise, even if only in short bursts, may rev up the metabolism and get that fat mobilized in the post-exercise period. The standard advice is to do cardio and strength workouts in separate sessions or on alternate days. A sample program would have cardio workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, strength training on Tuesday and Friday, and use Thursday for yoga, stretching, or recovery.
Or, you can do your cardio in the morning and strength training later in the day.
What's Better Cardio or Weights for Fat Loss? The Expert Verdict is Now In
If you are concentrating on building strength, this allows you to work on your upper body one day, then your lower body the next, most days of the week. But if you have trouble making time for exercise each day, combining cardio and strength workouts in one session is an option. There have been studies and debate over whether to do cardio first, followed by strength training, or vice versa. There isn't conclusive evidence for an advantage of one sequence over another, whether your goal is aerobic fitness, fat loss, muscle hypertrophy, or gaining lower body strength.
It may be best to not overthink it and just do it in the order that appeals to you.
A review of studies found doing strength training first might be better for lower-body dynamic strength, but there was no advantage in either sequence for aerobic capacity, body fat percentage, muscle hypertrophy, or lower-body static strength. If you are primarily interested in running or general fitness, doing cardio first when you have fresh legs allows you to make the most of it and burn calories and fat. If you refuel well with fluids, you can still have a strong weights session after your aerobic section.
For best weight loss success in your exercise program, combine weights and cardio and a little high-intensity interval training when you get fitter and you can manage it.
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That's the success secret of exercise for weight loss. Get exercise tips to make your workouts less work and more fun. Aerobic or resistance exercise, or both, in dieting obese older adults. N Engl J Med. When it comes to losing weight, which is more effective: cardio or weight training? Here's how each stacks up.
Jogging vs. Weight Training: Which is Better for Blasting Belly Fat? – Kutting Weight Sauna Suits
BodyFit is your solution to all things fitness. Join today and unleash the power of BodyFit! Many people think that if you want to lose fat, you should do more cardio , and that if you want to build muscle, you should lift weights. But it's not that simple. You can use weight training to lose fat, and in some ways it's actually better than cardio.
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Falling for the common misconception that you need to do cardio to lose weight is one of the biggest mistakes you could make and could hinder your progress. The first reason we are going to give weight training a point in the fat-loss war against cardio is due to the calorie burn after the workout is completed.
Studies have demonstrated that after a weight-training workout, metabolism can be boosted for up to 38 hours post-workout. 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. When you figure that out on a monthly rate, it becomes even clearer how regular participation in weight training will really increase your capacity to burn calories , and thus fat.
With cardio training, you might get an extra calories burned after a moderately paced session, but this will depend upon the exact intensity and duration of the workout.
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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. Sprinting is a slightly different story and will create effects with your metabolic rate closer to that of weight lifting, so that's something to consider as well. However, you must be sprinting hard in order to see the benefits, which is something some people struggle with.
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 which you should be, but that's not the point we're trying to make here.
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. Research has shown that 'regular and moderate exercise has favourable effects on the immune system by increasing "immunoglobulines"' which are immune-system protecting molecules produced from your white blood cells.
It shouldn't be a surprise that lifting weights can build and sculpt muscle. Training with weights places more resistance on your muscles meaning the tissue is broken down more quickly. The fancy word for this process is 'hypertrophy'. While you can build muscle with just your bodyweight — calisthenics training is a testament to that — the more stress load your muscles are placed under will force them to work harder and grow more quickly.
To push your muscles to the point of change growth , regularly training them to fatigue is important — e. With any weight training programme though, simple is best — especially if you're a beginner. Roger that. The other upshot of building muscle is that it boosts your BMR basal metabolic rate which increases the amount of calories your body burns per day as muscle requires more sustained energy, which leads us nicely onto weight training benefit 3.
Yup, you heard us right.
Is Cardio Good For Weight Loss?
While you'll most likely burn more calories during cardiovascular exercise, weight training will keep that slow burn going all day long, leading to a larger and more sustained calorie burn. Weight training can be especially important in helping women lose body fat, with a University of Alabama study showing greater belly fat loss in women who weight lifted as compared to those who just performed cardiovascular exercise. Weight bearing exercises — and this can mean bodyweight or with added resistance — help to promote good bone health. Unfortunately for those of us who sit at a desk most of the day, our bones are not loving that life and require a little extra force to stay strong and resilient.
Three times a week for at least half an hour, is enough. If you've done it, you'll know: Lifting a weight that was previously out of your ability or comfort zone can make you feel strong AF and move the stressors of your daily life to the back burner. Luckily, the evidence on this isn't just anecdotal, the International Journal of Sports Medicine found markedly decreased cortisol levels in people who weight trained for two weeks.
Weight training relieves stress and helps you drift off? What is this sorcery? According to Clinics in Sport Medicine , weight training tires your muscles while the drop in cortisol helps you maintain a more peaceful slumber all night long. Um, yeah, we like the sound of that. Scores on the doors: Weight training is best for fat loss and building lean muscle.
However, cardio will help with weight loss, improving cardiovascular health and 'uncovering' the muscle you've sculpted. If you're looking to tone up while also sculpting muscle, doing a variety of each, each week is the best way to achieve your body composition and aesthetic goals. This isn't to say one is better than the other: weight loss through cardio may be needed to uncover the lean muscle you've built by weight training. It's a marriage of sorts.
The main thing is that you move in a way that helps you smash your goals without sacrificing enjoyment in the pursuit of those goals. You like to yoga?
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Programme weekly flows into your routine. You want to prioritise fat loss but retain muscle whilst doing so? A mix of weight and cardio training can help you get there. You want to run a faster 5k?