Running vs Free Weights: Does Exertion = Results?

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HenryFool
HenryFool Posts: 12 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi, I started using MFP at the start of January to drop some weight and get into shape, it's working well for me, with a wheat free and LCHF diet and running 5k about 3 x times a week, recently I've started doing some free weights as well (never set foot in that part of the gym before) - here's my question: when I run I sweat, after 5k I'm pretty soaked and as a consequence I know I've had a good workout but when I do weights I don't seem to break a sweat in anywhere near the same amount, does that sound right? or am I doing something wrong? or is it that maybe resistance training doesn't require the same amount of physical exertion to get results, but the effects and benefits build up over time?

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  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Sweat isn't indicative of a good workout. I wouldn't worry about not sweating as much while lifting. As you progress and add more weight to the bar or more reps or more sets, you may find that your sweating increases but then again you may not. You're resting more while lifting than you are while running and, in general, there's just no direct connection between how good your workout is and how much you sweat.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
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    So, yes and no.

    Yes, in general cardio is going to burn more calories than weight lifting. You're burning more running a 5k than you are lifting weights unless that is an insane lifting session.

    No, perceived exertion does not correlate well to calorie burn. Do that same 5K in hot weather vs cold or faster vs slower or when you are fresh vs tired. Some of those runs are going to feel a lot easier to you. Yet the calories burned running is dependent on your weight and the distance run. Not the conditions that made the effort more or less strenuous.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
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    Sweat isn't an indication of how many calories you are burning. How out of breath you are is. Literally, every time you exhale you are losing weight. But as was already mentioned, running and other forms of cardio burn significantly more than lifting. Lifting will strengthen your muscles more quickly, but cardio will burn more calories.
  • deputy_randolph
    deputy_randolph Posts: 940 Member
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    I used to just run, and I would sweat like a full grown VERY sweaty man. My body fat % was around 25+%. Cardio only did nothing to improve my body composition.

    I've been lifting heavy, reduced cardio to low intensity (mostly). I rarely sweat during lifting. My bf % is 21% now.

    Sweaty isn't necessarily better.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    The first thing is that strength training and cardiovascular exercise are completely different. Not just how you go about doing them, but the chemistry that happens in your body, which is part of why an HRM is useful (and somewhat valuable in estimating calories) in one but not the other.

    Sweating isn't a great indicator because ventilation is as important as your exertion level (you're gonna sweat more in a gym than outside). For cardio exercise, heat production is a good proxy for calories burned, because watts are heat more than they are propulsion, but that's a different thing from sweat, and it's really hard to measure As @TimothyFish mentioned, breathing is really easy to pay attention to and works just as well as heart rate. (That shouldn't surprise anyone; your heart's job is to move the oxygen you breathed in around to your muscles.)
  • natruallycurious
    natruallycurious Posts: 359 Member
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    I would try to keep a mix of both cardio and strength training. The way my trainer explained it, cardio is what will help you burn the fat and lose weight. Strength training is what will give you muscle definition as the fat comes off. Strength training is not always going to help you lose weight, but it will normally look like you lost weight because your body is shifting fat to muscle.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,527 Member
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    Aerobic vs anaerobic training. Sweating is for cooling the body. Obviously your body is heating up more running than lifting weights. But I could pretty much guarantee you that if did a weight lifting program that caused you to sweat as much as you do running, you would likely see better results.

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  • JeepHair77
    JeepHair77 Posts: 1,291 Member
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    khenik6064 wrote: »
    I would try to keep a mix of both cardio and strength training. The way my trainer explained it, cardio is what will help you burn the fat and lose weight. Strength training is what will give you muscle definition as the fat comes off. Strength training is not always going to help you lose weight, but it will normally look like you lost weight because your body is shifting fat to muscle.

    This is really inaccurate.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    khenik6064 wrote: »
    I would try to keep a mix of both cardio and strength training. The way my trainer explained it, cardio is what will help you burn the fat and lose weight. Strength training is what will give you muscle definition as the fat comes off. Strength training is not always going to help you lose weight, but it will normally look like you lost weight because your body is shifting fat to muscle.

    You pay a person who thinks fat 'shifts' into muscle :huh: :noway:
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    My lifting sessions are usually an hour to 1:15 long. I sometimes break a light sweat (especially on leg day), but not much unless the gym is unusually warm. After my lifting, I do a 20-30 minute run on the treadmill, and am dripping sweat when I'm done. Yet the weight lifting has done much more for my physique than the cardio has.

