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Cardio vs Weights for Weight Loss
Cardio and weightlifting are the two most popular type of exercise. Many people who are about to begin their weight loss journey are stuck between which of the two is better at losing weight.
Cardio is anything that raises your heart rate and makes you breathe heavy. Cardio does burn a ton of calories, but that depends on exactly what you’re doing and how intensely you’re doing it.
Cardio without any doubt burns more calories than strength training. With cardio training, you might get an extra 40-80 calories burned after a moderately paced session, but this will depend upon the exact intensity and duration of the workout. In order to generate a high amount of post-calorie burn from aerobics, you’d have to be doing it for a very long duration of time.
Weight training helps you build up a larger degree of lean muscle mass, which then basically serves as a calorie-burning powerhouse in the body. The more muscle you have on your body, the higher your basal metabolic rate will be and the better the calorie-burning results you will obtain.
Another huge benefit of weight training over cardio is that it will allow you to completely transform your body. Weight training will provide you with a much better overall transformation, than just doing cardio alone to lose weight.
There is a general misconception about women who lift weights. Most women shy away from lifting weights, simply because they believe doing so, will cause to build large amounts of muscle and look manly. However, this is not true. The male hormone testosterone is responsible for the large muscle mass seen in bodybuilders. Except on exogenous steroids, females do not have high enough testosterone levels naturally to develop the same amount of muscle mass as males.
Besides cardio and weightlifting, another option you may consider for weight loss is high-intensity interval training (HIIT). High-intensity interval training (HIIT) describes any workout that alternates between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest.
How Much Cardio Does It Take to Lose Weight Fast?
For newbies and people working really hard to shed those extra pounds, there is a bone of contention of how much cardio it will take to lose weight fast.
Before jumping into how much cardio is best for weight loss, it is imperative to outline some basics about how the body works. It’s common knowledge that weight loss happens when you create a calorie deficit, burning more calories than you eat. But, how much cardio you need varies from person to person and depends on factors such as:
- How much calories you consume.
- Your overall fitness and health condition
- Your total body fat and weight
- Your age, gender and basal metabolic rate (BMR).
- Your exercise programs and scheduling.
- Genetics
3,500 is the number of calories in a single pound of fat and therefore the number required for you to burn in a week to lose one pound a week. In order to lose a pound in one week, you need to create a 3,500-calorie deficit; in other words, you need to burn off 3,500 more calories than you eat. A 30-minute power walk on flat ground burns about 120 calories. So, to burn off 1 pound of fat by walking, you’d have to hoof it for more than 2 hours a day.
The American College of Sports Medicine guidelines recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week (that is about 30 minutes five times per week). Increasing your activity level increases the number of calories you burn a day, which helps you burn the fat around your belly.
Basically, the amount of cardio you have to do to lose weight is super flexible per your schedule and your preferences. No matter which ways you choose, cardio will help you shed pounds and keep them off.
Target Heart Rate for Cardio Fat Burn
This is a heart rate zone specific to each individual that burns the fattest calories
The fastest, cheapest and easiest way to measure your heart rate is by using your fingers to count your pulse. There are different pulse points on the body that can be used. Place your fingers on those points, count your heartbeats for 60 seconds. The number you get is your heart rate
Another way to maximize your heart rate is to do a simple calculation. Subtract your age from 220. The result is an age-predicted maximum beat per minute. This method does not take into consideration your fitness level or genetics. A second method of calculating your maximum heart rate is to undergo an exercise tolerance or stress test. This is usually performed in a hospital or clinic under the supervision of a doctor. The tolerance is carried out in three stages in which the speed and incline continue to increase in an effort to elevate your heart until it reaches its peak.
There are a variety of tools designed to help you keep track of your heart rate during exercise and even while doing your daily chores. This include wrist monitor such as the Fitbit Charge 2, and chest strap monitor. These devices continually keep track of your daily steps, the distance of workouts, calories burned, floors climbed and heart rate
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References
Adams, S., & Burns, S. (2008). Endurance-Trained People Burn More Fat Calories at Rest Than Sedentary People. Medicine & Science In Sports & Exercise, 40(Supplement), S173. doi: 10.1249/01.mss.0000322214.21626.e3
Houdijk, A. (2015). Weight loss: What are the best outcome measures?. Journal Of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy, 05(04). doi: 10.4172/2165-7904.s1.014
LeFavi, R. (2017). The skinny on fat loss: An approach to weight management based on current research. Journal Of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy, 07(07). doi: 10.4172/2165-7904-c1-53
Lemstra, M. (2016). Weight-loss intervention adherence levels and factors promoting adherence. Journal Of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy, 06(04). doi: 10.4172/2165-7904.c1.029
Napoleone, A. (2014). Diet Therapy of Obesity: Observations on the Usefulness of Weekly Supervision in the Improvement of Weight Loss. Journal Of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy, 04(03). doi: 10.4172/2165-7904.1000225
