Cardio vs. Weight Training: Which is Better for Weight Loss?

Surely you have heard that to lose weight you need to do some type of cardiovascular activity. But while this assumption has been around for decades, it’s vastly overrated, as we’ll see later in this article.

On the other hand, if you want to lose maximum weight and remove the maximum amount of fat from your body, you should definitely do some form of weight training.

Aerobic activity, often called cardiovascular activity, or cardio for short, burns a lot of calories, if done correctly. In fact, after aerobic activity ceases, the body will continue to burn calories at an accelerated rate for several hours. But cardiovascular activity doesn’t increase the body’s metabolism like weight training does, and for this reason, it’s ultimately not as beneficial for fat loss as weight training is.

Weight training, also called anaerobic activity, will completely reshape your body. If done correctly, weight training will tone muscles, maintain lean body mass, and increase strength. Weight training also has another benefit that many people don’t realize. This hidden benefit is the fact that weight training increases your resting metabolic rate. What this means is that if you train with weights regularly, your body will burn calories at an accelerated rate throughout the day, even when you’re not doing anything.

If you wanted to, you could sit on your couch and watch TV all day, while burning calories at an accelerated rate. People who engage in cardiovascular activity and neglect weight lifting do not have this benefit.