Resistance Training Vs. Aerobic Exercise: Which Is Best For Fat Loss?

[nashjocic]

Resistance Training Versus Aerobic Exercise
03 April 2007

By Fitness Expert Nash Jocic

For years, aerobic training has been synonymous with fat loss. Once your waistline has gone over the limit and your trousers become too tight, the first thing that will come to your mind is aerobic training. How many times have you said to yourself: ?I need to start jogging or do some serious aerobic training in the gym 5 times per week in order to get rid of these love handles?? So, you?ve run and run, and pedalled that bike over and over again and spent countless hours on the walking machine hoping and trying to get tighter and leaner. Every morning you?ve looked in the mirror to check how much you?ve achieved the previous evening and after months and months of going up and down in body weight you?re still confident that aerobic training will eventually give you the body you want. But, it didn?t and won?t.

You probably also remember a few well developed, lean guys from the same gym, but you can?t remember seeing them spending hours and hours on the treadmill next to you. So, how did they do it? They spent time training with weight and resistance equipment! Confused?

Let?s go back to aerobic training and look at what is happening with our physiology when we expose our bodies to the constant environment of low intensity, long duration aerobic exercise and understand why it?s so difficult to transform the body, lose excess body fat and end up in our optimum shape by only doing this.

The major reason why aerobic exercise gained popularity is its low intensity nature. Low intensity types of exercise will keep you in your comfort zone, allowing you to exercise non-stop for longer periods of time, ie 30, 40, 60 minutes or more. Performing any exercise for such a long period of time will give everyone a false impression of good achievement. The only factor that?s considered here is the duration of an activity - something that can be measured in time and the more time spent produces better results. Not true!

Unfortunately, the human body respects other units of measurement. Whatever is low in intensity, regardless of duration, will never deliver enough impact on the body in order to effect fat loss. The body is an extremely energy efficient mechanism that will accumulate and store extra energy in the form of body fat, but will not give it up easily, thanks to that extraordinary ability we have managed to survive as species. If our bodies had been designed to burn fat (energy) easily we wouldn?t have been able to survive weeks of famine that have often been commonplace throughout our evolution rather than our current climate of abundant of food. In order to give up its own stored energy - body fat ? the body has to be exposed to different and constant living conditions.

While performing low intensity, long duration exercise, we don?t engage our biggest muscle groups. We never use their full biomechanical motion ? the full joint rotation around the axis, exposing them to their strength limits. The amount of energy that the body will burn during the 40-60 minutes of aerobic activity is not significant and depends mainly on one thing - the trainee?s body weight. The heavier the person, the more calories that will be burnt simply because the effort is greater. In order to burn a single pound of body fat one has to burn 3500 calories! An average person, weighing 75 kilograms burns around 300 calories in an aerobic session lasting around 45 minutes! Now take away from that the 100 to 150 calories that the person will burn anyway through their basic metabolic rate doing absolutely nothing and you will end up with a disappointing 150 to 200 calories lost due to your average aerobic activity. Now split 3500 calories that need to be burnt in order to lose one pound of body fat and you will need 18 to 23 sessions of your favourite aerobic exercise, in order to lose only one pound of body fat! This is for me extremely inefficient.

Regular exposure to aerobic exercise will force the body to adapt to this constant environment by burning the most dominant muscle fibres - white muscle fibres - in order to bring the overall body weight down and overcome the constant activity with ease. The reason why white muscle fibres are the ones sacrificed in the process of constant exposure to low intensity exercise is that they are not used in the process. The muscle fibres that get involved in that kind of activity are the red, slow twitch muscle fibres. White muscle fibres become a burden, an extra weight that has to be carried and therefore sacrificed. By reducing the bulk of the most important active tissue in the body, muscle tissue, we ultimately slow down our metabolism and start burning less fat. This is the major reason why people experience some weight loss in the first few weeks of aerobic exercise followed by a constant body weight regardless of the amount of time they exercise. Bear in mind that weight loss usually accounts for 50% of fat loss and 50% of muscle loss in the scenario of aerobic training only.

Another way that the body will adjust to low intensity, long duration exercise is hormonal re-tuning. Hormones that are directly related to muscle size, strength, immunity, bone density, libido, etc. will decrease in order to adapt to lifestyle demands. The problem is that the body will sacrifice lean muscle tissue rather than body fat. Body composition will barely change and the most physiologically active tissue will be reduced rather than the body fat. So, if you were a pear shaped person you will most likely end up a smaller pear shape without the change in body composition, transforming the look and the proportions of your body. This is all that aerobic exercise can possibly offer you - nothing more.

