This is one of the larger conflicts always bubbling up around those looking to lose weight. Do you want to spend your way pounding away on the treadmill or moving a number of heavy weighted plates into the air? The battle between cardio and strength training is never ending, it can sometimes feel a touch confusing, so read on to find out a few of the facts.
Firstly, let's get an initially complicating fact out of the way. Losing weight isn't the same as losing fat. A lot of people get disheartened when they feel their body improving, but don't see any results on the scales. In these cases, it's simply best to ignore the scales. Muscle is much denser than fat, in fact any volume of muscle will be about 18% heavier than the same amount of fat.
This means if you're doing a lot of strength training and the scales aren't moving, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. You'll still be losing fat, it's just being replaced by smaller, dense muscles. If your body looks like it's improving you should always use that fact as the first point of evidence.
Moving on, calorie burn is the measure by which most measure their achievements. The math works out , as a rule. Depending on your weight (not size!) you need to consume a certain number of calories a day to maintain it. Consuming less will result in weight loss, and burning more will widen the gap further. It's incredibly easy to keep track of, so represents a simple way for beginners and experts alike to keep track of their calorie intake.
Now, strength training has a much smaller calorie burn than cardio. If you're working correctly, you'll be doing fairly intensive exercises though for a far smaller amount of time. The crux of the difference is increasing lean muscle mass. Muscle takes a lot of energy to maintain, considerably more than fat, in fact. With a healthy nutritional diet which encourages a level of muscle growth, you'll burn far more calories even during sedentary periods.
Essentially, it's always best to engage in a combination. Half an hour of interval training on a cardio machine will burn hundreds of calories, while working the entire body. This will actually then yield a higher calorie burn from exercises which only work particular muscle groups afterwards, since the body will remain in a wholly active state.
After this, the muscle gain from strength training increases the number of calories needed to maintain weight, making your dietary choices more effective without increasing effort. Both techniques have their benefits, though are best used in conjunction.
Mira has been writing about health and fitness for years, from long-term weight loss strategies to improving workouts with exercise supplements. She's now in partnership with Muscle Finesse, and hopes to see her audience expand even further.
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