Is Cardio or Weightlifting Better For Weight Loss?
Are you trying to change your physique and lose weight but you cannot decide which type of workout is better?
Before we can answer which is better for weight loss, cardio, or weightlifting, we need to know the difference between weight loss and fat loss.
Understanding the difference will help you set the right goal and choose the right workout for you.
Weight Loss versus Fat Loss
Weight loss is measured by the number on the scale. How much do you weigh and how many pounds do you want to lose? That is weight loss.
Fat loss, on the other hand, is a little bit more difficult to measure but it’s the percentage of your body is composed of fat.
Percent body fat is more indicative of overall general health versus how much you weigh is not.
You can be a healthy athlete on the heavier side with low body fat or someone who is considered ‘skinny’ and looks healthy but carry an unhealthy amount of body fat.
When you lose weight, body fat can either go up or down, depending on your exercise plan and diet.
With that in mind, let’s compare and see if cardio or weightlifting is a better use of your time.
Calories Burned Per Cardio Session
Using calculators like this one or this one we can easily figure out how many calories we burn with different types of cardio.
Here’s a chart comparing how many calories you would burn for a 30-minute session if you weighed 140lbs,
Number of calories in 30-minutes with different types of cardio
In general, the heavier you are the more calories you will burn and as long as you keep participating in that activity with that intensity you will burn that amount of calories. But when you stop exercising your burn rate returns to baseline.
From the calculators, you’ll also find that cardio burns more calories for the same amount of effort compared to weight lifting. So on a per-session basis, cardio burns more calories.
But that’s not the whole story. When it comes to breaking a weight loss plateau doing more cardio is not the solution.
Weight Loss Plateau Happens To Everyone
Getting stuck at a weight-loss plateau is inevitable and happens to everyone who tries to lose weight even those who are carefully planning out their meals and exercising regularly. This causes a lot of frustration for everyone.
We get stuck at a plateau because we’re no longer in a caloric deficit, we are eating more calories than we are burning.
Here are three big reasons why we get stuck at the same weight even if we continue to exercise,
Reason #1
Our bodies become more efficient at burning calories for the same cardio sessions. This means the number of calories you’re burning in month one is fewer than in month three.
Reason #2
As we lose weight we’re gradually burning fewer calories and don’t need as many calories to maintain our body weight.
Reason #3
We also start losing muscle mass which helps with our metabolism. This means your metabolism starts to decrease and burn fewer calories at rest. At the end of our diets when we are eating more calories, we end up burning fewer calories than when we started, and therefore will start gaining weight again.
Breaking Out Of A Weight Loss Plateau
Most people try to break the plateau by increasing the length of their cardio sessions by doubling their cardio time or ramping up the intensity level. This works for a short period until they cannot find more time to exercise or they cannot sustain the intensity level.
However, our bodies are very adaptable and will reduce the caloric burn despite doing double time on cardio so over time we have to continually increase the time and intensity level of our cardio sessions to keep boosting our caloric burn.
Another route to break the weight plateau that many take is to change their diet and to keep reducing how much they eat until they become hungry and it’s no longer sustainable. At this point, they are hitting a biological limit because their bodies will secrete various gut hormones to ramp up their hunger in response to eating fewer calories to keep them alive.
It’s impossible to keep eating less and less without kicking into gear your body’s survival mechanisms leading to increased hunger.
These two issues with using cardio to lose weight, not being able to commit more time to exercise, and being unable to reduce more calories, can be solved with weight lifting.
Calories Burned Per Weight Lifting Sessions
Initially cardio wins out in most calories burned per session compared to weight lifting but the long-term benefits of weight lifting outweigh the short-term benefits of cardio.
Unlike cardio, the benefits of weight lifting continue to increase the longer you’re committed to it.
For one, even though you may be burning fewer calories than your standard cardio session, you will be burning more afterward, up to 48 to 72 hours!
This is because your body uses oxygen and calories for muscle repair and recovery. That post-workout soreness you experience is from micro-tears in your muscle fibers and they need to be replenished of nutrients and repaired. Muscle repair and recovery is where you’ll use most of your calories.
At the same time, consistent weight lifting gradually increases the size of your muscle fibers to give you the lean, toned look that many women are after. Every pound of muscle tissue you add to your frame increases your resting metabolism. This means not only are you burning more calories during your workouts, cardio, or weightlifting, but you also burn more calories at rest.
In the end, strength training is the only type of workout that can help you raise your metabolism by building lean muscle mass and it can help you expedite losing weight and prevent weight regain in the future. Not bad for a long-term benefit!
Lifting weights is a clear winner for weight loss and should be included in your long-term weight-loss strategy if you are serious about keeping the pounds off for life.
Best Practices For Getting Started With Weight Lifting
Chances are if you’re reading this article you’re pretty new to weightlifting. Here are four best practices to help you get fast results so you fall in love with it.
Look For Full Body Workouts
The best workouts that burn the most calories and build overall strength over time are workouts that are focused on the 5 fundamental movement patterns: squat, hinge, push, pull, and loaded carry. They are also compound movements too.
Five Fundamental Movement Patterns
Compound movements involve multiple big muscle groups and are multi-joint exercises. An example would be a barbell squat, which recruits multiple muscle groups in your core, butt, and legs to perform the exercise.
Look for workouts that include all 5 of these compound movements. For example,
Beginner Full Body Strength Workout With All Five Fundamental Movements
Choose The Correct Reps And Sets
Reps is short form for ‘repetition’ and equals the completion of one exercise. Different rep ranges are associated with different goals. When choosing a workout or starting your workout ask yourself what is the goal for your workout.
The goals of different rep ranges.
A set is a consecutive number of assigned reps done without stopping or taking a break.
So ‘3 sets of 12 reps’ means you do 12 reps consecutively, rest, another 12 reps, rest, and another 12 reps.
For my clients I usually recommend the 10 to 12 rep range this helps them to build endurance, practice good form, and build muscle size.
Ease Into The Routine
Two to three days a week is spaced with a day off in-between is ideal. Sessions that are more often, especially if you’re starting out, can lead to burnout, subpar recovery, and excessive muscle soreness.
Recovery and building muscle and strength happens outside of the gym not during your workouts.
Focus On Progressive Overload
Your goal for every workout should be to do slightly more than you did last time. This could be an extra rep or lifting a slightly heavier weight to challenge yourself. This challenge causes your muscles to adapt and rebuild so they get bigger and stronger to meet the new demands you place on them. This is the entire premise of progressive overload for strength training.
Conclusion
Comparing the benefits and cons of cardio versus weight lifting
In my weight loss coaching this is how I PERSONALLY recommend cardio vs weight training for a typical weight loss client:
Women ages 20 to 40 with lots of time to exercise: do 80% weights and 20% cardio (stairmaster or treadmill running).
Women ages 20 to 40 who are busy professionals: do 80% weights and 20% cardio (walk 10K steps daily combined with 1X week of intense cardio).
Women ages 40+ no matter schedule: do 90% weights and 10% cardio (favorite type of cardio or 10K steps daily)
Candace is the owner of Rhodes To Strength. She provides weight loss and mindset coaching services to women around the world so that they keep the pounds off for good. She believes in working with clients to create sustainable habits that work for their lifestyle.
You can find her rollerskating, hiking, and bird watching in her spare time.