Hey, Chris, I haven’t been getting all of my weightlifting workouts done lately, but it’s been beautiful out, and I’ve been going on way more jogs and bike rides! Will I get the same fat loss results?
P.S. I’m of the social media generation; can you make the answer short and simple? One page or less!
—Smarty Pants who genuinely wants an answer.
Dear Smarty Pants,
The idea that weightlifting and outdoor cardio are carbon copies is a fallacy. It’s the equivalent of saying, “I haven’t been brushing my teeth lately, but I do use mouthwash. Will I still have a pearly white smile?” While your breath may not, your logic stinks.
At the end of the day, the goal of weightlifting in a fat loss or health program, is two-fold: 1) maintain or increase muscle mass; and 2) increase insulin sensitivity.
Why do you want to maintain or increase muscle mass? The main reason is to maintain a higher metabolic rate, which is even more important whilst dieting. Muscle is the engine of your body; if you just start eating less food and doing more cardio, with time, your metabolic rate will slow, and you will burn fewer calories doing everythaang. There are a myriad of other reasons that increasing muscle mass benefits fat loss efforts, but at the end of the day, this is grandy daddy.
Why do you want to increase insulin sensitivity? Building more muscle creates more room to store carbohydrates in your muscles (called glycogen). If you have a lot of room to store glycogen in your muscles, you don’t need a lot of insulin to help you fit it in. If there’s not enough room to deposit glycogen, you must keep producing more and more insulin to help you cram it in there; eventually, it won’t fit, and you’ll store it as fat. Weightlifting makes you more responsive to insulin (insulin sensitive) and also teaches your body to favor storing carbs in your muscles instead of body fat (nutrient partitioning).The more insulin sensitive you are, the easier it is to lose fat.
Now, getting outside and jogging, bike riding, rollerblading, etc. all play a great role in fat loss. Contrary to popular belief, there is not a huge caloric expenditure during these undertakings; the main benefit of partaking in these activities is they teach your body to be more efficient at mobilizing fat to use it for fuel (breaking body fat down so it’s available for you to burn).
Then there are more intense activities: at the gym, we have Met Con classes; outside, you may do intense bike riding, tennis, sprinting, intervals, etc. The main benefit of these activities is they improve the capacity of the mitochondria (remember the Mighty Mitochondria, powerhouse of the cell, from school?) to burn fat for fuel.
Putting it all together, we maintain a high metabolic rate (high metabolism) whilst dieting from weightlifting, steady-state cardio makes you better at mobilizing fat, and Met Con and intervals improve your ability to burn fat for energy. The result? You can now use (burn) fat more efficiently 24/7! Not just during the times you’re exercising, but 24 hours a day, seven days a week! Who’s going to get leaner? You betcha, you!
Simply, you could accomplish all the above with just weight lifting and diet, but you can attain results much more efficaciously combining two of the above or even all three! The primary driver of it all is weightlifting and its ability to keep your metabolic rate high while dieting and/or doing cardio. Muscle is your engine; you can’t drive your car without it!
About 90% of the people I know are not 100% on track with their nutrition; so, if you’re not going to be 100% with your eating this summer, what are the most important things for you to do?
1. Weight lift 4x per week
2. Steady state cardio
3. Intervals
Weightlifting is number one; it’s your best bet to have a fighting shot against a lackluster nutrition regimen, aging, disease, and literally any and all of life’s ailments. This is even more important as you get older; as we age, our body’s resiliency decreases. What used to work when we were younger won’t work anymore; there’s a reason weightlifting is referred to as the fountain of youth! Have fun this summer! Get outdoors and participate in as many activities as possible; but don’t lose your primary driver. If you stay on track, you’ll be one of those who look better and feel better with each passing year. If you don’t stay on course, you’re going to slowly get a little fatter and more at risk for various illnesses as each year concludes. That’s pretty grim, and if you read all this and still don’t understand it, you must be dim; I just had to throw in a rhyme on a whim, and I wish you the best of luck in and out of the gym!
Hope this answered your question and you get nice and trim!
About the author
Chris Rombola
Chris is the owner of Fit House. He's run the training departments at several commercial gyms, and after years of seeing how awful those environments were for his clients, he opened his own studio. He is devoted to getting people strong, lean, and healthy.
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