    I sweat more when I'm laying out in the sun in my backyard working on my tan than I do when I lift weights. But that doesn't mean I'm getting more benefits from laying on a lounger listening to music. :)
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Apples to oranges...two completely different training modalities.
  • sarochka85
    sarochka85 Posts: 103 Member
    edited April 2017
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    I adore BodyPump (with the heaviest weights I can handle, regularly increasing) because my strength is improving AND I sweat buckets. And it's getting me into fantastic shape.
  • xsmilexforxmex
    xsmilexforxmex Posts: 1,216 Member
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    TavistockToad wrote: »
    khenik6064 wrote: »
    I would try to keep a mix of both cardio and strength training. The way my trainer explained it, cardio is what will help you burn the fat and lose weight. Strength training is what will give you muscle definition as the fat comes off. Strength training is not always going to help you lose weight, but it will normally look like you lost weight because your body is shifting fat to muscle.

    You pay a person who thinks fat 'shifts' into muscle :huh: :noway:

    Man you guys are vicious. I think she was trying to say that by incorporating weight training while at a calorie deficit/losing weight, your percentage of body fat to lean mass typically changes/"shifts" to a higher percentage of lean mass... Not that fat actually changes into muscle... :astonished:
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    xsmilexforxmex wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    khenik6064 wrote: »
    I would try to keep a mix of both cardio and strength training. The way my trainer explained it, cardio is what will help you burn the fat and lose weight. Strength training is what will give you muscle definition as the fat comes off. Strength training is not always going to help you lose weight, but it will normally look like you lost weight because your body is shifting fat to muscle.

    You pay a person who thinks fat 'shifts' into muscle :huh: :noway:

    Man you guys are vicious. I think she was trying to say that by incorporating weight training while at a calorie deficit/losing weight, your percentage of body fat to lean mass typically changes/"shifts" to a higher percentage of lean mass... Not that fat actually changes into muscle... :astonished:

    I really hope so...

    Not sure where you get 'vicous' from though?
  • mburgess458
    mburgess458 Posts: 480 Member
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    It also depends on how you are lifting. You'll get sweatier if you do more reps per exercise and have little rest between them (like if you do super-sets)... that makes it closer to cardio. If you are doing fewer reps like 5x5 with long rest periods in-between sets you probably won't sweat nearly as much. One isn't necessarily better than the other, there is a place for both depending on your goals.
  • JeepHair77
    JeepHair77 Posts: 1,291 Member
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    xsmilexforxmex wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    khenik6064 wrote: »
    I would try to keep a mix of both cardio and strength training. The way my trainer explained it, cardio is what will help you burn the fat and lose weight. Strength training is what will give you muscle definition as the fat comes off. Strength training is not always going to help you lose weight, but it will normally look like you lost weight because your body is shifting fat to muscle.

    You pay a person who thinks fat 'shifts' into muscle :huh: :noway:

    Man you guys are vicious. I think she was trying to say that by incorporating weight training while at a calorie deficit/losing weight, your percentage of body fat to lean mass typically changes/"shifts" to a higher percentage of lean mass... Not that fat actually changes into muscle... :astonished:

    Probably, but the rest of the statement is misleading, at best, so I'm not sure I want to give her trainer the benefit of the doubt, there.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    xsmilexforxmex wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    khenik6064 wrote: »
    I would try to keep a mix of both cardio and strength training. The way my trainer explained it, cardio is what will help you burn the fat and lose weight. Strength training is what will give you muscle definition as the fat comes off. Strength training is not always going to help you lose weight, but it will normally look like you lost weight because your body is shifting fat to muscle.

    You pay a person who thinks fat 'shifts' into muscle :huh: :noway:

    Man you guys are vicious. I think she was trying to say that by incorporating weight training while at a calorie deficit/losing weight, your percentage of body fat to lean mass typically changes/"shifts" to a higher percentage of lean mass... Not that fat actually changes into muscle... :astonished:

    If a trainer can't articulate a fairly simple message in a meaningful way, they're a waste of money.
  • HenryFool
    HenryFool Posts: 12 Member
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    thanks for all the info & advice :)

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