Strength Training to Lose Body Fat

I lost over 100 pounds and have kept it off for 15 years. At the age of sixteen I weighed 260 lbs. By the time I graduated high school I weighed 180 lbs, having added 20 lbs of muscle to my body while losing the fat. Not once during that two year journey did I run a marathon, half marathon, or 5K. I did not complete any triathlons or long distance bike races. I did not do that on a treadmill. How did I do it? I did it lifting weights. In all fairness to the fans of cardio, I did attempt a marathon a few years ago. It was the stupidest thing I have done to my body. I ended up feeling skinny, weak, and with a stress fracture that left me unable to actually complete the marathon. This was after I put in the time and effort to build up to a 20 mile training run. Not to mention the amount of time I took away from my wife by having to run 1-3 hours a day. What a waste. Never again.

For too long cardio had been viewed as the best method for causing and maintaining fat loss. But it is misunderstood. The difference between cardio and strength training covers a lot of ground. The body has different responses based upon psychological factors, anatomical and physiological changes in muscle tissue and metabolism. All of these responses, when properly understood, tips the scales in favor of strength training as the best way to lose and maintain weight loss.

I will admit that the psychological factors are much harder to quantify with scientific research than anatomical and physiological changes so let’s start here as this topic is probably more intuitive than scientific. For most people, cardio is at least a little boring. If not, why do most commercial gyms have TVs set up to keep people in the cardio area entertained? It is also harder to judge improvements in performance with cardio, sure you can run further distances or faster paces, but does that make you better at anything other than running further distances or the same distance faster? With strength training, as the weights get heavier the body grows stronger, every physical activity the body can engage in becomes easier as the body becomes stronger. As an added bonus for the obese person, like I once was, it is often much easier to see quick improvements with weights than with cardio. Strength is often easier to improve than endurance. For the obese person, fast improvements lead to quicker gains in self- confidence, making the entire process of becoming fit more enjoyable. Results create confidence which breeds success. Along those same lines about building faster improvements; everyone has a limited amount of time to exercise. It makes sense to spend that time engaged in activities that will quickly show improvements. Finally, if a person knows what they are doing a strength training workout can be designed to keep a variety of exercises in play so that plodding along doing the same thing over and over does not happen. Variety prevents boredom. Boredom in an exercise program is the beginning of its end.

When it comes to losing body fat the intensity of exercise is far more important than duration. The reasoning behind this is the concept of EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption). If you want a detailed breakdown of this, click here. The important thing to know is that EPOC levels remain elevated longer following a tough strength training session than after a cardio session.  With traditional steady-state (same pace, same duration) cardio EPOC tends to last less than two hours. But with intense strength training it can last up to 48 hours. Think of it like this, the calorie burn with cardio is like a grenade; a quick boom… it is over. Strength training is like a wildfire; it may start with a small spark, but it will quickly grow out of control. This is the effect that exercise has on metabolism. The harder that metabolism is working the more calories that will be used, resulting in a loss of body fat. This is partly due to how exercise stimulates the different muscle fiber types. Cardio primarily only trains the Type I fibers, which make up about 45% of the muscle fibers in the body while strength training mainly trains the Type II fibers (the other 55% of the muscle fibers in the body). Utilizing cardio trains less than half of the body’s potential.  With proper program design strength-training can be done to improve physical strength while training cardiovascular endurance. The key here is to avoid boredom by continually doing something. The bodybuilder mindset of resting two or three minutes between sets is fine if you want to build muscle. However, if the goal is to get stronger while losing body fat the rest periods must be shortened or eliminated. The result is the benefits of strength and cardiovascular training in one workout.

There are three primary ways to design workouts that will focus on strength development while including cardiovascular training: circuits, complexes, and conditioning. They vary to some degree but all include a few basic principles: exercises that train more than one muscle group at a time, little to no rest between exercises and repetition ranges that focus on developing strength.

·    A Circuit is a series of exercises done to train every muscle group in the body. One set of each exercise is performed for each muscle group. Every muscle group is trained before an exercise is repeated. Each exercise is performed for the same number of repetitions. For example, a workout could be done with one exercise each for legs, chest, back, shoulders, abs, and arms. One set of all seven exercises would be performed in that order before repeating an exercise.

·         A Complex is a more intense version of a circuit. When utilizing a complex the workout typically begins with one or two heavy compound exercises like the squat. After all sets of the squat had been completed the complex would begin. Complexes are circuits of three to five exercises that train the same muscle group as the primary exercise. This is taking the concept of the circuit and making it more intense by focusing on that specific muscle group. Utilizing squats as the primary exercise, a complex for legs could include leg press, lunges, box jumps, and step-ups. Each exercise may be performed for a specified number of repetitions or time. This method is my personal preference.

·         Conditioning would be utilizing one or two heavy lifts and following each set of the heavy lift with a high intensity activity like sprinting, jump rope or another body weight exercise for a defined period of time. A person could perform a set of bench press and then sprint for 30 seconds before performing the next set of bench press. The purpose of this is developing the strength while keeping the heart rate elevated to burn extra calories. Terms like High Intensity Interval Training, Tabata, or Metabolic Training are methods of training based on the concept of conditioning; strength with endurance.

All three of these concepts are excellent ways to combine strength training with an increased intensity to burn more calories during the workout as well as taking advantage of the EPOC concept for increased calorie burn following the end of the workout. As a result, the body will expend more energy recovering from the strength-training than it would expend during the cardio training. The greater the amount of calories burned, the faster the fat loss. The other benefit is the increase in lean muscle tissue and, at the end of the day, more muscle on the body results in a greater calorie burn, making easier to lose and maintain weight loss. The higher the intensity, the faster the results.