Aerobic exercise is extremely high impact, placing great amount of stress to the joints - knees, hips, spine and ankles. The nature of these movements is such that it doesn?t offer constant controlled muscle tension but rather interrupted, on off muscle tension and more momentum that relies on the strength of joint and connective tissues. Shifting the stress from the muscles to the connective tissues and joints can have serious consequences and accounts for mainly accumulated injuries (built up over a period of time- months, years). These kinds of injuries in long-term aerobic trainees usually manifest themselves in the damage of cartilage, ligaments and tendons. Injuring these tissues is the best way to reduce mobility and ultimately shorten the life span! The nature of injuries that come from aerobic related activities stop the individual from undertaking exercise thus regaining most of the lost body weight in record time. So, we are left with wasted time, reduced mobility, a decrease in the most active tissue in the body - muscle tissue and a lowered metabolism defeating the whole purpose of the exercise in the first place.

Are there any alternatives? Anything else that can help us to get leaner, stronger, with rather more than less of the muscle tissue, improved immunity, stronger bones, joints and connective tissues, lower risk of injuries, and more mobility? Yes ? resistance training!

Resistance training is based on completely opposite principles to aerobic training. Exercises are performed in sets within a repetition range of 6 to 12, in some cases up to 20 lasting between 20 to 60 seconds. Usually, resistance training is only linked to increase in strength and overall muscle size. Other benefits of resistance training have been neglected and under estimated for decades. That lack of understanding and the fact that it is not ?easy? to train with weights provides the answer as to why resistance training has never been as mass ?hyped? as aerobic training. Aerobic training is easy to perform; resistance training is hard to perform. Pedalling a bike for an hour or walking on a treadmill is definitely easier than performing 20 sets of intense exercises for back, legs or other muscles. As time counts historically more than content, the long duration, low intensity option has prevailed and the benefits of aerobic training are absolutely marginal in comparison to benefits from resistance training.

Low intensity coupled with constant, non controllable weight that we are using while performing aerobic exercise (ie body weight) are major factors that cause very quick adaptation and lower response to the same activity over a period of a few weeks. Loss of active tissue in the aerobic environment is the key reason for the slowdown of basic metabolism and lowered ability to burn body fat as fuel. Repetitive, high impact motion in aerobic training is the best way to accumulate stress in the joints and connective tissues and frequently cause irreparable injuries that will last for years to come, decreasing mobility, activity levels, agility and other vital functions.

What happens when we get exposed to a different nature of physical activity, resistance training? If we look at the most common reason that drives the majority of people into exercising, fat loss, there is no better and faster way to lose fat than resistance training. Do we burn more calories while training with weights than biking or walking? No, we burn more or less the same amount of calories per single session of resistance or aerobic training. So how does resistance training result in all these lean bodies of men and women who train with weights (bodybuilders are the leanest athletes on the planet)?

The reason for greater fat burn lies in the time that follows after your training session, not during the same. The major effect of high intensity resistance training, in regard to fat loss, is increased basic metabolism that will last up to 24 hours after the session! After an aerobic session your metabolism drops back to normal the moment you press the stop button on your treadmill. High intensity training can increase basic metabolism up to 30% for 24 hours following the session due to the muscle repair process that takes place straight after the session lasting in some cases even over 24 hours.

The most important illusion to be broken is regarding weight loss! I never talk about weight loss simply because it is completely irrelevant. With resistance training you will be losing fat only, 100%, not 50% as in aerobic training. The other 50% of weight lost in aerobic training will come from muscle tissue and will slow the basic metabolism - the worst possible scenario for people who want to lose fat and stay lean for good. Resistance training will actually preserve muscle tissue and help you to make some more of it, speeding up your basic metabolism! Never be disillusioned with weight loss, think fat loss only.

And what happens to the joints and connective tissues while performing resistance training? Resistance training is a non-impact type of training, placing the stress more on the muscle tissue than on the joints, tendons and ligaments. Relatively slow, controlled exercise performance that is the essence of proper training with weights is the best guarantee for strong, long lasting joints and connective tissues.

