Lifting heavy weights burns more body fat than lifting light weights, and the heavier the weight, the more calories you burn with each rep. Because they recruit fast-twitch fibers, heavy weights also burn more fat after your workout.
If your goal is weight loss, both lifting heavier and lifting lighter can help you burn fat and lose weight. In fact, one study showed that after 8 weeks of strength training, those who lifted heavier weights with less reps had more strength.
Strength training helps you lose weight and keep it off by building muscle tissue. The more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolic rate tends to be. More muscle also helps your body burn more fat than muscle, which is important if you want to lose weight and keep your strength.
For weight loss, research has found that that lifting between 60-80% of your 1 rep max (the heaviest amount of weight you can lift for one repetition of an exercise) is the best way to stimulate muscle growth, which is what helps you lose fat by burning more calories.
And while it's true that doing steady state cardio probably will help with weight loss, experts say it's totally unnecessary if your main goal is fat loss. In fact, you can lose weight just by lifting weights.
Weight training is also an important part of burning off belly fat. Since muscles burn off more calories than fat does when the body is at rest, having more muscle tone can help you to burn off more fat.
Using weights alone without cardio, you will most likely develop bulk instead of a toned and streamlined body. When deciding between cardio or weights, remember that both types of exercises are needed when trying to achieve a healthy, strong body.
So, in general, low reps with heavy weight tends to increase muscle mass, while high reps with light weight increases muscle endurance. This doesn't mean that you have to rely on one method exclusively. Alternating between the two may be the best approach for long-term success.
So, if you've been programmed to think that you need to do more to reduce your body fat, this may come as a shock — a 30-minute workout for weight loss may be all you need! In fact, research suggests a mere half-hour a day can increase fat loss more effectively than a 60-minute workout for weight loss!
Running at even a slow pace burns a lot of calories for 30 minutes. On average, running burns between 10.8 to 16 calories per minute and putting it at the top of the list of workouts that burn the most calories.
If you're trying to build muscle mass you need to be eating in a calorie surplus, so you need to actually up your intake.” “When you strength train you get little tears in your muscles. When those tears heal, they grow back stronger, but the body needs fuel to do that.
You can achieve lean muscle, tone up, or get some definition with light AND heavy weights. It is a myth that light weight is for toning and heavy weight is for bulking. In fact, lifting heavier weights boosts metabolism and burns more calories than lighter weights so you burn more fat and achieve more definition.
The amount of weight you should lift depends on what your primary fitness goal is. If your goal is to build strength, then your weights should be heavy enough that you can only perform 4-6 repetitions per set. If your goal is to build muscular size, then you should only be able to perform 7-12 repetitions per set.
Lifting weights usually leads to higher EPOC levels than cardio, resulting in more significant muscle breakdown. This means that the body continues to burn calories even after completing a weightlifting workout.
Strength training for weight loss: 2 to 3 days a week
Shoot for 2 to 3 days a week of strength training. For best results, include full-body workouts that use compound exercises (those that work multiple muscles at once).
If your primary goal is to increase your aerobic endurance or lose body fat, then you should perform cardio first. If your primary goal is to increase muscular strength, then do strength training first.
What is this? Your muscles need time to rest and recover after exercise in order to repair and rebuild back stronger. Lifting weights every day can impede this repetitive process and compromise your gains in strength and size, and can certainly increase the risk of injury.
Before you lift weights, warm up with five to 10 minutes of brisk walking or other aerobic activity. Don't rush. Move the weight in an unhurried, controlled fashion. Taking it slow helps you isolate the muscles you want to work and keeps you from relying on momentum to lift the weight.
Lifting weights that are too heavy can cause muscle and joint damage. Doing so can also cause spinal injuries such as herniated discs. In extreme cases, heavy lifting can even tear a heart artery, which could result in death.
Cardio exercises can slow down the process of fat burning. Yes, you heard it right. Even though cardio is greatly effective in aiding weight loss, it is because it aids burning of calories. It encourages the body to hold on to fat and break down muscle instead.
The best types of cardio to aid in weight loss are either low-impact, low intensity cardio like rowing, incline walking, and biking, or HIIT workouts implemented in small doses such as kickboxing, interval training, and weight training.
The researchers who performed this study also stated that daily training without a recovery period between sessions (or training twice a day) is not optimal for neuromuscular and aerobic improvements. So ideally, if you want to get stronger, you should separate your cardio and strength workouts by more than six hours.