Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
#88 - Weights Or Cardio For Fat Loss?
57 Plays3 months ago
Wondering which is better for fat loss. You'll find the things you need to know about both so you aren't wasting time and effort on the way to your fat loss goals. Here are a few things we'll cover.
- Benefits of cardio for fat loss
- Benefits of strength training for fat loss
- Which is more effective for fat loss
- What an exercise plan should look like for fat loss
1-on-1 Coaching: Interest Form Here
Fit(ish) Project Newsletter: Sign Up
IG: Bassbuiltfitness
Facebook: bassbuiltfitness
Tik tok: bassbuiltfitness
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to The Fit-ish Project
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome back to The Fit-ish Project with your host, as always, Latham Bass, where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We have another weekly episode coming at you this week. Before I get into that, if you have not left a review, you can do that. Continue to get this out to the people who need this information the most. I really appreciate that.
Why Do New Year's Resolutions Focus on Weight Loss?
00:00:24
Speaker
But with this week's episode, so we know that we're getting towards the end of the year and a lot of people are going to go into the new year with certain New Year's resolutions. That's something that a lot of people do every single year. I was looking at some different statistics and I was talking about roughly about half of Americans will choose to create some sort of New Year's resolutions.
00:00:47
Speaker
And of those people who decide to do New Year's resolutions, almost another half of those people will have some sort of New Year's resolution around weight loss. So it's a super common goal. It's a super common thing that people try to address as the new year comes around.
Diet vs. Exercise: Which Matters More for Weight Loss?
00:01:03
Speaker
And so I thought this would be a good time to talk about what actually is a good plan when it comes to trying to lose fat. And one of the biggest questions around this is like, what type of exercise should you be doing when it comes to weight loss?
00:01:17
Speaker
Because we know that obviously diet plays a pretty big role in weight loss. And if we're being honest, diet plays a larger role than exercise does. There's no doubt about that because you can exercise all you want, but it is extremely hard to out exercise a bad diet unless you're one of the people in one of those rare exceptions, like you're an athlete or you're doing some sort of like really long endurance type of training.
00:01:42
Speaker
where you're literally exercising hours every single day. But if you don't fall into that category, which I highly doubt anybody who is listening to this does, myself included, then it is extremely hard to out train or out exercise a bad diet. So yes, diet is absolutely important. But with that being said, exercise also plays a role in not only just losing weight, but especially in sustaining weight. Because when it comes to people who Sustain weight loss. They are typically just people who are more active and people who exercise regularly because Obviously, you know you burn calories as you start to exercise and so that helps from that standpoint But just with like living a healthier active lifestyle You're also just going to be more likely to make healthier choices because as you are being more active as you're focusing and prioritizing more on health as you're exercising more regularly
00:02:35
Speaker
As you're doing more things that are active, you tend to try to want to make better decisions from a health standpoint as well. So it really is helpful to not only just focus on one or the other, like focus on strictly diet or focus strictly on exercise. It really is a combination of the two, if you want to have the best results possible.
Cardio or Strength Training: Which is Better for Fat Loss?
00:02:54
Speaker
And so when it comes to like exercise in general, a big question that people will ask is like, should I be doing cardio or should I be doing strength training? Like which one is better when it comes to fat loss specifically?
00:03:04
Speaker
And so I'm going to dive into that in this episode here. And so by the end of this episode, you have a good idea of what you really want to be focusing on if your goal is fat loss. And now again, to preface a little bit fat loss and weight loss are slightly different and we'll get into some of those details. But I think it's important to really understand what these particular things actually do for you because When you look at these things, strength training, cardio, even like mobility stretching, just different forms of like movement and exercise. All these things are just tools. They're tools that you want to use in order to accomplish a certain goal. And so if you do want to do this in the most efficient and most effective way possible, then I think it's important to understand what tools will provide you with what benefits because
00:03:54
Speaker
You're trying to use the wrong tool for the wrong job. We know that probably is not going to work very well. But on the other side of things, you also have to take into account the things that you like because that is also going to play a role in how often you want to do these things, how consistent you are with these things.
