When people want to shed pounds fast, they usually step on the treadmill or power through rounds of jumping jacks and aerobic exercise. Cardio is the go-to for burning body fat. While many fitness professionals recommend incorporating both cardio and strength training into your workout routine, cardio is renowned as the primary player in ditching the fat.
The power of cardio for fat loss
Researchers have found that aerobic exercise alone results in clinically significant weight loss. One interesting study showed that a minimum of 150 minutes of weekly aerobic exercise is associated with clinically important reductions in both measures of body fat and waist circumference.
Recently, researchers investigated the effects of resistance training, aerobic training, and a combination of the two on body mass and body fat loss. Let’s check out the latest research.
The study
In a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, researchers examined 31 studies of metabolically healthy individuals comparing resistance training, aerobic training, and concurrent training (the combination). The workload was matched for all three different types of exercise training.
The results
The researchers concluded the following:
- Aerobic training and concurrent training (a combination of aerobic and resistance training) yielded more significant fat loss on average compared to resistance training alone.
- Resistance training was equally effective at lowering body fat percentage, which refers to the proportion of body fat in relation to your total body weight.
- In some studies where participants completed the same training volume and intensity, the fat loss results were similar across all three training types.
The researchers also revealed that resistance training is superior to aerobic training in helping to preserve lean muscle mass.
Body fat percentage vs. body mass index
Many fitness professionals believe that body fat percentage is a better and more reliable indicator of overall health than body mass index. Body fat percentage distinguishes between your fat and muscle mass, whereas body mass index (BMI) doesn’t. Having lower body fat relative to your lean muscle mass makes you leaner overall.
Concluding thoughts
This large meta-analysis shows us that lifting weights can be almost or even equally effective as cardio for burning body fat, which makes sense when you consider that building muscle requires more energy and increases your resting metabolic rate over time, so you burn more calories at rest. Put simply, when you stay dedicated to your resistance training, you’ll have more muscle on your body, and your body burns more calories when you’re resting and not even doing anything, which is good news for fat loss and weight loss.
There are benefits to different types of exercise, which is why you’ll often hear people telling you to do both. This new review challenges the commonly held belief that cardio is the winner for fat loss.
