Weight training or cardio: which one to choose to lose fat?

What is the best method?

Running or weight training? What type of plan should I put in place for fat loss? What training program is best for me?

There are many things to consider and think about when you want to do sports to lose weight. Two options of type of training are available to us: weight training or cardio. However, defining a training program to lose weight is not so simple and it is common to find oneself in a dilemma: is it better to choose a weight training program or to opt for a good cardio session to lose weight?

On the one hand, strength training has the advantage of being an incredibly effective and relevant tool, making our muscles grow and fat melt away to better sculpt the body. On the other hand, cardio training greatly improves the body's sensitivity to insulin, which allows your body to better manage glucose.

Before we get into the details, there is one thing you need to know: you need to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight and therefore fat.

As intensive as your sporting activity may be and as rigorous as your training programThere can be no miracle without nutrition. If you spend time eating sweets, white flour or abusing sodas, the results of your sessions will be strongly and negatively impacted.

You must therefore calculate your caloric needs to know your daily requirements and not exhaust yourself or, on the contrary, overeat, preventing you from benefiting from the fruits of your efforts.

Want to know your macros?

So, which activity should you choose to promote weight loss? Cardio or weight training? It's time to take a closer look at the benefits of each of these activities. Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of each.

For more information on the subject : The secrets of cardio training

Weight training: intense and effective

A complete and beneficial practice

Weight training is a very complete activity and especially variable from one day to the next. Whether you do full body or of the splitYou will not do the same training from one day to the next. Your body will not have time to get used to a repetitive effort. This will allow you to continue to progress.

If you opt for exercises that involve the larger muscles of the body such as the legs: these are called poly-joint exercises (such as squats or pull-ups), you will lose more calories so don't hesitate to use them at least once a week. This will boost your metabolism and thus you will progress much faster, burn more calories during and after your workout, and stimulate your body more advantageously.

This practice, like cardio, can be done at home. In fact, with just a weight bench and a few weights, or elastics, you can build a program.

Working out causes the body to produce less insulin to lower blood sugar levels. As a result, the body destroys fat more easily.

The only risk concerning bodybuilding is not to get injured. So, favour heavy loads because even if you think that the heavier it is, the more calories you will burn, the fact of getting injured can make you suspend this activity for an indefinite time. This would not be favourable for losing weight.

Cardio: interesting but quickly outdated

A limit quickly reached

Good news if you are a neophyte, the cardio will be much more effective for you who are not used to the effort: you burn your calories during and if you practice the HIIT after your session in other words during your recovery, which is a significant bonus.

Be careful though, it doesn't last. This activity has a major flaw: perfectly functional at the beginning to lose fat, you will reach a plateau after a few weeks, and nothing will change: striving will have no effect on fat loss. It won't take long for your body to switch to using fat as a driving force. To continue to get results, you will need to increase your sessions in terms of intensity, difficulty and time, and this almost every day to avoid stagnation.

Cardio can be done in different ways: you can do it in the gym but also go for a bike ride, or go for a run ...

It's up to you to choose which of the different types of cardio machines is best for you:

• The LISSnot very intense;
• The endurance sports, type race or bike;
• The HIITThis is an intense, combined muscular and cardiovascular exercise;
• The classic sports such as football or rugby
• The zumba for girls or dance

In addition, the intensity of this practice does not allow boost testosteroneThis is not the same as bodybuilding and therefore will not allow you to significantly increase your muscle mass. It will depend on your personal goal.

Doing too much cardio, leads to an increase in cortisol (the stress hormone) which is the opposite of bodybuilding since it increases testosterone. Indeed, cortisol destroys muscle tissue and testosterone on the contrary promotes muscle building.

Finally, cardio can lead to an increased appetite, which is not necessarily good for fat loss.

The best solution

Be aware that whatever you do, fat storage, especially in the love handles and stomach for men and in the saddlebags and buttocks for women, will be the most recalcitrant. Unfortunately, we first lose the most recent fat, and then lose what we all want.

Both activities allow for caloric expenditure but be aware that 1 hour of weight training will cause you to lose more calories than a slow cardio session. To have the same result, you would have to practice HIIT cardio which is not necessarily suitable for everyone. In these cases, whether it's weight training or HIIT, after finishing the session, your body will continue to burn calories. What remains very interesting

So, to lose weight, cardio or weight training? In the end, doing both activities is certainly the best thing to do. Cardio on a treadmill is a great sport to complement strength training, as is daily cycling (classic or elliptical), jumping rope (inexpensive for great results) or rowing. You work the cardiovascular side while promoting the muscular solicitation of your body, in an intense and synchronized way.

By doing a combination of cardio and muscular training (which is what HIIT cardio offers), the results will be optimal. Run for about ten minutes, then take another ten to do exercises: rope, high knees, buttocks heels, push-ups... Alternate running and fitness for an hour in this way.

This is the principle of Crossfit, used to improve your cardiovascular resistance and your strength in terms of muscles. The goal is to combine cardio exercises such as walking, running or jumping rope with a high or even very high intensity weight training session. Let us insist on this point: you must know yourself perfectly well to tackle this practice if you do not want to exhaust yourself from the start.

Practicing both seems to me a good way to lose fat in the long run, but beware, if your diet is not calculated, no matter which practice you choose, you will have little results.

Need a specific plan to get rid of those extra pounds?

Combined or dissociated practices

You can just as easily disassociate cardio and strength training by spreading your activities out over the week. Either you run after your strength training, or you only run one day and then only do your weight training the next day. It's up to you to define your program according to what suits you. Over seven days, it is advisable to start with two cardio sessions, then 3 to 4 strength training sessions, and to keep the last 2 days for a well-deserved rest.

In any case, don't neglect either of these two great practices which complement each other completely for an intense effort and maximum weight loss. There is only one thing left for you to organize to lose belly and gain muscle mass: diet.

With a correctly calculated caloric deficit diet, doing sports: weight training or cardio or even both will help you draw on your reserves to lose weight faster and will bring you to a physical condition that will bring you closer to your goals. A few tips to avoid cravings during the weight loss period in this article.

Feel free to leave your comments to share your own experience.

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