00:04:08
Speaker
in all those different parts of this whole equation. So we're going to get into a little bit of that so that if you are somebody who is looking to lose some fat and looking to maybe look a little bit better, feel a little bit better, you know an approach that you can take to get you to that goal. so When we're talking about these two things, cardio versus strength training, they both have tons of benefits. And my views on these certain things have changed over the years, as I've learned more, as I've started to experiment a little bit more, as I've started to just try different things. My
00:04:41
Speaker
thoughts around these things have changed. And we all have our biases of things that we like and don't like, but I'm just going to try to give you the objective facts about these things. And that way you can kind of take this information in and make the best decision possible for the goals that you may have moving forward. So when we're talking about strength training in particular, I think a lot of us already know that it's important from a standpoint of like building muscle from building strength, building muscular endurance, improving our power, it can even help with some other things like increasing our bone health and bone density, increasing our mobility. So all these different things that are good from both a physical standpoint and a mental standpoint are things that you can get from strength training. And when it comes to strength training, you can do these in a lot of different ways. So you have just your traditional strength training where you're resting two to three minutes in between sets. Maybe you're using free weights. Maybe you're using machines. Maybe you're using some body weight stuff or doing calisthenics. You have other kinds of styles of strength training, more so like CrossFit.
00:05:40
Speaker
maybe a little bit higher intensity than our traditional strength training. But there's tons of different ways that you can go about including strength training, but it is definitely something that is highly beneficial both from a physical and a mental standpoint. So when it comes to fat loss, why is strength training important? Well, it's important for three main reasons when it when we're looking at fat loss.
The Benefits of Strength Training for Weight Management
00:06:02
Speaker
so Number one, it's going to be a big role in the way that you look. And the reason that is is because muscle plays a pretty significant role in how you're going to look as you start to lose weight and as you start to trim the fat off. So if you're somebody who does not have a lot of muscle mass as you start to
00:06:21
Speaker
trim that fat down as you start to lose weight, your appearance is gonna be a little bit different than somebody who does have a lot of muscle mass underneath their fat mass. Because as they start to strip that fat away, they're gonna have the appearance of being more toned, more fit, more athletic, and they're gonna have that body shape that a lot of people are after. Because when I talk to people about ah you know certain weight loss goals that they may have or wanting to lose fat and those things, a lot of the terms that that they talk about or that they mention is wanting to be more tone. And all that means is that you have more muscle mass and you have less fat mass. That's all that means. And so if you start to strip this fat away, you don't have the muscle that you want, you're probably not gonna look the way that you wanna look. So muscle plays a really big role in the way that you look. And so if you do have certain aesthetic goals, then strength training is definitely gonna be important to those goals. When it comes to metabolism, muscle also plays a pretty big role. And the reason why this is important when it comes to fat loss,
00:07:17
Speaker
is because more muscle leads to being able to eat more food. So it's roughly like every pound of muscle that you have on your frame is an extra six to 10 calories that you are burning. And that's whether you're doing certain activities or you're just at rest. So let's say you add 20, 25 pounds of muscle onto your frame, which is quite a bit, but For somebody who's first getting into strength training, it's not out of the question. um You can add a pretty significant amount of muscle to your frame with good solid strength training. So let's say you add 20 pounds of muscle. Well, now you're burning you know an extra, it could be up to 200 calories from simply just adding that muscle onto to your frame. And while 200 calories per day doesn't seem like a lot, expand that throughout the week and now you're burning an extra 1400 calories within your week, that's definitely not nothing.
00:08:06
Speaker
And so it does make a significant difference throughout the long-term if you do have more muscle on your frame. So that's another really big reason why adding some muscle to your frame can be really, really important and can help with just having more freedom and flexibility when it comes to your food choices. Because one thing that I've seen with working with different clients now and different body shapes and people have different amounts of muscle and things like that, people that are maybe have a background in strength training or athletics and have that muscle mass already versus people who have more fat mass and have more weight to lose who don't necessarily have as much muscle. Their metabolism is a lot slower. In other words, they're just not burning as much calories.
00:08:49
Speaker
Because muscle is considered inexpensive tissue and all that means is that it takes more calories to hold on to that muscle and to make sure that everything is working properly when it comes to the body. So if you have more muscle, it just takes your body more calories to just keep everything working in order and to keep that muscle on your frame. so you take two different people, and let's say they're both 250 pounds, you have somebody who has a lot of muscle mass, and you have somebody who has way more fat mass, the person who has a lot of muscle mass is going to burn more calories, not just when they're doing exercises and things like that, but also just at rest. And it's going to allow them to eat more food, it's going to allow them to be a little bit more flexible within their approach. And it's just going to allow you a little bit of leeway that you don't necessarily get when you don't have as much muscle mass. And so
00:09:36
Speaker
When it comes to things like sustaining weight or even losing weight, it's a little bit more difficult because you don't have as much room to play with. You don't have that flexibility when it comes to how much you can eat, the type of things you can eat and all those certain things. so To simplify that or to just kind of sum all that up, having more muscle mass creates more flexibility and more freedom when it comes to your food choices.
