NO CARDIO NEEDED – Weights as Effective For Fatloss Says Study

Surely it can’t be true that you don’t need to do cardio for heart health and fat loss? Well, according to a study it seems that yes, lifting weights actually provides impressive improvements for promoting fat loss. Indeed, not only do we lose fat – but because you’re gaining muscle you also will end up burning more calories at rest.

So; there you go gym bros – you now have a valid excuse for just lifting weights and skipping the treadmill totally right? Well, kind of. Let’s take a look at this study and a secondary one, and then come to a few conclusions for both the seasoned gym rat and also someone who is perhaps just starting their journey into fitness.

So the first study is titled Aerobic, resistance, or combined exercise training and cardiovascular risk profile in overweight or obese adults: the CardioRACE trial and is published in several places, but I’m looking at it from the european heart journal. 

During this study there were just over 400 people who were aged between 35-70 years old and were randomly sorted into several groups. The first is no exercise, the second is resistance only (ie, lifting weights), the next just cardio and the final group is a mixture of both lifting weights and doing cardio.

So the conclusions – in essence, all the folks who performed resistance training only did actually lose a roughly equal amount of bodyfat to the cardio bunnies. Indeed, the calories for the group performing strength training was up to 200 calories higher, so – in theory at least, if things had been equalled out it could be argued that you might lose more than cardio – though again, this wasn’t directly tested so do not take that as 100 percent.

So – right then, that’s it! Screw cardio more weight lifting? Well, if fat loss is your only goal – maybe. As I have said in my first article on the website, technically speaking you don’t need to do cardio to lose fat. Infact, technically you can lose fat by just being in a calorie deficet. But, obviously adding resistance training gains you more muscle which has a host of benefits – including you being stronger in every day life, looking better and of course more muscle also burns more fat at rest – plus just healthier bones and joints, more resistance to aging and tons of other stuff.

But, the take away here is that:

1. Adding cardio to resistance training increased heart health significantly and that is important. You don’t want to look good but have blood pressure that’s about to cause your veins to explode.
2. Secondly, the results of adding cardio to the strength training lead to more fat loss. So basically you have a two-for-one special.
3. While weight lifting did improve heart and cardiovascular health to a degree, it’s definitely a very good idea to still get some steps in – particularly if you work in say an office, where you’re sitting for long periods of time.

Let’s add a second study to all of this, and it involves steps per day. Now, if you’re someone who works as a postman then there’s a good chance you’re averaging more steps a day than someone who (like myself) spends much of the day sitting in a chair working at a computer. 

What they found in over 72k participants (so a very good reference size) is that if you are about 2200 steps a day it makes a non-trivial difference to the chances of you keeling over. But, if you hit 9-10k steps a day, you will largely negate the affects of sitting for long periods of time every as you’re working in your office job and so on.

So – what can we do with all of this information? 

Well to give you a tl;dr of what I’m about to say – cardio is very important for heart and general health, and while lifting weights does improve cardio it can’t replace dedicated cardio work all together, but that said – lifting weights has a ton of benefits.

So let’s split this into two categories – seasoned gym goer and also beginners. 

Well if you’re a seasoned gym-goer and have lifted for a decent amount of time, there’s a good chance you’ve already built some good muscle. Assuming your training program is decent, I’d still throw cardio in. How much depends on lots of factors – such as what your normal step counter is throughout the day.

If you’re doing cardio in the same session as your weights, do the weight training first to save as much energy as possible for the lifting. Ideal scenario would be to split them, but obviously this isn’t always possible. 

You can also go for a few walks throughout the day (such as a fifteen minute walk before breakfast, and one for lunch), or if you are commuting get off a few stops earlier – whatever you need to do to get extra cardio in throughout the week, and maybe if you want to throw in extra activity such as bike riding and so on that’d be swell. 

Personally speaking I do at LEAST 30 minutes of walking a day to and from the gym, and then usually add in either extra walking on a treadmill or just taking a walk outside.

If you’re NOT a seasoned gym-goer and just starting to get into lifting weights and health and fitness, my suggestion would be to start slowly. Add extra steps in and gradually build up over time. If you drive everywhere, haven’t worked out in years or something like that – then firstly I am REALLY pleased that you’re taking measures to improve your health. I know it can seem quite overwhelming, but seriously – it is awesome that’s what you’re doing.

But outside of that you don’t want to suddenly start running every day, or aiming for 10k steps a day. I would gradually add cardio in and also start lifting weights. You can workout from home, but for sake of this video I’ll suggest going to the gym between two to three sessions a week.

I am a big fan of upper body one day, lower another for a two a week split, or push pull legs for a three day a week split. Focus on BIG compound movements – I have a video focused on this for beginners so if you’re new to lifting, check that out.

Then in the lifting sessions you can add a bit of cardio and outside of when you’re at the gym, again just do a bit more. If you workout monday, wednesday and friday for example, go for a walk or bike ride with friends on sunday. If you work out saturday and sunday at the gym, okay great. Add a bit of extra walking during the week (Such as when taking out the trash take a quick walk around the block, park the furthest away from the shop, and so on) and then again, add more cardio at the weekends at the gym.

I stress of course, this is assuming you’re starting at point zero – so use your judgement of your abilities to figure out where you lie on the spectrum between couch potato and gym rat.

Finally – yes cardio has the stigma of being boring – but guys there’s no point looking good if you’re not feeling good. Remember, better cardio also means that you’ll even be able to go harder for lifting too – if you’re feeling gassed because you don’t have the cardio stamina to finish your squats before your legs give out, then you’re losing out on gains!