Apart from the hot fat burning properties other benefits of weight training are -

1/Increased metabolic rate
2/Increasing and restoring bone density
3/Increased lean muscle mass and strength
4/Increased production of testosterone and growth hormone
5/Injury prevention
6/Improved balance, flexibility, mobility and stability
7/Decreased risk of coronary diseases (decrease cholesterol and lower blood pressure)
8/Enhanced performance in different sports
9/Feeling better and looking better

Now knowing what to expect from resistance training, hit the gym and burn that body fat for good! Stay consistent, motivated and enjoy your new better-looking and healthier body.

[MUthrows94]

Solid article!!! Couple questions?

What are your thoughts on complexes for fat loss? Also, what do you recommend as far as rest periods and supersets during a fat loss regimen???

Thanks!!

[FitzChivalry]

Cardio does bite.

[TheNormalMan]

I agree that most people perform aerobics in a zone that doesn't do them a whole lot of good, but I'm a firm believer in HISS (High Intensity Steady State). Performing this kind of cardio has worked wonders for me along with a solid diet and heavy resistance training program.

I find that aerobics all comes down to how hard you push yourself. The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Simple as that. People are just lazy and don't want to push themselves outside their "comfort zone".

[nashjocic]

Solid article!!! Couple questions?

What are your thoughts on complexes for fat loss? Also, what do you recommend as far as rest periods and supersets during a fat loss regimen???

Thanks!!

Complex carbs are not much different than simple carbs. The hipe has been going on for deacdes faworing complex carbs against the simple once. The reality is that for your body there is no difference. They will all end up as glucose and triger insulin to store them in muscles and liver as glicogen or, more lakely as body fat in your fat stores. I had to get in competitive shape 46 times and can tell you like no many others, you will newer get in great shape with complex carbs on your plate.
Reagrding you secon question; there is only one type of training. The type of training that made you strong and big is the same for fat loss to! You can't burn fat by exercising, this is very inefficient physiologicaly. You will burn fat by dieting. Use your training to maintain the size and strength of your muscles, eat right food to burn off exes fat.
Best,
N

[LeftyBaseballr]

So let me get this right... If I go and run sprints or even jog like 3-4 miles on level 7 (8 minute miles) your telling me when I step off that treadmill my metabolic rate just immediately stops? I'd have to disagree with that. I agree that weight lifting or resistance has to be mixed with running for the body composition part but I don't know about losing aerobic exercise completely.

[bbdude1988]

So let me get this right... If I go and run sprints or even jog like 3-4 miles on level 7 (8 minute miles) your telling me when I step off that treadmill my metabolic rate just immediately stops? I'd have to disagree with that. I agree that weight lifting or resistance has to be mixed with running for the body composition part but I don't know about losing aerobic exercise completely.

That's not what he was/is saying. He was talking to Low-Intensity Cardio-you know, the type that you see overweight peeps doing for hours on end? Sprints, on the otherhand, boost you metabolism to almost the height of weight training.

[cully]

Complex carbs are not much different than simple carbs...
you will newer get in great shape with complex carbs on your plate.

You can't burn fat by exercising, this is very inefficient physiologicaly. You will burn fat by dieting. Use your training to maintain the size and strength of your muscles, eat right food to burn off exes fat.

Great article. What foods have worked best for you when dieting? I am currently dieting on chicken, eggs, raw veggies, and fats from nuts, avocados, salmon. Am I on the right track?

Do you not agree with incorporating any cardio work into one's training, such as 30 min treadmill walking post workout?

Also, there seems to be some disagreement as to what one should do when hitting a sticking point in dieting, either increasing cardio or decreasing calories. I am going to assume that you would be on the decrease calorie side. Am I right?

Thanks alot, and great post

[Melissa01]

Wow! Great article!

[nashjocic]

Hi Missy,
thanks for your comment. Please visit my website, I hope you will find many more of my articles regarding also training and diet for girls that I hope you will like it.
Best regrds,
Nash

[nashjocic]

Great article. What foods have worked best for you when dieting? I am currently dieting on chicken, eggs, raw veggies, and fats from nuts, avocados, salmon. Am I on the right track?

Do you not agree with incorporating any cardio work into one's training, such as 30 min treadmill walking post workout?

Also, there seems to be some disagreement as to what one should do when hitting a sticking point in dieting, either increasing cardio or decreasing calories. I am going to assume that you would be on the decrease calorie side. Am I right?

