When it comes to cutting body fats and weight, you always have two options; cardio or lift weight. But which one can help you lose weight within a short time? This blog is here to help you answer this million-dollar question.
In the ongoing debate, cardio lovers would say increased heart rate will significantly help lose weight. However, weight lifting enthusiasts believe building muscle mass cuts a lot of fasts in the body. Since this debate shows no sign of ending soon, choosing between cardio and lifting weight can be a little daunting, especially if you want to start your fitness journey and get results quicker. Cardio workouts include running, walking, cycling, hiking, and swimming. Weight lifting, however, involves strength training and circuit training. Since the two revolve around weight loss and fat loss, let us first understand what cuttingweight and fats mean.
Weight Loss
Weight loss refers to losing a certainunit of mass over time. The mass lost can be expressed in pounds, kilograms, and stones, determined by standing on a weight scale. Reduction inweight can be fueled by dehydration, elimination of food waste, muscle and fat loss.
Fat Loss
Fat loss is the reduction of a certain body fat amount. Fat loss can happen faster than weight loss, given the time food wastes take to leave the body. Cutting down fats can simply happen by reducing your calorie intake. However, the type of foods you consume to lose fats matters.Be specific to your protein, carbohydrates, and fat consumption to successfully eliminate excess fats in your body. Although diet may help you achieve fat loss, creating a resistance program makes the whole process easier.
Health Benefits of Cardio Training
Cardio workouts have various health benefits. Whether you walk, run, swim, hike or cycle, below are the benefits you are likely to get.
Appetite Regulation
If you like snacking, cardio workouts can be a great tool to fix that. High-intensity cardio, including running or cycling at a moderate pace, can lover the food amount you eat by more than 10%. Exercising at this pace allows your body to pump more blood to various body parts. As a result, blood does not accumulate around your stomach, regulating your appetite.
Keeps your Heart Healthy
If you have ever jogged, you can tell how the heart beats wildly in the chest as you cover more meters and kilometers. The first jog can make you feel as if you will collapse shortly. However, you may breathe heavily with more runs, but not like the first time you ventured into jogging. No matter how you breathe, do not stop because thatis theheart getting the job done to ensure sufficient oxygen is pumped around the body to sustain you for more laps. Unfortunately, you cannot escape this feeling because all cardiovascular exercises bring the same effect.
Supports Fat Loss
Each minute in running, cycling, jogging, orhiking, burns more calories than weight training. However, the type of cardiovascular exercise you choose matters. If you are into weight loss, beginner-friendly low-intensity steady-state cardio(LISS) can be a great starting point. This exercise eliminates stubborn body fats, speeding up your weight loss journey. High-intensity interval training(HIIT) increases the action of fat-burning enzymes, allowing you to efficiently burn fats while retaining the existing muscles. Fat loss maintains your muscle tissue that improves metabolism’s health, and tone physique.
Improves Brain Health
Aging results in loss of brain tissue. Brain tissue loss begins when one clocks 30 years, affecting your mental abilities, including reasoning, learning, decision-making, problem-solving, and remembering. Among the effective ways to prevent brainpower loss is performingcardiovascular exercises. Although these exercises will make you intensively sweat, you will stay sharp in age brackets stricken with mental challenges.
Lowers High Blood Pressure
If you are battlinghigh bloodpressure, cardio exercises can be your savior. Today, some blood pressure supplements guarantee positive results, but theirside effects aresomething not to admire. Keeping it naturalwith low-intensity steady-state cardio can bring your high blood pressure to healthy levels without compromising your safety.
Benefits Of Strength Training
Like cardio workouts, strength training comeswith variousbenefits. Weight lifting, also known as resistance traininginvolves working against resistance, including weight. This type of training can be more expensive than cardio workouts but has the following benefits;
Supports Muscle Building
Many people choose strengthtraining over cardio workouts because it builds muscle. Muscle building provides yourdream shapeand size, boosts body strength, and increases hormone production. Resistance training provides resistance to your body muscles, stimulating the tissue break down. As a result, the body responds to clean and heal the broken tissue, resulting in muscle growth and improved strength.
Improves Metabolism and Chipping Away Stubborn Fats
Weight lifting adds lean muscle mass, increasing metabolic rate and calorie breakdown. Although cardio exercises burn calories within a short time, strength training does it in a slow but effective way, ensuring you have unceasing calorie burn.
Boosts Bone Health
Weight-bearing workouts increase resistance to body muscles, giving your bone health a magic kick. If your work involves sitting downthroughout the day, your bones may notbe happywith that lifestyle. Create timefor jogging, squatting, light circuits, and lunging to boost your bone health. Avoid intense exercises as they can damage your joints. What’s more, your program should allow exercising for a maximum of thirty minutes, three times each week.
Which Exercise Is Now Best for You?
Cardiovascular workouts and strength training are special in their own ways. Cardio and lifting weight can help you lose weight, but cardio does it faster, improving your heart health and defining your body sculps. Also, both exercises can be used for fat loss, but weight training utilizes the extra calories to build lean muscle. Varying your weight exercises can be a great way of toning up and sculpting your muscle. The most important thing is to choose a training that effectively meets your goals without giving up your enjoyment. Balance your body in every workout you do and diet with complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and vegetables to up your energy.
Credits
We would like to thank the below contributors who have helped us to write this article:
- How the Pec Deck Works Your Chest - April 19, 2024
- Homemade Eye Drops: Risks, Benefits, and More - April 19, 2024
- SMART TOOTHPICKS COMPANY - July 29, 2023
