Running, not weights, burns fat :/

Yogi_Carl · December 2012

Anything that involves not sitting on your *kitten* burns fat/calories....

This. Even breathing, sleeping burn calories so I don't know why weights wouldn't burn fat.

From my knowledge, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn. You also get what they call an after burn. Your body's metabolism speeds up after lifting weights which in return keep burning calories after your workout.

At around 6 calories per pound of muscle gain - how many pounds of muscle are you planning to put on in order to make any significant difference to calorie burn? Insignificant, I suggest. Also, the increased metabolism thing is not as significant as we would like to think.

Personally, I think of cardio as my fat reducer and bodyweight resistance training as protecting my lean mass; so I do both.

Jynus · December 2012

Anything that involves not sitting on your *kitten* burns fat/calories....

This. Even breathing, sleeping burn calories so I don't know why weights wouldn't burn fat.

From my knowledge, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn. You also get what they call an after burn. Your body's metabolism speeds up after lifting weights which in return keep burning calories after your workout.

At around 6 calories per pound of muscle gain - how many pounds of muscle are you planning to put on in order to make any significant difference to calorie burn? Insignificant, I suggest. Also, the increased metabolism thing is not as significant as we would like to think.

Personally, I think of cardio as my fat reducer and bodyweight resistance training as protecting my lean mass; so I do both.

you would be wrong then. calorie deficit burns fat. (along with a whole mess of other forms of tissue in your body like lean mass) and cardio burns calories. not fat. looking at cardio as a fat burner is simply wrong. you can eat less, or do cardio. the end result of deficit is exactly the same when talking about fat loss.

also, while you're right in that having lean mass doesn't increase metabolism that much, you're forgetting the caloric demand of recovery from strength training. the energy needed to repair damaged tissue doesn't come from thin air. It comes from calories. Thats the main benefit from it, and what puts it in the same league of calorie burn as cardio.

edit: to point out though, this means overload is required for your strength training. doing a simple repetitive template where you don't continually push for progress or one with very high reps does not overload and you miss out on that particular calorie burning bonus of strength training.

TLDR: track calories, do both forms of exercise.

Breadbar · December 2012

The fitness trifecta is endurance, strength, and flexibility/balance.

^^^ Really really like this

Yogi_Carl · December 2012

@Jynus. thank you - I am aware of the points you raised, but thanks for putting them up there for others to read.

Yogi_Carl · December 2012

:bigsmile: thank you Breadbar - I am writing this one down; a great reminder that one extreme doesn't do the complete job.

for me, that's running/swimming - bodyweight resistance/kettlebell - and yoga

excellent post; pretty much ends the thread!

Shock_Wave · December 2012

Not true lifting heavy can burn fat and build muscle at the same time just gotta make sure your in a caloric deficit

How exactly do you build muscle in a caloric deficit?

ddduuuuuhhhhhhhhhh

FeebRyan · December 2012

I run, it burns calories for me and that means i can be a bit more free with what i eat, which is fantastic because as a breastfeed, very active mother - I like to be able to eat when I am hungry within reason!

I have just bought some weights though and plan on doing a workout with them ontop of my usual cardio exercises every other day. I want to be fit AND strong, its important for my belly dancing.

Today though, I am just going to do a bit of yoga and some drills because my back is a bit sore after last nights weight lifting and running.

EvgeniZyntx · December 2012

Anything that involves not sitting on your *kitten* burns fat/calories....

This. Even breathing, sleeping burn calories so I don't know why weights wouldn't burn fat.

From my knowledge, the more muscle you have the more calories you burn. You also get what they call an after burn. Your body's metabolism speeds up after lifting weights which in return keep burning calories after your workout.

At around 6 calories per pound of muscle gain - how many pounds of muscle are you planning to put on in order to make any significant difference to calorie burn? Insignificant, I suggest. Also, the increased metabolism thing is not as significant as we would like to think.

Personally, I think of cardio as my fat reducer and bodyweight resistance training as protecting my lean mass; so I do both.

This 6-7 calorie number per day per pound is highly contested. First off, the number given is an esitmate defined by Dr. Cedric X. Bryant (see ACE's Chief Science Officer; ACE FitnessMatters, Mar/Apr 2006) and he talks of a 6-10 calories for 1 lb of resting muscle. Resting. RESTING. Much other research points to a higher number but clearly something complex is going on and part of the metabolic increase (which is about 200-300 per day for initial gains of 2-3 lbs of muscle as published in several research papers) is likely due to non-lbm gain effects such as neurological recruitment or hormonal effects of fat mass vs lbm, etc.

