Cardio Versus Weight Training, Which is better?
By
Jeffery Banek
Cardio training or weight training which is better? This is a very common question that I hear from my clients on a regular basis. Should I do more cardio or more weights? The easy answer is both. If you only performing cardio training you will lower your body fat but you will also lower your lean muscle mass. As you workout your body sees a need for fuel. At first it burns through your “easy to access” sugar supply called glucose and then more complex carbohydrates. When all your carbohydrate storage is gone or over a certain period of time your body switches from burning carbohydrates to burning fat. Then over time if you are not showing a need for muscle and need more energy, you will stop burning fat and start burning muscle (protein). The major problem with this is that muscle is the engine of your body. The “bigger” your engine is the more fuel you will burn. This is one of the main reasons that men tend to lose body fat a little easier than women. Men usually will have more muscle mass than women and due to this, they have a higher metabolism overall.
When you only perform cardio exercises you will lose muscle mass over time if you are not “showing a need” for muscle. You can “show a need” for muscle in two different ways. The first way is by adding a regular weight training routine to your exercise program. This will tell your body that muscle is important because when you weight train you are building lean muscle and therefore showing a “need”. The other way is to not cut carbohydrates out of your diet and to eat about 1/2 a gram to a gram of protein per pound of body weight depending on your personal fitness and weight loss goals. One pound of muscle burns about 50 calories a day. If we were about to add 10 pounds of lean muscle to your body through weight training you would burn a EXTRA 500 CALORIES A DAY. That means you will be burning a extra 3,500 calories a week. 3,500 calories just so happens to be the exact number of calories needed to burn one pound of fat. So by adding 10 pounds of lean muscle to your body you will be able to lose a EXTRA pound a week without working out. Now I know a lot of you are saying wait one minute Jeff, I came to you to lose weight not gain any and I don’t want to look like a guy (unless you are one). First things first there is no way that a woman will ever, when weight training properly, put on anything but nice long, lean muscle that will give you that definition that you have always wanted. With all this new great definition that you now have, you will also have new found strength. You will no longer have to have help to lift or move things and you will be able to open every lid on any jar :-). Second let’s say you have 40 pounds to lose. You will lose all 40 pounds (maybe even more) but on the scale it will only show a 30 pound loss because you will have added 10 pounds of lean muscle. That is why sometimes you’re working out and feeling great and you notice that your clothes are fitting better but for some reason the scale is not moving as fast as you want it too. The reason for this is that you have put on lean muscle. You have increased your metabolism. Muscle is 3 times as dense as fat. If we filled up a container with fat (yes, that is a very gross image) and it weighed a pound the same container if filled with muscle would weigh about 3 pounds.
Muscle versus Fat
This is also one of the reasons that as we age we “lose our metabolism”. You are not “losing your metabolism” you are losing your lean muscle mass. When we hit the age of about 30-35 we start to lose our muscle mass at the rate of about a pound per year. Just think if the opposite of what you have learned today happens and instead of adding lean muscle mass you lose it. If you lose 10 pounds of muscle over the years you lose the ability to burn 3,500 calories a week and you start to gain a pound of fat a week over time.
So next time you ask yourself should I do more cardio or more weight training, the answer is both. You really can’t have a proper exercise program that does not include some of each. I would not make weight training the major part of your program if you are looking mainly for weight loss but you should perform a regular weight training routine at least 2-3 times a week for best results. To find out exactly how much of each you should be doing talk to your local personal trainer and find out what is right for you. I hope this has helped you to determine how important a good balance between weight training and cardio really are.
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