Is cardio or weights better for belly fat?

Cardio has been shown to specifically reduce visceral fat, meaning belly fat. While it's clear weight training burns fat better than cardio, cardio training may target the waistline more specifically than lifting weights. That's a huge benefit, as many people are actively seeking to cut inches around the midsection.

statesmanjournal.com - Cardio vs. weights: One beats other in fat loss - Statesman Journal

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Kyle Davey

Special to the Statesman Journal

Nearly every client I train lists fat loss as one of their goals. In a society where more than two thirds of adults are considered overweight, and nearly one third considered obese, weight loss is becoming more and more prevalent of a reason to exercise. Not to mention, if you are obese, losing weight might save you thousands of dollars in medical expenses down the road, but more importantly, it might save your life. Undoubtedly, the two most common forms of exercise, especially in the gym, are “cardio,” which is short for cardiovascular and usually consists of walking on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike, and weight training.

Both can be beneficial if done correctly, but when it comes to fat loss, which is best?

The research is clear on this subject. If you want to lose fat, weight lifting is definitively superior than cardiovascular training for a number of reasons. Muscles are like little calorie factors. The more muscle you have, or more active it is, the more calories you burn at rest. That means while you sleep, watch TV, sit at your desk at work or read this column, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn doing so. And those extra burned calories add up. Moreover, our bodies expend calories to recover after a workout, and weight training tends to require more recovery than cardio training does. That means that after the workout is over, typically you burn more calories after weight lifting than you do after cardio. Say you spend 50 calories jogging, and another 50 to recover after your done, for a total of 100 calories burned. Now say you spend 30 calories weight lifting but another 170 to recover. That’s a total of 200 calories, which is more than cardio training, even though the weight workout itself required less calories than jogging. I just made those numbers up, but they demonstrate the point that weight training, if done hard enough, tends to burn more calories than cardio in the long run. What’s more is that the more cardio you do, the better you get at it, meaning you use less calories to do the same workout. In other words, the more and more jogging you do, the more efficient of a runner you become, and the less and less calories you burn to run the same distance. It’s as if your miles per gallon, or miles per calorie, goes up, which is bad for fat loss as it equals less expended calories with time. Weight lifting, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite. Heavier lifts require more calories. Deadlifting 500 pounds expends more energy than deadlifting 100 pounds. So the stronger you get, the more weight you throw around and the more calories you burn as a result. Not to mention, heavier lifts require more recovery, which again means more calories expended.

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You get stronger and burn more calories. Win-win.

In spite of all this, there is something to be said for cardio training. Cardio has been shown to specifically reduce visceral fat, meaning belly fat. While it’s clear weight training burns fat better than cardio, cardio training may target the waistline more specifically than lifting weights. That’s a huge benefit, as many people are actively seeking to cut inches around the midsection. Exercise, no matter the type, burns calories, which is good for fat loss. Nothing novel there: Exercise is good.

But when we get nit-picky about how to maximize fat-loss efforts, what’s the best way to go?

Mixing cardio and weight training is the best combination, ideally on alternating days. During weight-training days, do full-body lifts, meaning every muscle group in the body every time you lift. That’s how you’ll burn the most calories and get the most bang for your buck.

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Because you shouldn’t train the same muscle two days in a row, and because you’ll be training every muscle every lifting session, do cardio in between lifting days. That way, instead of being a couch potato, you’re still getting some good exercise in. I recommend weight lifting three days and working cardio in two days per week. A typical week could be weight training Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Of course nutrition is the most important part of weight loss, but as far as exercise goes, follow this model and you’ll be headed toward success. Kyle Davey is the head personal trainer at Courthouse club in Keizer and has an exercise science degree from Willamette University. Call (503) 589-7563 or email him at kyledavey209@gmail.com.

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statesmanjournal.com - Cardio vs. weights: One beats other in fat loss - Statesman Journal

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