Aerobic exercise has excellent benefits for general health, however it is probably not the most effective way to lose weight, compared to weight lifting. Are you surprised? Let’s go see four reasons why it is better to lift weights for weight loss.
Aerobic exercise doesn’t burn as many calories
Aerobic exercise can help you improve oxygen uptake, heart rate and short-term calorie expenditure.
However, it is very difficult to achieve caloric deficit only through the cardio. A 2011 meta-analysis of 14 different studies involving a total of 1,800 people found that aerobic exercise is not the appropriate way to lose weight for overweight or obese people. On a run of about 40 minutes you may lose around 400 calories. After training, you will certainly consume more calories. So you don’t achieve a caloric deficit.
The body adjusts
If an untrained person starts to do aerobic exercise, it is certain that at first the results will give him a lot of hope. However, as time passes, his body will adapt to the specific training and so he will need less energy (and less calories) in order to complete his training. The heart and muscles will become stronger and so you will very often need to increase the intensity of training. At some point, this may not be sustainable.
Excessive aerobic exercise has the opposite effect.
Excessive aerobic exercise may:
- increase the risk of injury
- prevent muscle growth
- reduce metabolism
- cause more fat to be stored
Weights are more efficient
Training with resistors is probably the most effective way to weight loss.
By increasing your muscle mass, you can increase the amount of calories you burn at rest. That means you’re going to hit your target, which is none other than having a calorie deficit.
If you only do aerobic exercise, then you will burn calories only during your workout. At the same time, with a good weight training, you’re losing about the same calories.
With information from bodybuilding.com
