Weight training is an excellent way to build muscle and increase strength, but is it possible to lose fat through weight training?
The short answer is — absolutely.
A proper weight training routine burns a significant amount of calories, increases your non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), and targets fat stores in your body.
If you want to learn more about how weight training can help burn fat, this blog post is for you!
We’ll answer your questions about why you lose fat through weight training and how to build a routine that maximizes your fat-burning potential.
How Much Fat Do You Burn By Lifting Weights?
Cardio typically comes out on top when comparing calorie burn between weightlifting and cardio sessions, but the calorie count isn’t the entire story with fat burning.
A recent study published in The FASEB Journal found that muscle mass does more than burn calories — it increases fat tissue lipolysis (or the breaking down of fat cells into amino acids).
These findings show that muscle building has a lasting effect on your body’s ability to maintain a lean physique over time.
Another study analyzed the difference in weight loss between people who focused on aerobic training vs. those who participated in resistance training.
The results indicated that resistance training burns fat to accelerate your weight loss more than dieting alone and helps your body maintain more lean mass than dieting plus cardio.
3 Reasons You Lose Fat Through Weight Training
You lose fat for several reasons during weight training, but let’s focus on the ones we mentioned a moment ago. Your weight training routine can help you lose weight because:
You Burn Calories While You’re Lifting Weights
Your body weight and biology play a role when considering how many calories you burn during exercise.
For example, men typically burn more calories than women during exercise because they have a larger build that requires more effort to move. The more effort — the more calories burned.
With that in mind, the CDC found that someone who weighs 154 pounds can burn 220 calories per hour during a light strength training session, and heavier sessions can yield double the calories burned.
Weight Training Contributes to Higher NEAT
Your NEAT is the amount of calories you burn daily without voluntarily exercising. Factors that affect this thermogenesis include your:
- Metabolism
- Body composition
- Daily routine
Building muscle mass contributes to more metabolically active tissue (tissue that requires more energy to maintain its basic functions).
This increase in metabolically active tissue means your weight training routine causes your body to burn more calories at rest, increasing your non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
Strength Exercises Target Fat Stores on Your Body
A significant factor in fat loss is not that you are burning calories — it’s what you’re building as you burn those calories.
General cardio exercises like running will help you lose fat (and are essential for heart health) while working out, but it’s less impactful on your overall body composition than weightlifting.
Strength training focuses on building more muscle, which makes you more muscular and requires you to burn more fat through your metabolism.
Should You Ditch Your Cardio Routine for Weight Training?
You may be thinking it’s time to trade your running shoes in for a weightlifting belt since it contributes to targeted fat burning — but fat loss and muscle building aren’t the only reasons to work out.
Rather than focusing on weightlifting alone, we recommend incorporating variety into your exercise regimen. Here’s why:
Balancing Strength Training and Cardio Is Best for Overall Health
The best workout routine contributes to muscle building, fat loss, and cardiovascular health.
If you skew too much toward weight training, you may wind up with great definition and lean muscle mass but miss out on improved cardio health and have less stamina.
Conversely, focusing too much on cardio will give you the opposite effect. You’ll have increased stamina and cardio health with less definition and lean mass.
Participating in workouts like high-intensity interval training (or simply balancing which exercise you do on which day) gives you the best of both worlds.
Choose Fit Body Boot Camp for a Balanced Workout Routine
Our 30-minute Afterburn classes are an excellent example of the benefits of balancing weight training and cardio exercises.
The coach-led routines improve your cardio health through dynamic high-intensity sessions and strengthen your muscles through targeted resistance training.
As an added benefit, Afterburn also incorporates active rest training to keep your heart rate elevated between HIIT sessions. This strategy helps you to burn twice the amount of calories than you would in a standard workout.
If you’re ready to transform your exercise routine, we’re here for you. Visit your local FBBC to get started on your improved fitness journey!
