13 Apr 2012

Weights vs. Cardio for fat loss

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If you want to strip belly fat, should you lift weights or pound the pavement? Online weight loss coach Andrew Cate gives you the facts on the best way to workout for weight loss.

Weight management

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Choosing the best exercise to lose weight?
While the benefits of physical activity for weight control are well established, there is still some uncertainty about the best type of exercise. Cardiovascular exercise elevates your heart rate through rhythmic movement such as walking, jogging, cycling or swimming, and helps to boost your stamina. On the other hand, resistance training boosts muscular strength, helping to maintain muscle tissue when your kilojoule intake has been reduced to lose weight. Both forms of exercise burn kilojoules, and each has its pros and cons, but ultimately, the key factor is what gets the best results. Let’s look to the world of science to see which type of exercise burns the most body fat.

The research
A recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology divided 155 overweight subjects into three groups, including an aerobic training group, a strength training group, and a group who performed a combination of aerobic training and strength training. The aerobic group clocked up 19.2 km per week at 75% intensity, while the strength training group lifted weights 3 times a week, performing 3 sets of 8–12 repetitions for 8 different exercises. The combination group performed both of the above mentioned programs in full. After 8 month of training, the researchers found that aerobic training triggered significant reductions in visceral (internal) fat, liver fat and abdominal subcutaneous fat (just under the skin). This is important for men, who are more likely than women to store fat in the abdominal area. Alternatively, the substantial resistance training program did not significantly reduce weight, visceral fat, liver fat, or total abdominal fat. Results from the combined group also led the researchers to conclude that there was no significant advantage to adding resistance training (and spending approximately twice as much time exercising) to a moderate aerobic training program for overweight people who want to lose body fat.

What does this mean for your exercise program?
The participants in the above mentioned study had a body mass index (kg/m2) of between 26 – 35, which could classify them as somewhere between overweight and very overweight. If your BMI is between 26 and 35, then it seems that the best investment of your time in terms of exercise for weight loss is cardiovascular based exercise at a moderately high intensity. However, if you don’t have as much body fat to lose, then resistance training may be a valuable addition to your cardiovascular training by boosting strength and muscle mass. Subjects who lifted weights exclusively increased the amount of weight they could lift by 55%, while the combination group saw an improvement of 41%. Both resistance training groups also experienced a significant increase in lean body mass (muscle), unlike the aerobic training group who experienced no change in lean body mass.

References available upon request

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