Lifting Weights Reduces Body Fat as Effectively as Cardio, New Study Finds
A new study published in the European Heart Journal has further cemented strength training's reputation as a powerful force for body composition changes, revealing that lifting weights is as effective as cardio training for reducing body fat.
The Study
In a randomised controlled trial, researchers took 406 overweight or obese adults and split them into three groups: a resistance training group, an aerobic training group, and a combined resistance and aerobic group. For the next year, all participants were prescribed one hour of their designated exercise type, performed under supervision three times per week. All participants received the same dietary advice and, while no explicit calorie reduction was mandated, food intake was monitored. They were also asked to minimise lifestyle changes outside of the exercise regimen, and their activity levels were tracked.
After a year, all participants were retested for four risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease: systolic blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, fasting glucose, and body fat percentage.
The Results
Unsurprisingly, the two groups performing regular cardio workouts (both the aerobic training group and the combined group) saw the greatest improvements in cardiovascular health. However, an intriguing takeaway from the study was that all three groups lost an equal amount of body fat. This finding challenges the persistent popular belief that cardio-based training is more effective than strength training for reducing body fat.
Interestingly, despite the equal weight loss across all groups, the strength training group consumed approximately 100-200 more calories per day than the other groups. This suggests that, if calories were equated, the strength training group might have lost even more body fat. However, further research would be needed to confirm this.
What Does This Mean For Us?
The results demonstrate that lifting weights should not play second fiddle to cardio if your goals include fat loss. It's clear that losing body fat is primarily driven by energy balance and creating a caloric deficit, which is best achieved through dietary interventions. However, this study shows that simply increasing your cardio workouts is not necessarily the smartest option.
While the focus here has been on the equivalence of strength and cardio training in reducing body fat, the reductions in other CVD risk factors and the improvements in cardiovascular health observed in the cardio-including interventions indicate that cardio training should still be a vital component of our workout regime for general health and fitness.
This study, when stacked alongside the growing evidence of the benefits of strength training for longevity, suggests that a mixed approach to exercise – incorporating both resistance and aerobic training – is probably the best path to take, regardless of your goals, if you aim to live a longer, healthier life.
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