Want to run further, lift heavier or nail your first pull-up? Each month, we put your questions to our team of the finest fitness brains to give you the tools you need to make good on your goals
Q I want to lose weight but hate cardio. How can weight training help me achieve my goal?
Alice Liveing says: You’re right that cardio isn’t a weight loss nonnegotiable. People think it is for the simple reason that it burns more calories than weight training. But changes in your body composition only occur when your body is in an energy deficit, by which I mean it’s expending more energy than you’re putting in with food, and studies show that exercise comprises just 5% of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). The rest of your TDEE is made up of other acronyms. The thermic effect of food (TEF), or how you metabolise it, makes up 10%; non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) – the movement you do without realising, such as walking to the shops – makes up 15%; and your basal metabolic rate (BMR), or how many calories your body burns at rest, constitutes 70%.
What I’m trying to say is that exercise isn’t the be all and end all, but finding a form that you enjoy certainly helps, and weight training can definitely contribute to weight loss. Lifting weights triggers muscle growth (aka hypertrophy), and an increase in muscle mass boosts your BMR as muscle requires more sustained energy, meaning your metabolic rate is higher and you burn more calories at rest. Sure, cardio burns more calories throughout the course of a workout, but weightlifting has been proven to yield greater fat loss. In fact, performing cardio alone can lead to a reduction in your muscle mass, which can actually hinder the weight loss process. Remember, too, that consistency is key; given the fact that you’re more likely to stick with a form of movement that you enjoy, I would always advise being led by whatever kind of activity it is that you like.
That said, the health benefits that come with cardio are such that it’s worth incorporating it into your routine in some capacity; doing so will improve your heart health, help you maintain healthy blood pressure levels and boost your brain power. It’s wo
