Last week a prospective client mentioned (when she first walked in) that she was planning to begin walking or jogging, only, for exercise about three times per week. She planned to do that until she “raised her metabolism and lost the fat” and then she’d start doing weights to “tone up”, and I replied with “do you feel that is the most efficient way for you to get the body you are looking for?”.
Let me begin by saying I think that any activity is a great idea. And… I encourage people to be as physically active as possible. BUT, I’ll admit it has been a while since I’d heard anyone tell me they think this idea of doing aerobics first and then strength training once you’d lost the fat was a good idea.
So, is it? Let’s take a look at some studies and see for ourselves.
Hunter et al
Resistance Training Conserves Fat-free Mass and Resting Energy Expenditure Following Weight Loss.
Obesity (Silver Spring). 2008This study compared three groups:
Diet only, Diet plus aerobic training, and a Diet plus resistance training group to determine what effect diet-induced weight loss in combination with exercise training has on body composition and resting energy expenditure (your resting metabolism).
With similar weight loss – the results showed that only the resistance training group maintained their lean mass and resting energy expenditure (metabolism). The aerobic training and diet only group actually lost muscle and lowered their metabolism. In other words – the strength training group lost more fat and maintained their metabolism – meaning that if the program continued on for a longer period of time or a greater weight loss, they could continue to lose more fat than the other groups.
And lets’ review a couple of other studies:
Byrne et al
The effects of a 20-week exercise training program on resting metabolic rate in previously sedentary, moderately obese women.
Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2001 MarThis study compared two groups – Resistance training and aerobic training (walking). The resistance training group increased metabolism while the walking group actually reduced their metabolism)
Bryner et al.Effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate.
J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr;18(2):115-21.“The resistance training group lost significantly more fat and did not lose any lean muscle, even at only 800 calories per day. Additionally, the resistance training group actually increased metabolism compared to the aerobic group which decreased metabolism.”
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Kramer, Volek et al.
Influence of exercise training on physiological and performance changes with weight loss in men.
Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 31, No. 9, 1999.Overweight Subjects were assigned to three groups: Diet Only, Diet plus aerobics, Diet plus aerobics plus weights
The Diet-only group lost 14.6 lbs of fat in 12 weeks but when they added in the aerobic program – that group lost only one more pound than the diet group (training was 3 times a week starting at 30 mins and progressing to 3 x 50 minutes over the 12 weeks).
However the Weight Training group lost 21.1lbs of fat (44% and 35% more than diet and aerobic only groups respectively) in the same time frame.
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It seems to be apparent that this lady has been fed some incorrect information. I told her that if her goal is to change the way her body looks – she should adjust her diet, and add strength training in to her routine first. Muscle is always metabolically active. If you make it work – you burn even more calories. Build more muscle – burn more calories.
So if your goal is to increase your metabolism and lose the fat – and you have to choose between strength training or cardio – you need to add strength training to your program FIRST!
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