Cardio Vs. Weight Training: Which is the Champion of Weight Loss

When it comes to losing weight, which one is the champion? Cardio, or weight training? Both have their proven results that they reduce weight and devour fat, but which one does the better job? Most people say cardio is the winner here. They do have good reasoning. Number one, if you are looking to purely lose weight, and nothing more than losing weight, then weight training seems counter productive. You don't want to gain the muscle weight, in this case at least, and cardio gives you a low to moderate workout in terms of muscle. Its prime objective is burning calories. Also, while running or doing whatever cardio you fancy, you build up and expand your lungs, thereby allowing more oxygen into your body for energy, which would also make weight loss easy.

HOWEVER

The real winner here is weight training. While you may gain weight, the weight gained is all from muscle. Thereby, good and desirable weight. More than that though, weight training is a far more effective calorie burner.

You may be wondering why. You see from most calorie calculators, giving you a rough estimate of how many calories are lost during a particular activity, than weight training usually burns about half that of cardio.

It is true by the activity alone, cardio burns more calories. But weight training, in the addition to the calories burns, revs up your metabolism and increases the calories burned at rest. So cardio may burn a few extra hundred, in the long run however weight training will burn more.

This of course doesn't even mention that besides calories used in the recovery phase, where muscles recover and get themselves ready for another work out, the extra muscle burns more calories as well. Muscle is actually, metabolically speaking, the hardest tissue in the body to keep around. It requires the highest amount of energy and keep active. That is both why your body devours it first in times of starvation, and why it burns more calories at rest. The constant need for energy burns your supply, making fat loss a breeze.

Though it should be obvious, the best is really the two combined. Some people say that weight training provides its own cardio, as it is working the heart to help supply enough energy for lifting, but I find a good run helps invigorate the body and makes weight loss easier than just weight training. So combine them if you can, but if you can't for time constraints or any other reason, go with weight training.