How Muscle Mass Affects Life Quality and Longevity
00:09:58
Speaker
And then the last thing that I would say about muscle and just fat loss in general is that building more muscle can improve the quality of your life. So when you have more muscle mass, you're likely to live a longer life, but you're also more likely to live a life where you can do all the things that you wanna do, which is gonna increase the quality of your life. Because if you don't have muscle mass, especially as you age,
00:10:18
Speaker
you're going to struggle with things like strength and endurance, mobility may not be as good. Maybe you don't have quite the energy that you want to have in order to do all the things that you want to do. So when it comes to just a quality of life standpoint, muscle mass is also really important when it comes to that. When we're talking about cardio, cardio also has tons of different benefits as well when it comes to improving your heart health, obviously is the main thing that we think about. But Even things like improving your mental clarity, improving your mood, better VO2 max, which comes with increasing your cardio is associated with also living a longer life, um increasing your endurance so that you have more energy in those things. so
00:10:55
Speaker
Cardio also has tons of really good benefits, but it is very different just from a standpoint of the things that it will provide you. And obviously when it comes to cardio, you're not going to be building a bunch of muscle on your body, which is the biggest difference between the two. But when you're looking at cardio, there's also different types of cardio that we have. So you have your low intensity stuff and then you have like your higher intensity stuff where your heart rate's really getting up there. You're really working hard just with things like you know circuits or HIIT training, things like that. And then you have like on the lower intensity side of things, you have things like walking, running, hiking, biking, swimming. But when we're thinking about cardio, it's really just anything that's gonna get your heart rate up for an extended period of time. It's gonna give you some cardio benefits and it is going to help improve that heart health over time, which is important again. So you can see that there's important parts of cardio and then there's important things when it comes to strength training as well.
00:11:48
Speaker
And so when we're thinking specifically about fat loss when it comes to cardio, probably the the biggest benefit that people use it for is just burning extra calories. And like I said, there is plenty of other health benefits. So like strictly just focusing on it to burn extra calories, I think kind of misses the whole point of just the benefits of cardio in general. But when we're speaking in terms of just fat loss specifically, doing more cardio does help you burn more calories. And I think that's the way that a lot of people look at it.
00:12:16
Speaker
But as we'll get into here, there's some nuances that come with that. And so like, it's not that one thing is better than the other. It's not that strength training is better than the cardio or cardio is better than strength training. But when we have certain fat loss goals, there are some details that you need to understand in order to make sure that you're making the best decisions to get you to the goal that you want to get to. So before we get into that, discussing those things, you have to understand the fat loss process itself. So if you've listened to this podcast before, you know what a calorie deficit is.
00:12:46
Speaker
if my maintenance calories are 2500 and I am taking in 2000 calories per day, I'm in a calorie deficit, I'm going to lose weight. And so we know that that is the only way that we can lose weight, that we can lose fat. So it's important to realize that when it comes to being in a calorie deficit, there's two parts of this. So obviously, like I said, taking in less calories through food and drink, but you can also burn calories through movement through exercise, which also helps to increase that calorie deficit. And so you can see how exercise also becomes an important part of this equation as well. Because like I said, you could strictly focus on diet and diet is important when it comes to losing weight.
Creating a Balanced Fitness Plan
00:13:26
Speaker
But you also want to focus on the other side of it with being active with exercising regularly with doing your strength training cardio combination of the two so that you can continue to burn calories and also get all those extra benefits that come from
00:13:40
Speaker
participating in those two different areas as well. So when it comes to like your short term benefits, I think cardio is probably what people tend to gravitate towards because you are likely going to burn more calories than you do through strength training. And so a lot of people hear that and they think, okay, cardio is the answer because I'm going to burn more calories, I can lose more weight faster and get to my goal quicker. But I think a big thing that people fail to realize is that You are not burning as many calories as you think when it comes to exercise. And a lot of people will tend to overestimate how much exercise they're actually doing, how many calories they're actually burning through these certain things.
00:14:20
Speaker
And so then they get into a spot where they're like doing all this exercise, doing all this cardio, but they're not really seeing the results that they want to see. And a lot of that comes down to, again, you're not burning as many calories as you think. And on top of that, as you start to do more cardio, as you start to lose weight, you start to become better at cardio. Your body starts to adapt because you start to become more efficient at that certain cardio. So for example, let's say that you get into running. And when you start running, you're 250 pounds.
