5 Reasons Weight Training is Better Than Cardio for Fat Loss

We are going to share one of our biggest secrets with you, and some might consider this to be a personal flaw, but we’re going, to be honest with you, “you don’t have to exercise to lose weight.” Did that put a smile on your face? Most people associate exercise with jogging, following some fitness video or laboring on a treadmill for an hour. Don’t get us wrong, yes, exercise is good for you, but here is what we do know, and this is a secret so let’s keep this one to ourselves, “losing belly fat is about eating right and being fit is about exercising.”

So you’re probably asking yourself, “then why did I drop by to read this article?” This is a reasonable question because the mainstream would say, “when you want to lose fat… do exercise or cardio,” “when you want to build muscle,… lift weights.” Seems to make sense, but this is a misconception and one of the biggest mistakes you could make that could hinder your progress and leave you not looking quite like you hoped.

Is weight training better than cardio for fat loss? You bet! And here are 5 reasons why…

Your Metabolism is Boosted to Rocket Speed

Your metabolism goes into hyperdrive 36 hours post-weight training. This means you’ll burn more calories while watching TV after weight training vs. calories burned after doing cardio. Plus, in order to get an equivalent post-workout calorie burn after cardio, you’d have to be doing cardio for a very long duration of time or a high-intensity cardio workout for a short duration of time. Sounds exhausting!

Your Long-Term Basal Metabolic Rate Increases

Your basal metabolic rate increases as lean muscle mass increases, which means you’ll burn more calories if you do nothing but lie in bed and breathe all day.

Weight Training Will Allow you to Reshape Your Body.

Have you ever noticed that when most people lose weight, they tend to look soft, sometimes sickly? This is because they’ve lost a combination of fat and muscle. When you combine weight training and correct eating, you stand a better chance of losing body fat strictly while keeping your body’s natural curves. Your body will only keep what it needs and burn off the rest.

Cardio is Primarily About Calorie Burn

Rather than caloric reduction, focus on proper nutrition and pay attention to how you feel. Reducing your calories slightly so that you burn more than you consume is fine, but to sustain lean muscle tissue, you have to eat enough – and of the right foods. This way, your body won’t go all tribal and eat away at itself.

Combining Weight Training and Correct Eating Yields Results

We don’t want to make it seem as though we are giving cardio a bum rap. Besides, it is good for you and has a wonderful impact on cardiovascular health. But when combined with healthy eating, cardio doesn’t come close to comparing to the benefits of weight training.

Here are a few more benefits…