If you've decided to lose weight, you may have asked yourself a tricky question: Should you do cardio or weights? Cardio and resistance training (including weightlifting) are popular workouts, but knowing which may help you accomplish your goals more efficiently can be hard. Both cardio and weightlifting sessions can help you burn fat and lose body weight. Combining cardio and weights often helps you lose weight, burn fat, and build muscle.
Calorie Burn: Cardio vs. Weight Training
Cardio burns more calories per session. Typically, a cardio workout burns more calories than a weight training workout of the same duration. The number of calories you burn during exercise depends on your body size and how intensely you exercise. If you were to bicycle at a more intense pace of 10 miles per hour or more, you could burn around 295 calories in 30 minutes. In other words, the intensity of your workout affects how many calories you burn in total during one cardio session. Also, the more you weigh, the more calories you will burn. When you begin losing weight, you may notice that you burn fewer calories per session doing the same effort.
On the other hand, if you lifted weights for the same 30 minutes, you might burn around 110 calories. However, to lose weight, you also need to burn more calories than you consume.
The Metabolic Advantage of Weight Training
Although a single weight-training session doesn’t typically burn as many calories as a cardio session, you could still burn more calories overall if you go with the first one. Resistance and weight training are more effective than cardio at building lean muscle, and muscle mass burns more calories at rest than other tissues, including fat. Building muscle may help increase resting metabolism in some people - that is, how many calories the body burns at rest.
Weight training changes body composition and sustains caloric burn. You can lose weight and burn fat by lifting weights only. The more muscle you build, the more fat your body will burn. It may take you longer, though, compared to incorporating cardio exercises.
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A 2020 systematic review found that resistance exercise is effective at increasing resting metabolic rate compared to aerobic exercise alone or aerobic and resistance exercise combined. The calorie-burning benefits of resistance training aren’t limited to when you are exercising. You may keep burning calories hours afterward as your body recovers from your session and repairs muscle tissue. How much energy (calories) you expend during your recovery after a weight-training session depends on the intensity of your session.
Weight and resistance training may improve your metabolism over time. Also, lifting weights is typically more effective than cardio at increasing the number of calories you burn after a workout.
HIIT: The Time-Efficient Calorie Burner
HIIT (high intensity interval training) helps you burn calories in a short period of time. Some research shows it may burn more calories than weights or cardio, but with less time spent exercising. A HIIT session can help you burn more calories in fewer minutes.
You may burn about 485 calories in 45 minutes of HIIT, including a 5-minute warm-up and a 5-minute cool-down. The overall caloric burn may vary depending on your weight and exercise intensity. You may need to do a 1-hour vigorous cardio session or more than 1 hour of vigorous weightlifting to burn as many calories. Typically, a HIIT workout may take about 10-30 minutes.
You can use HIIT with various exercises, including walking, running, biking, jumping rope, or other body weight exercises. You can also incorporate weights, like dumbbells, into your HIIT workout. All you have to do is increase and decrease the intensity of your movement every few seconds. For example, you could alternate sprinting for 20 seconds and walking for 20 seconds, or you could do squats for 30 seconds and then rest for 20.
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One study in men compared the calories burned during 30 minutes of HIIT, weight training, running, and biking. The researchers found that HIIT burned 25-30% more calories than the other forms of exercise. Research from 2017 following more than 400 adults with overweight and obesity also found that HIIT and traditional cardio sessions reduced body fat and waist circumference to similar extents. HIIT may lead to equal gains but in a shorter time.
Combining Exercise Modalities for Optimal Results
Many exercises help you burn calories and lose weight, but it also depends on your overall plan. Practicing different types of exercise modalities may help you lose weight, burn fat, and build lean muscle.
Adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week and 2 days of strength resistance to maintain weight and promote overall health benefits. You could also do 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity and 2 days of strength training. Physical activity is anything that gets your body moving and your heart pumping. For example, gardening, chores, dancing, walking, swimming, or any exercise session.
All types of exercise and physical activity can help you manage your weight. Alternating exercise methods and physical activity in general will help you achieve your goals. Your body burns calories just by being alive. Thinking, breathing, and even sleeping require energy. You need to eat enough calories to sustain these body functions. This is called the basal metabolic rate.
In addition to the essential bodily functions, your body also burns calories by moving. This includes brushing your teeth, standing up and getting a glass of water, and physical activity. The more you move, and the more intense the movement is, the more calories you burn.
Read also: Explore the effectiveness of HIIT for weight loss.
Weight training can lead to an increase in muscle mass and a decrease in fat mass. If your muscle and fat change by the same amount, the numbers on the scale may stay the same, but your body may look and feel different. You may notice a narrower waist, for example. Strength exercises also help your bones stay healthy.
