Cardio V weights for fat loss

I was asked to make a comment on ‘Cardio Vs weight training for fat loss- which is best’ for an article this week.

I had more to say than I could fit in the comment so I thought I would elaborate here…

If you are focusing solely on the amount of weight you’ve lost then all other things being equal (i.e. you don’t start eating more or moving less outside of cardio).

Cardio is better for weight loss.

You will most likely burn more calories in a cardio workout than a weight training session. This will contribute more to your calorie deficit and you will lose more fat. You will also lose more WEIGHT through loss of muscle too.

BUT

I’ve helped 1,000s of women lose weight and I don’t focus on cardio & here is why:

1) Body composition is more important than weight loss.

If you do not resistance train when you are in a calorie deficit then you will lose more lean tissue as well as fat.

This is a bad thing for two reasons; 1- muscle is metabolically active and important for a healthy metabolism. 2- if the goal is to look ‘toned’ then you need to make sure you are building or at least preserving muscle while losing fat - the best way to do that is resistance train.

2) Activity outside of exercise (AKA NEAT) is a much better way to increase calorie expenditure - this usually looks like increasing your overall step count for the day rather than focusing on how many calories you can burn on the treadmill.

3) Many people find they eat more after cardio.
This is often due to an increase in hunger or simply because they assume they have expended more calories than they have

4) Enjoyment and empowerment.
Most women I work with fall in love with strength training and are pretty relieved they don’t have to force themselves to do hours of boring cardio.

They love how being strong makes them feel inside and outside the gym.

TLDR:

Focus on lifting weights and building muscle when exercising*. Let your diet and exercise take care of fat loss.

*I will also add in some HIIT training as a minimum to make sure clients are improving on cardio vascular health too - but the question was specifically about fat loss which requires no cardio.

want to try my no bullshit evidence based approach to losing fat? Click here to apply