Fat Loss Workouts - Cardio vs Weight Training - Which Is Best?

Before we talk about fat loss workouts and give you a couple of workouts I'd just like to say that I believe exercise is overrated for fat loss - its diet that is king. The crowd will tell you different but they're wrong - you can use the best form of exercise there is but if your diet is wrong you'll never be lean.

When you think of exercise and fat loss you probably think of aerobic exercise - like the treadmill, stepper or exercise bike. This is low intensity cyclical aerobic exercise (aka cardio) that you see most people perform- but is it the best way to burn fat?

I doubt it.

Again I'm going to disagree with the crowd and say anaerobic exercise with free weights is a much better form of exercise for burning fat. And I'm not trying to be controversial I'm just stating a fact.

Let's first take a look at of cardio.

Before we talk about the exercise let's look at the average person who starts to exercise to lose weight. Most are overweight not because they eat too much but because they eat the wrong foods and their bodies are literally starving because their diet is so depleted of the necessary nutrients.

We don't normally associate 'starving' with 'overweight' but it's a case of eating the wrong foods - which get stored as fat - as opposed to eating the right foods which feed our bodies and get used for fuel.

That's why diet is the most important factor in fat loss and health. And if you have optimal diet AND the ideal fat loss workouts in place you have a powerful force at work.

The average, overweight person is already under stress because overweight and starved = stressed state.

This type of person should forget about doing cardio because this just puts another stress on an already stressed out system.

I'm not saying you shouldn't exercise - I'm saying you should use the right exercise and strategies to take stress off your system to get the best results for your appearance and health. And cardio isn't optimal exercise.

Why and what is?

Because even 30 minute bouts of aerobic exercise will activate the body's sympathetic nervous (stress) system also called the 'fight or flight' system and when the body is in this state the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline are activated and this causes the body to eat away at its own tissue (muscle) for fuel.

This is what is known as a catabolic state - the breaking down of body tissue and this alone causes you to go into fat storing survival mode. The body then thinks it is in a crisis - and this leads to premature and accelerated aging.

So when the average, overweight and stressed out person starts doing cardio exercise they are in a very unhealthy position and these types of workouts are especially undesirable for people who are already under a considerable amount of stress.

But what about relatively healthy people who just want to lose weight and look better?

That would depend on whether you want the most effective fat loss workouts and whether you enjoy aerobic type exercise. A lot of people hate doing cardiovascular exercise because it is cyclical and boring and this means they are less likely to keep it up.

Cyclical aerobic training like the exercise bike, stepper, jogging and treadmill has very low nervous system activation. This means that your body is practically on auto pilot and your metabolic rate is at a low level and that's why you can read a magazine or watching television while on the cardio machines down at your local gym.

This isn't the optimal fat burning state.

You may lose weight doing cardio workouts but the result of this continual cyclical aerobic exercise is that you'll also lose strength and muscle.

And if you have any existing neck, back and knee problems they will probably be aggravated by the pounding away on a treadmill and if you haven't got these problems you may be on the road to them (pun intended).

But what about the heart, isn't aerobic training good for your heart?

That's what we all think because that is what we've been told by so called 'experts' through the media for decades.

But there isn't a single study that says aerobic exercise is superior to weight training for conditioning the heart.

But doesn't heavy weight training increase the risk of heart attacks because there have been plenty of heavy lifters who've died through cardiovascular disease?

Not according to the late Dr Mel Siff, an exercise scientist. Siff said that high intensity resistance training with weights may prevent heart attacks through conditioning the cardiovascular system and making it cope better with changes in blood pressure and heart rate.

And the reason quite a few heavy lifters have died through cardiovascular disease is because they have abused anabolic steroids which elevate blood pressure and lower good cholesterol levels.

So what else will weight training workouts do for us?

Apart from being the best fat loss workouts they will also strengthen joints, tendons and ligaments as well as help build muscular balance throughout the body and prepare you for more vigorous exercise.

Hitting the iron will also preserve and build lean muscle and in a study done at Tufts university loss of muscle mass was found to be the number one bio-marker of aging. So the more muscle you have on your bones the longer you may live.

Resistance weight training will also increase your endurance and staying power which can be beneficial in your work, sport or day to day activity. And these kind of workouts will optimise the hormones growth hormone, testosterone and DHEA which are responsible for keeping us youthful, strong and vibrant and the presence of these hormones will make us burn fat more readily even when at rest.

It will optimise the hormones growth hormone, testosterone and DHEA which are responsible for keeping us youthful, strong and vibrant. The presence of these hormones also makes our bodies burn fat more readily even when at rest.

So what kind of workouts should you do?

To start getting specific a much better way to train for maximum fat loss and a host of other healthy benefits is to train with free weights and cluster multiple resistance movement patterns together into a workout. Couple this with short rest periods and you have a bodybuilder type workout which will melt fat for up to 72 hours after a workout.

Performing the workout like this puts you in an anabolic state. Anabolic = the building up of body tissue and this is a highly desirable state to be in and puts your body into fat burning mode.

So there is your answer to which are the best fat loss workouts but if you choose the right one you won't be able to read a magazine or watch television while you're performing it.

And remember -diet is the key to fat loss but the best form of exercise you will maximise your fat burning potential and be lithe, lean and healthy as a result.

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