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Does Strength Training Burn Fat

Does Strength Training Burn Fat? Here’s What You Should Know!

There is a misconception within the fitness community that strength training doesn’t burn fat and the only way to lose weight is through cardio.

However, this is far from the truth. Strength training can burn fat and help you lose weight, regardless of whether bodyweight or gym weights are being used.

In this article, we discuss how strength training burns fat and why it should be part of your weight loss routine.

We also discuss if you can lose weight just by lifting weights and not doing any cardio. The article also helps to debunk the myth that strength training doesn’t burn fat.

Can You Lose Weight Just By Lifting Weights No Cardio?

If you are trying to lose weight but don’t like doing cardio, lifting weights can be your next best option.

When you lift weights, the movement ends up stressing your central nervous system, which helps to increase your metabolic rate. It also means more muscle mass will cause the body to burn more calories. This all results in more weight loss and fat burning.

While it may not be as effective as cardio, strength training can help you burn fat and lose weight. However, for this to work, you will need to vary the exercises you do and be consistent with your strength training.

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Does Strength Training Burn Fat?

Even though strength training doesn’t burn as many calories as a cardio workout, it has many other benefits that cardio doesn’t have.

For example, strength training (with weights or your body weight) is much more effective at building muscle than cardio. Because of this, strength training can help you burn more calories at rest.

Because of this, strength training is a great way to increase your resting metabolism, which is the number of calories you burn at rest.

One study found that after 24 weeks of weight training, males resting metabolism was increased by 9%, while the females in the group improved their metabolism by close to 4%.

While this may sound impressive, it is important to understand how many extra calories were burned.

For the men, metabolism increase caused them to burn an extra 140 calories per day. For the women, they improved their resting metabolism by 50 calories per day.

While strength training won’t skyrocket your metabolism, it will definitely increase it by a decent amount on top of what you burn from your workout.

You will also find that you will burn more calories during the hours following a strength training session compared to a cardio workout.

Many studies have shown that resting metabolism will increase and stay increased for up to 38 hours after a strength training session, which is not something studies have confirmed with cardio.

Does Lifting Weights Burn Belly Fat

Does Lifting Weights Burn Belly Fat?

Weight training is important when wanting to burn belly fat. This is because muscles burn more calories than fat does when the body is resting. This means having more muscles and being more toned can help you burn more fat off the belly.

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However, if your goal is to lose belly fat quickly, combining cardio and strength training is the ideal solution and helps you lose more fat off the stomach.

Even though lifting weights can burn belly fat, it is important to know that the stomach area has a higher number of alpha receptors. This makes losing weight from the belly much harder to get off than other parts of the body. This is why it is important to do regular strength training and vary the workouts you do. It is also important to look after your diet, to help speed up the weight loss.

However, you may find you lose weight off your legs, arms, and chest first. This is normal and shouldn’t be cause for concern, if this is the case it won’t be long until the belly fat starts coming off too.

Cardio And Weight Training Schedule For Weight Loss

Cardio And Weight Training Schedule For Weight Loss

Because combining cardio and weight training is the best way to lose weight, it is highly recommended that you combine some cardio with your strength training. However, if not done right you may find that you burn out, get injured, or just lose motivation. Instead, focus on following good cardio and weight training schedule for weight loss.

Simple cardio and weight training schedule for weight loss could look like this:

Monday – Lower body strength training
Tuesday – Upper body strength training
Wednesday – Core strength training
Thursday – Cardio (cycling, running, rowing, walking)
Friday – Complete Rest
Saturday – Combined lower and upper body workout.
Sunday – Cardio (cycling, running, rowing, walking)

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A basic training schedule layout combines a mixture of cardio and strength training with enough recovery between workouts.

This means having a complete rest day off each week and not focusing on the same area of the body two days in a row. It also means varying workouts you do each day and not getting stuck into a repetitive motion of doing the same thing every day.

 

Does Strength Training Burn Fat – Final Words

As you have read, strength training burns fat. Not just when you are working out but also in the hours after your training session. However, to get the best results, you need to combine strength training with cardio. However, if cardio is not your thing, strength training alone can still allow you to burn more fat.

If you are currently doing strength training and not losing any weight, you may need to look at your diet. Alternatively, if you are following a good diet and still not losing weight (fat), reach out to a personal trainer. They can help prescribe the right strength training plan to burn fat and improve weight loss.

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