Throwing out that low number of little gain just does not make sense - either looking at BMR models or energy expenditure of weight lifters shows a much higher TDEE rates. It isn't necessarily directly due to increase in WEIGHT of lbm, but in terms of neurological changes, hormonal changes and non-exercise expenditure something is certainly going on. In my opinion you are misssing the big picture if you only focus on the weight of lbm.

jaxxie · December 2012

Run - lose weight
Lift - look good naked
[/quote]

THIS!

BlackTimber · December 2012

Not true lifting heavy can burn fat and build muscle at the same time just gotta make sure your in a caloric deficit

How exactly do you build muscle in a caloric deficit?
[/quote

I did. If you have an extra 20 pounds of fat, there is quite a bit of excess calories available. When you are closer to your optimum weight then that would be a different story.

Sarauk2sf · December 2012

Not true lifting heavy can burn fat and build muscle at the same time just gotta make sure your in a caloric deficit

How exactly do you build muscle in a caloric deficit?

I did. If you have an extra 20 pounds of fat, there is quite a bit of excess calories available. When you are closer to your optimum weight then that would be a different story.

You gained muscle when you had only 20 lb to lose? How did you measure your BF%? And were you new to lifting?

Edited to fix quotes

Yogi_Carl · December 2012

@EvgeniZyntx - thank you for posting that - food for thought and a schedule re-think for me!

BlackTimber · December 2012

Not true lifting heavy can burn fat and build muscle at the same time just gotta make sure your in a caloric deficit

How exactly do you build muscle in a caloric deficit?

I did. If you have an extra 20 pounds of fat, there is quite a bit of excess calories available. When you are closer to your optimum weight then that would be a different story.

You gained muscle when you had only 20 lb to lose? How did you measure your BF%? And were you new to lifting?

Edited to fix quotes

The 20 pounds was a hypothetical. I actually had a bit more to lose than that. I started at ~215 and am now 177. I have calipers and a Body fat scale. The calipers are difficult to be accurate with and the scale seems erratic but both have gone down significantly. For me those were just numbers but not real body fat percentages. I hadn't done strength training for over a year. When I started up again I was amazed at how weak I had become, especially my legs and core. I was able to double my squat weight using the 5x5 method, increase bench, overhead press, dead lifts and bent over row by 50%.

My point is that even though you are eating at a deficit, it doesn't meant that you don't have the fuel to adapt to strength training. For a fit person like yourself, if you don't eat it, you don't have it. For someone like me, I have fuel in the bank. I'm happy to say that my account is just about where I want it!

GiddyupTim · December 2012

[/quote]
Evgeni said:

This 6-7 calorie number per day per pound is highly contested. First off, the number given is an esitmate defined by Dr. Cedric X. Bryant (see ACE's Chief Science Officer; ACE FitnessMatters, Mar/Apr 2006) and he talks of a 6-10 calories for 1 lb of resting muscle. Resting. RESTING. Much other research points to a higher number but clearly something complex is going on and part of the metabolic increase (which is about 200-300 per day for initial gains of 2-3 lbs of muscle as published in several research papers) is likely due to non-lbm gain effects such as neurological recruitment or hormonal effects of fat mass vs lbm, etc.

Throwing out that low number of little gain just does not make sense - either looking at BMR models or energy expenditure of weight lifters shows a much higher TDEE rates. It isn't necessarily directly due to increase in WEIGHT of lbm, but in terms of neurological changes, hormonal changes and non-exercise expenditure something is certainly going on. In my opinion you are misssing the big picture if you only focus on the weight of lbm.
[/quote]

Well, okay.

But, I am a little confused. The study found that the cardio people lost more weight. That suggests that, whatever extra muscle the resistance people put on, and the extra calories that burned, was not important.
So, it seems that, in a practical sense and a real world scenario, the extra I burn by having a bit more meat is not helping.
However much it actually is.
I am not sure I get what, therefore, the big picture being missed is?

AsrarHussain · December 2012

the weights will give you muscle and the more muscle the body has the faster motablisim the person will have so its better to stick with weights have u seen a sprinter with no muscle