“How can you lose fat in the shortest period of time with the least amount of effort?”
A common question that every fitness aspirant ponders upon. However, weight gain or loss is a steady process and doesn’t occur overnight.
A journey to achieve your dream weight can seem hopeless – leading new gym goers into desperation to find a method with proven “fast-results.“
Weight lifting and cardio are two different training methods that can lead to increased body fat loss. Both the training types give results at different paces for different body types.
Many fitness experts say: Cardio helps increase heart rate, which helps to shed calories and burn fat faster. While other experts have added, high muscle mass helps in shedding more calories.
As both the viewpoints are true, it would be in your best interest to use a combination for maximum effectiveness.
However, we aren’t here to talk about doing both. Let’s highlight everything you need to know about weight lifting vs cardio pertaining to fat loss.
Short Term Calorie Burn
Weight training helps you lose fat for hours even after completing the exercises. The metabolism is boosted for almost 38 hours after weight training. Your body will lose at least 10 calories every hour.
Essentially, you can lose at least 240 calories a day simply sitting or working on your desk. This is a huge achievement. This clarifies that a regular weight training program can help you get a good fat loss result towards the end of the month.
Cardio is also helpful for calorie burn, but it depends upon the exact intensity and workout duration. Moderate-intensity cardio will help you burn extra 40-80 calories.
You can produce higher post-workout calorie burn through cardio only if you practice this method for a longer duration.
Long-Term Calorie Burn
The post-workout calorie burn will happen only if you are consistent with weight training. In the long run, weight training helps to build lean muscle mass in your body.
The muscles work as a powerhouse that boosts the calorie-burning process.
Burning calories also depends on your total body weight which includes your body mass: muscles, bones, and organs.
Thus, the higher the muscle mass you have, the rapid the calorie burn will happen. Besides training, you also need to focus on protein intake to keep the muscle tissues stable. Not only will it help in strengthening you but will also help in fat loss for long.
Due to this reason, males, in comparison to females, are more immune to easy weight gain issues. Their body consists of more lean muscle mass that helps in burning more calories.
Cardio, on the other hand, helps you burn approximately 400 to 800 calories in each session. However, how many calories your body can burn depends on the intensity, body muscle mass and weight, and duration of the session. This number will certainly help you reach your fitness goals.
Overall Benefits
Weight Training
- Cardio can help you cut out the extra and unwanted body fat. But we do require toned up legs and shoulders, and weight training plays a key role there. Weight training completely transforms you and gives an amazingly toned up body. You can also get certain types of training that help in building certain types of physiques.
- Weight training increases your resistance level and thus makes you stronger.
- Weight training improves bone compositions and also increases bone density.
Cardio
- Practicing cardiovascular exercises helps in improving your exercise tolerance.
- It reduces bad cholesterol, increases good cholesterol, and keeps your blood pressure under control.
Both training types have some similar or distinctive results following two different methods. Thus, many fitness experts suggest using both methods for impressive results and overall fitness.
Experts suggest at least 2 to 4 days of moderate to high-intensity cardio and 2 to 3 days of strength training in the weekly workout schedule.
Use this guide to understand the benefits of both the methods and make your workout plan today!
