Weights vs. Cardio

Weights vs Cardio

Everyone has their own opinions and beliefs on which training they prefer or think is best.  Generally people prefer cardio training when trying to loose weight. On the other hand, people prefer weight training when they try to build their body. But why not do both? Lets discuss.

Cardio Training

• Cardio training is any exercise that can increase heart beat. The main organ it uses in the training is heart and blood vessels. Increasing heart beat means more oxygen being delivered to muscles cell, which resulted in healthier organs. More oxygen also enables the cell to burn more calories during and after the workout, which will benefit people who want to lose weight. Any exercise that can keep the heart rate to at least 50% of its maximum level for a certain period of time is cardio training. –
• The most common exercises are aerobic, running, walking,cycling, and swimming. Other more specific kind of cardio exercises are soccer, basketball, tennis, and canoeing.

Benefits of Cardio Training

• The benefit of cardio training is more than weight loss. Overall, cardio training strengthens vital body organs, including heart, lungs, and bones. It prevents fatal and serious illness such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, type 2-diabetes, and osteoporosis etc.

Benefits of Weight Training

• Weight training’s most core benefit is that it increases lean muscle mass. For someone with weight loss goal, this may not make sense. Why should they increase body mass when they want to lose weight? This is because lean muscle mass burns calories better than fat. 
• The other benefit of weight training is that, it is not just decreasing body weight, but it also shapes the muscles. Doing cardio training exclusively can reduce body weight, but it just means one gets a smaller body. While on the contrary, weight training not only reduces body weight, but also enhances the natural curve of the body.

Which one burns more calories?

Cardio training burns more calories during exercise as compared to weight training. The difference between the two can range from 40-80 calories. This result can be obtained after an intense and long duration of cardio training.

However, weight training has a unique advantage compared to cardio training. While it burns fewer calories than cardio training during exercise, weight training keeps burning calories even after exercise – particularly till 36 hours.

It means, after finishing a weight training, someone can still burn more calories even when he or she does nothing else. Usually, the calories burned during these 36 hours can be amounted as much as 25% of the calories burned during the workout, which is quite a bargain. In total sum, weight training can be more beneficial in losing weight.