Does lifting weight burn fat?

Most people will tell you that increasing your cardio workouts is the best method to burn fat. On the other hand, lifting weights can be a more efficient fat-burning approach than cardio alone in some situations.

This may appear contradictory, and it does, of course, depend on the sort of weight training along with the quantity of cardio, but weightlifting does aid in burning fat. Let’s have a look at Does lifting weight burns fat or not.

Also Read: 7 Cardio Myths Busted

Can Lifting Weights Really Burn Fat?

Yes, lifting weights can indeed burn fat. While cardiovascular exercises like running and cycling are often associated with fat loss, weightlifting also plays a significant role. When you engage in weightlifting, you’re building lean muscle mass. Muscle tissue burns more calories than fat even at rest, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn throughout the day. Additionally, lifting weights can lead to a phenomenon called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), where your metabolism remains elevated after a workout, leading to further fat burn. It’s important to note that a balanced fitness routine, including both cardiovascular and strength training, is often the most effective way to shed excess body fat while improving overall health and fitness.

Weightlifting vs. Cardio: Which Is Better for Fat Loss?

The debate of weightlifting versus cardio for fat loss is a common one, but the truth lies in their combination. While cardiovascular exercises like running or cycling are effective for burning calories during the workout, weightlifting should not be overlooked. Weightlifting helps you build lean muscle mass, which increases your resting metabolic rate. This means you continue to burn calories even after your weightlifting session. Moreover, it promotes Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC), a process where your body burns more calories post-workout to repair and recover. A balanced fitness routine that combines weightlifting and cardio is often recommended to achieve the best fat loss results.

Also Read: Top 12 Foods That Burn Belly Fat

What are the Benefits of Weight training?

Weight training can help you increase your muscle strength, bone strength, flexibility, and other fitness goals.

1. Improve bone health

Weight lifting not only strengthens your muscles, but it also strengthens your bones. When you curl, for instance, your muscles pull on the bones in your arm. 

The cells within the bones respond by producing new bone cells; as a result, your bones get stronger and denser over time. Lifting heavy weights as time passes maintains bone mass and can build new bone, particularly in the high-risk postmenopausal population.

Also Read: Top 9 Vitamin D Rich Foods in India For Immunity, Nutrition and Bone Health

2. Targets body fat, not muscle mass

Build extra muscle, and your body will burn calories throughout the day – that’s why lifting weights targets greater amounts of fat than many other fitness regimens.

 “Lifting weights may raise your muscle mass, thereby raising the total calories you burn throughout the day,” says one expert of the American Council on exercise.

Building muscle while burning extra calories post-workout? It could appear too good to be true, yet studies support it. 

In a 2017 research on overweight persons aged 60 and more, a low-calorie diet combined with weightlifting resulted in faster fat loss than a low-calorie diet combined with walking workouts. 

Adults who exercised instead of fat-trained lost a similar amount of pounds, but lean body mass was a major component of the weight reduction. Meanwhile, those who exercised maintained their muscle mass while decreasing fat.

3. Reduce the risk of diabetes and heart disease

Weight training can help lessen your risk of significant health disorders by reducing excess visceral fat. ICYDK, there is a greater than one type of body fat. Subcutaneous fat is the fat you feel and see, whereas visceral fat resides deep within the body and lines your important organs. 

Both forms of fat are essential components of the body’s makeup, and they are distributed variably depending on various circumstances. An overabundance of visceral fat, on the other hand, can increase your chance of acquiring illnesses, including type 2 diabetes or coronary artery disease, but lifting weights can help. 

According to the UAB study, women who carried weights shed more visceral belly fat than those who only did aerobics. It was also discovered that women who continued to exercise kept their visceral abdominal fat away for a year, even though they gained fat overall. In a nutshell, weight exercise can enhance your cardiovascular system by reducing visceral fat.

4. Burns more calories than cardio

If you raise weights, even sitting on the tush while reading, this burns calories.

You may burn more fat during your one-hour cardiovascular class than when lifting weights for a full hour, but according to a study released in the Journal of Power and Conditioning Research, women who raised weights burned an extra 100 calories in the 24 hours following their training session.

Another investigation published in the World Journal of Sports Nutrition & Metabolism discovered that after a 100-minute weightlifting session, the women’s baseline metabolic rate increased by 4.2 percent for the next 16 hours, resulting in 60 calories burned.

Also Read: Weight Loss: How to Burn Fat Effectively and Safely

5. Increase exercise

Static stretches were compared to weight training exercises, and it was discovered that full-range resistance exercise routines can enhance mobility just as well as static stretching.

“Full-range,” says Sinkler. If you can’t finish the full motion (going up and the way back) with a certain weight, you should start with lighter dumbbells and work up to it.

6. Boost heart health

Cardiovascular activity isn’t the sole type of cardiovascular exercise. Lifting weights can improve your heart health as well. One person’s blood pressure was reduced by 20% after 45 minutes of moderate-intensity resistance training. That’s on par with, if not better than, the benefits of most blood pressure medications.

7. Improve athlete’s performance

This may come as a surprise to some seasoned runners, but it should be noticed. Stronger muscles equal higher performance, period. Your core will be stronger and better able to carry your body’s weight while maintaining proper form during other workouts (such as running), and your legs and arms will be stronger.

Furthermore, because lifting weights increases the quantity and size of muscular fibers that power your performance, it may help people burn more fat throughout their cardio activities, according to Perkins.

8. Prevent injuries

Aching hips and sore knees mustn’t plague your morning run. Strengthening the muscles surrounding and supporting your joints can help avoid injuries by maintaining excellent form and strengthening joint integrity.

So squat low and enjoy. Your knees will be grateful. “Proper exercise is, in fact, the solution for joint issues,” Perkins claims. “Stronger muscles keep your joints in place better, so you won’t have to worry over your knee flare-up on your next run.”

Also Read: 8 Best Shoulder & Neck strengthening exercises

9. Strengthening all over

Lifting lesser weights for more reps is important for establishing muscle endurance, but building your weight load is essential for increasing strength. Add compound movements like squats, deadlifts, and rows to the weight training routine, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll gain strength.

This particular advantage of lifting weights has a significant payback. Everyday tasks (carrying groceries, opening a heavy door, lifting a child) will be easier – and you’re going to feel like an invincible force.

10. Helps to burn sugar

Strength-based stop-start resistance training, as opposed to traditional weight training, will rapidly deplete your muscle’s glycogen (the body’s sugar storage molecule). 

Then, when you replenish your glycogen stores with food after a strenuous workout, the circulatory system sugar won’t linger as long in the bloodstream. 

The insulin sensitivity will increase with time, allowing your body to use sugar for power in the muscles rather than turning it into fat.

Conclusion

To answer the main question, weight loss with weight lifting, lifting weights will help you burn fat. It will also increase your body’s natural fat-burning capacity while at rest. Compared to a body with less muscle but equal fat tissue, it will enhance your metabolism and offer you a physique that appears less fat.

According to conventional wisdom, cardio is overrated as the best way to start burning fat. Lifting big weights can help you burn fat fairly effectively!

That is an important point: the weights must be heavy. If you can accomplish over 12 reps per set, you’re approaching the muscle endurance zone and won’t benefit from lifting weights.

If you want to incorporate this into your regular workout and start shedding fat and shaping your body, you’ll want some weights, and our 50-kilogram cast iron dumbbell + barbell set is an excellent place to start.