Cardio training helps improve your heart health, manage blood pressure, and boost your mood. It also helps you burn fat. Incorporating weights and cardio - including HIIT - may help you lose weight, burn fat, improve your health, and feel better. For example, to lose belly fat, you may want to practice HIIT. To tone the abdomen muscles, you may want to weight train.
All types of physical activity help you burn calories. If you burn more calories than you eat, you’re likely to lose weight.
The Importance of Diet and Consistency
Both diet and exercise are critical for long-term results. Exercise and a balanced diet are essential for good health. Also, all physical activity is more effective at helping you lose weight when accompanied by a dietary plan that involves a caloric deficit and the foods that provide the most nutrients. Consistency is key.
A moderate reduction in calorie intake and a physical activity plan are needed for long-term weight loss and maintenance. Your body weight depends on the balance between how many calories you eat and how many calories you burn. If you eat as many calories as you burn in a given week, it’s likely you’ll maintain your current weight. If you burn more calories than you eat, you may lose weight, while eating more calories than you burn may lead to weight gain. Other factors may influence your weight, though. For example, aging and thyroid health.
To lose weight, you want to move more in general if possible. Burning more calories from movement is encouraged rather than cutting calories and eating less. This can help you maintain your results long term and keep your body working as best as possible.
Combining a balanced diet and a physical activity plan can help in your long-term weight maintenance success. Weight loss programs that include regular exercise, and not only diet plans, can lead to greater weight loss and better weight maintenance over time.
High-Intensity Circuit Training vs. Traditional Strength Training
New research suggests that high-intensity circuit training-workouts that pack multiple strength moves into shorter sessions with less rest time-can deliver similar gains in strength, muscle, and fat loss as traditional weight training.
Both high-intensity circuit training and traditional strength training are similarly effective for increasing strength and lean body mass and decreasing body fat percentage in trained women. Those interested in maximizing time efficiency may prefer high intensity circuit training, as these sessions took much less time to complete.
Findings from Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
An overview of reviews summarized the effects of exercise training programs on weight loss, changes in body composition, and weight maintenance in adults with overweight or obesity. Exercise led to a significant weight loss, fat loss and visceral fat loss. No difference in weight, fat, and visceral loss was found between aerobic and high‐intensity interval training as long as energy expenditure was equal. Resistance training reduced lean mass loss during weight loss. No significant effect of exercise was found on weight maintenance. These findings show favorable effects of exercise training on weight loss and body composition changes in adults with overweight or obesity. Visceral fat loss may lead to benefits for cardiometabolic health.
All SR‐MAs reported a significant weight loss in the exercise group vs. a non‐exercise control group, whatever the type of exercise training performed, that is, aerobic training, aerobic or resistance training or both and HIIT. Mean weight loss ranged from −1.5 to −3.5 kg. No significant difference in fat loss was observed whether energy expenditure was equalized or not.
Two SR‐MAs reported no significant difference in lean mass loss in an exercise group vs. a non‐exercise control group, in spite of significant weight loss in the exercisers only. The SR‐MA included reported no significant effect of either aerobic or resistance training on the amount of weight regain after a low‐calorie diet.
Practical Applications
- Scenario 1: If you’re experienced in the gym, have a decent amount of muscle, and want to shed some body fat: feel free to incorporate HIIT. It’ll help. Just don’t make strictly HIIT style training your focus for too long.
- Scenario 2: If you’re new to the gym, and your primary goal is fat loss: focus on building as much strength as possible. Eat in a calorie deficit. Figure out your nutrition. Build a good muscle/strength foundation.
Key Takeaways
- Combine HIIT and Strength for Maximum Impact: Use HIIT for its intense, immediate calorie burn and strength training to build the lean muscle that increases your metabolism long-term. This one-two punch is the most effective strategy for fat loss.
- Lift Weights for Definition, Not Bulk: Strength training is the key to creating a strong, toned physique. It builds metabolically active muscle that gives you shape and definition, so don't be afraid to challenge yourself with heavier weights.
- Prioritize Recovery to See Real Change: Your results are built on rest and nutrition. Fuel your body with a post-workout meal of protein and carbs, get adequate sleep, and stay hydrated to repair muscle, prevent burnout, and make every workout count.
Debunking Myths
- Myth: HIIT is a Magic Bullet for Weight Loss: While HIIT is great for that immediate calorie burn, strength training plays the long game. Building muscle increases your resting metabolic rate, meaning you burn more calories all day long.
- Myth: Strength Training Will Make You "Bulky": Lifting weights builds lean, dense muscle that creates a strong, toned physique. It’s what gives you shape and definition, not unwanted size.