00:14:50
Speaker
You get running, you start running for a couple of months. As your body starts to get better at running, your form improves. As you start to get more efficient, your heart starts to get stronger. Maybe you even start to lose some weight. So now that you're lighter, you start to burn less calories over time. So maybe when you started, you were running, you were burning 300 calories from running, but as you start to get into it, maybe now you're only burning 200 or maybe you're only burning 150 calories from running where you used to be burning weight more. So that's also something that I think people fail to realize. And when you know that that is the case,
00:15:21
Speaker
you're kind of running yourself to a dead end because if you're strictly just using cardio to burn calories, you're going to start to burn less and less calories as you start to get better at cardio. And then you have to end up compensating by doing more cardio to burn more calories. So you can see how you get in this kind of crazy cycle of just like continuing to try to do more and more and more in order to burn more calories in order to lose more weight. And so That's why it can be a little bit problematic to just strictly focus on cardio when it comes to losing fat. From a long-term benefit, I think muscle building definitely has its place and probably is more effective when it comes to specifically fat loss for the reasons that we talked about because the more muscle mass that you have, again, the more calories that you're going to burn.
00:16:06
Speaker
at rest and during exercise. Plus, you don't adapt the same way that you do when it comes to strength training as you do with cardio. Because with strength training, if you're doing it the right way and you're focusing on progressive overload, which just means that you're continuing to try to get stronger, you're trying to lift more weight, you're lifting more reps. If you're focusing on all those things, you're constantly stressing your body with a new stimulus. And so it never really has that chance to adapt. It just continues to grow stronger.
00:16:35
Speaker
get better, get more efficient, those sorts of things. And so you continue to see those changes. You grow muscle, you look better, you feel better, all those different things. And so the fact of the matter is like both of these things are good and both of these things can help you lose fat, but understanding that these things have certain limitations and these things have things that they do pretty well and things that maybe they don't do quite as well. And so.
00:17:00
Speaker
when it comes to an actual plan of like we have the benefits of strength training we have the benefits of cardio we know what both of these things do we have both of these tools what should we do when it comes to specifically trying to lose fat and i would say in a perfect world you do both right like You're going to get all the mental benefits from cardio and you're going to get all the mental but mental benefits from lifting weights. You get all the physical benefits from both. You get both the short-term and long-term benefits of each of these things. And so you're kind of getting the best of both worlds. But I also realized that not everybody is going to want to do both and not everybody is going to have the time to incorporate maybe as much of both as they want.
00:17:41
Speaker
And so I would say if you're somebody who does have the time, definitely try to include both. And I'll give you a little bit more tangible plan as we move through this podcast. But if you can include both, definitely try to include both. If you're limited on time, I would say try to prioritize weights first. Because again, if you have goals around your aesthetics, which a very large portion of people who come to me have some sort of goals around the way that they look.
00:18:08
Speaker
then there's no doubt that strength training is gonna give you a bigger bang for your book. If you have goals around just your longevity and just with like having more flexibility with food and things like that, like again, strength training is probably going to be your better option. And so I would focus first on prioritizing strength training that would be at the top of the list.
00:18:28
Speaker
After that, I would probably try to incorporate more just walking more steps. And the reason that I would say to incorporate that is because for most people, adding that in is something they can add in very easily without adding a bunch of extra friction into their day. So like, if you're currently only getting 3000 4000 steps, you can probably up those a couple thousand pretty easily just by starting to focus on just getting a few extra steps, maybe after your meals or Maybe in the morning you go for a 15 minute walk and the evening you go for a 10, 15 minute walk. Like there's super easy ways that you can start to incorporate more steps within your day, which is going to do the same things on a little bit less intense level as cardio. So like you'll burn some of those calories that you would from cardio. It won't give you the exact same benefits when it comes to just improving your heart health quite as much, but you'll get some of those same benefits from walking and it has just
00:19:23
Speaker
tons of those things that are going to help us when it comes to weight loss and just our general health overall. So like first, I would say focus on strength training. Second, I would say do some walking. And then third, I would say if you do have some time like when it comes to adding in some cardio, then you can absolutely do that.
00:19:42
Speaker
And so adding even just like one or two sessions per week could be anywhere from like 15 to 30 minutes, you're going to see start to see some of those benefits. And then as you start to get into a good routine of you're getting your strength training workouts in, you're getting plenty of steps and you're starting to add in some cardio, then you can continue to build on those things. But you want to make sure that you start with the things that are going to give you the results that you want and also the things that you can stick And so like, like I said, in a perfect world, we would do all these
How to Stay Motivated in Your Fitness Journey
00:20:10
Speaker
things, right? We would strength train, we would do cardio, we would focus on steps. But again, I know that's not as realistic for most people when they're first starting out. So like, I would focus on the things that are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck. And so
00:20:24
Speaker
that would be strength training walking and then eventually starting to add in more cardio. So like for example for me when I first started on my weight loss journey what I did is I focused on three to four days of weights and then I would do two to three days of cardio. Some days I would do some lower intensity stuff and then other days I would do like circuit type of stuff and then eventually I ended up doing a lot less cardio and I just focused mainly on the weights and that was strictly just because I just enjoyed it more like I enjoyed lifting weights more and I was seeing all the aesthetic goals that I really wanted to see because again you can literally lose weight and get all the aesthetic goals that you want without ever doing a single minute of cardio and so if that is your biggest goal then by all means put most of your focus on that.
