Performing physical exercise in itself provides many health benefits, although one of the main objectives for which people begin to practice it is the loss of weight, or rather, fat. Fat loss itself also has a positive impact on our health, and although following a low-calorie diet is paramount, the training approach can make our results better or worse.
What does weight training give us?
Weight or strength training provides us with multiple health benefits such as improvements in insulin sensitivity, bone mineral density, blood pressure or cholesterol. In addition, it is the best way to maintain muscle mass when what we are looking for is to lose weight or fat due to the great mechanical tension that our muscles support during this training.
Strength training is not only practiced with weights but can be done with any implement that makes our muscles have to overcome external resistance: kettlebells, gums and even our body weight.
Although somewhat nuanced in sports such as CrossFit, strength training is generally an anaerobic activity characterized by high-intensity efforts but of short duration and where the main energy substrates involved are phosphagens and glycogen.
What does cardiovascular training give us?
Although cardiovascular training shares benefits with strength training, it essentially improves parameters of the cardiorespiratory system such as increased maximum oxygen uptake, hypertrophy of the left ventricular cavity, and mitochondrial synthesis and biogenesis.
Let us remember that mitochondria are our cellular lungs and that the increase in the amount of these as well as their proper functioning brings great benefits to our metabolism.
This type of training, unlike strength training, is an aerobic activity characterized by efforts of less intensity but of longer duration where the most used energy substrate is lipids or fats. We refer to running, cycling or elliptical activities.
The problem when choosing weight training or cardio to lose weight
As we have explained, weight training is characterized by short but intense efforts, unlike cardiovascular training. Likewise, weight training requires the use of phosphagens and glycogen as the main energy source, while cardiovascular training requires mainly fat.
When people want to lose weight, they tend to focus on those activities that mainly use fat as a substrate and that involve a high caloric expenditure. This is not bad in itself, but if doing cardio exclusively involves shifting strength, we have a priority problem.
Although engaging in activities that primarily require the use of fat for fuel is not discouraged, focusing exclusively on them is not sustainable in the long term for weight loss. This is because to lose weight we must create a caloric deficit and this can be done in three ways:
- Decrease calorie intake.
- Increase caloric expenditure.
- Both (recommended).
Suppose a person begins to do half an hour of cardiovascular training each day. At first, everything is great and she loses weight, but she stagnates. Since you know you must increase your spending to increase your calorie deficit, you increase your cardio half an hour to one hour. The cycle repeats and stagnates again. Is it sustainable that you continue to increase your spending in this way?
That is the cardio trap, it requires a great investment of time and as we said at the beginning of the article, you will not be doing your muscle mass any favors, something that does not interest you when it comes to losing weight since it worsens your body composition.
A good way to approach weight loss would be:
- Reduce your calorie intake by up to 500 calories.
- Do strength training.
- Add light cardiovascular activity as a tool to increase caloric expenditure.
- Maintain a high activity level through activities not associated with exercise (NEAT).
In this way, if what you want is to lose weight and fat, the axis of your workouts should be strength and cardio should be used as an accessory to increase caloric expenditure when stagnating. Make progress as little as possible: If you can lose fat without cardio, why do five half-hour sessions a week?