Raise your hand if you think that hours and hours of cardio is one of the best exercises for losing weight.
That’s been the narrative for decades now, but the short story is that it simply isn’t true. While weight loss isn’t always best goal that you can have, if you’re truly set on losing weight then cardio won’t help you get there by itself.
Resistance training is actually one of the best exercises for losing weight.
Here’s Why:
When you do cardio, you may be burning calories at the moment. As soon as you stop the exercise, you stop actively burning calories. But calories from exercise are only a small part of how we burn calories throughout the day.
Most of our calories are burned by keeping us alive, otherwise known as a basal metabolic rate (BMR). Some more calories are burned by Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (a NEAT way to say all the stuff you do that isn’t exercise). Even the act of eating and digesting food has a calorie cost!
In order to find a way to burn more calories than just the small portion of exercise calories, we have to build up our calorie burning ability without exercise. This is where resistance training comes in! Muscles are calorically expensive to maintain and repair. The more we have of them, the more calories we burn throughout the day.
Resistance training creates larger and denser lean muscle mass. This in turn creates a larger calorie burn, which leads to a reduction in body mass (usually fat tissue. Fat doesn’t “turn into” muscle, but it may seem that way when your body changes). That’s why resistance training is one of the best exercises for losing weight!
That is also why even having weight loss as a goal isn’t always the best answer. You may not even see the scale move, as denser muscle develops and fat loss occurs slowly. What you will see is your body change shape!
Looking and feeling better at the heart of our Dynamic Habits 12 Week Program, aimed at non-counting goals. When we ignore weight and calorie counting, we can start to see and feel the differences healthy habits have on our body. If you’re ready to join the Anti-Diet Revolution, book a free strategy session today!