00:21:09
Speaker
But if you want some of those aesthetic goals, some of those fat law schools, and you also want to get the other added benefits that you're going to get from cardio, then I would add that cardio on top of that after you get to a spot where you feel like you're in a good routine with your lifting schedule and with just being consistent in the gym.
00:21:28
Speaker
Now I'm at a place where like I do both quite a bit. So like typically now I'll lift about four times per week. And then I also will do cardio anywhere from three to five times per week for about 30 to 35 maybe 40 minutes. And that is definitely something that I did not do when I first got into this. Like cardio was something that I did not really enjoy. And I avoided it for a really long time unless I was getting cardio through things like sports or just walking.
00:21:54
Speaker
And so you can see, as I said, like start to build that good foundation and then you can build on that. When it comes to like clients that I work with, a lot of times what we'll typically start out with is we'll start with weights anywhere between two to four times per week, something that I know that they can be really super consistent with. And then we can always build on that to work up to maybe that three, four, sometimes even five times per week.
00:22:17
Speaker
We prioritize walking, so working up to that 8,000 to 10,000 step goal is eventually where we want to get to. But you know if you're somebody who's on that lower end, maybe 2-3,000 right now, just slowly start to build your way up, build your way up to 5,000, then 7,000, then eventually get to that place where you're at that 8-10,000 steps per day.
00:22:37
Speaker
And then if they have those two things and they feel pretty good about those things, then we'll start to add in some cardio sessions. So like maybe one to two times per week, maybe they're doing some sort of circuit like on a Saturday or maybe they're doing like a finisher at the end of a workout or maybe they're just doing some sort of like long lower intensity type of thing that they enjoy like going on a bike ride or doing some hiking or different things like that. And so I think it's also important to remember again, like in the perfect world, like we would do all these things. right But I think it's also important to remember like this needs to be sustainable and there's also a psychology piece to this. So if you're somebody who like you just absolutely hate lifting weights right now, like you don't know what to do, you don't have a plan, you don't really like going to the gym, then start with the exercise that you do. like Maybe cardio is something that you really enjoy and that you know you can be consistent with because you wanna start with the things that you know
00:23:33
Speaker
you're going to be able to stick with and that way you can build some momentum on it and then eventually you can get to a place where you start to add in these other things that are going to give you those benefits because you could lose weight without ever doing any exercise at all if you just cleaned up your diet. You could also lose weight by cleaning up your diet and strictly just walking or strictly just doing cardio. I mean there's tons of people out there who have lost weight who never lifted weights. Now again as we've talked about, there's tons of benefits that you're going to be missing out on if you don't include those things eventually. But I think it's really important when it comes to achieving these goals and especially just starting out on the right path with starting with things that you know that you can be pretty consistent with. And then again, as I've said multiple times, you start to build on that after you start to be a little bit more consistent. And so
00:24:21
Speaker
Hopefully that clears these things up and just with all those things being said, you know, weights is important. Cardio can definitely have its benefits, but when fat loss is the goal, we really want to prioritize weights, prioritize walking and just getting more activity in our day. And then you can start to throw in some cardio in there, supplement those things and start to get all the benefits, all the effects that you'll get from adding in that cardio. But again, build a good foundation and then add on to that as you get going.
00:24:48
Speaker
And with that being said, that is the podcast for this week.
Join Us for Personalized Fitness Coaching
00:24:52
Speaker
If you are somebody who is maybe wanting some help with this stuff, you do have specific fat loss goals, especially getting up into the new year, and you want to book a spot in my coaching program to help you with just accountability, with nutrition, with exercise, with helping you feel better, look better, getting to all those goals that you really want to get to, and you want to make 2025 that year that you actually hit those goals so that you're not in the same spot.
00:25:16
Speaker
Next year this time thinking man, I just wasted another year because sadly that is what quite a few people do then hit me up We'll have a conversation. We'll see if you are a good fit for this, but that is all I have for you at this moment I appreciate you listening and we will see you next week