Thanks alot, and great post

Hi Cully,
the best food while dieting for me were chicken, fish, egg whites and whey protein plus green vegetables and sometimes I would eat baked potatoes. But dont forget, that's me.
You can always add cardio to your training, but that will have to be sufficient to make any difference. To burn a single pound of body fat you will have to burn extra 3500 cal! That will take you around 10 hours of fast walk! The problem is that that will also decrease your muscle size (even if you are on the gear, not to mention if you are not) and therefore slow down your metabolism. Cardio is great for loosing WEIGHT, but not fat! I have been sollwing those kinds of problems in thousends of my clients in last 25 years.
If your weight training was intense enough, why and how would you be able to add cardio session after it? I wouldn't.
When you get to the sticking point reconsider again your intensity. Food is there to suport your metabolism, high intensity is there to increase it and speed it up. Not always cutting calories would be the answer.
Thanks and best regards,
Nash

[BoDanger]

A few questions

Where are you getting that 50% of the weight you lose though arobic training comes from muscle? Is this from RQ? From what I know your bodys ability to use fat for energy though oxidative processes is really based on the individual. The more training of type 1 muscle fiber the more mitochondria and the better ability to use oxygen to burn fat to supply energy for the exercise rather than muscle.

As I understand as far as energy pathways go, the actual act of lifting weight burns no fat. The energy comes from atp/cp and glocose/glicogen pathways. The only way fat is burned is though oxidative pathway (krebs cycle yadayada) and type IIa/IIb muscle fibers used for lifting don't use this energy pathway.

Also your body can go catabolic and burn muscle from doing arobic exercise but only at high intensity where your body cant oxidize fat fast enough to keep up with the energy demands. How does low intensity arobic exercise burn muscle?

And by the same token wont running a calorie deficit to lose fat also cause you to lose muscle? I learned that your body will drop muscle to lower its matabolism to prevent stavation if you are running a calorie deficit.

[BoDanger]

Complex carbs are not much different than simple carbs. The hipe has been going on for deacdes faworing complex carbs against the simple once. The reality is that for your body there is no difference. They will all end up as glucose and triger insulin to store them in muscles and liver as glicogen or, more lakely as body fat in your fat stores. I had to get in competitive shape 46 times and can tell you like no many others, you will newer get in great shape with complex carbs on your plate.
Reagrding you secon question; there is only one type of training. The type of training that made you strong and big is the same for fat loss to! You can't burn fat by exercising, this is very inefficient physiologicaly. You will burn fat by dieting. Use your training to maintain the size and strength of your muscles, eat right food to burn off exes fat.
Best,
N

Can you explain what you mean by saying there is no difference between complex and simple carbs?

From everything I have learned there is a huge difference between the two. This is not some opinion or hype like you say this is medical fact. Simple carbs get broken down faster in you system and there for spike your glucose and insulin levels. Having this much glucose in you system at one time means that you are less likely to use all of it up and there for will more likely store some as fat. Complex carbs take longer to break down and there for slowly feed the glocose into your system preventing the spike and allowing a greater period of time to burn through the glucose there is less of a chance to store it as fat.

This is why diabetics are suppose to stay away from sipmle carbs to aviod the glucose/insulin spike.

Also what do you mean you cant burn fat by exercising? I'm just confused can you explain what you mean?

[FitzChivalry]

I'm interested in the above questions as well.
What type of macronutrient ratio do you recommend than on average?

[BoDanger]

Yeah idk i be pretty interested in what he has to say.

[nashjocic]

Yeah idk i be pretty interested in what he has to say.

HI there,
thank you for your response. As I can see, you confusion arises from the common source of information available to general public. I can only guess where you have gained your knowledge from, but for you info, I had to aquire mine from 25 years of nutritional and fitness consultancy, strenght coaching and personal training, while advising and personally coaching thousands of individuals with the same generic problem: information and results coming out of it.
When I say that there is no difference between complex and simple carbs I'm trying to brake the biggest disillusion in nutrition and allow people to, for once start eating natural (human) foods and benefit from it. It is not always necessary about the surge of energy in the blood, it is more about the carb load and the destiny of carbs that enter the body, regardless of them being simple of complex. They will only be "safe" if they enter the glycogen stores! The catch is that your glucogen stores are almost never empty or depleted! You can believe in as many articles written about the subject, but the only way to know what is your glycogen situation in the body is to try to check it yourself.
I have done it hundreds of times so far, and can tell you then is almost impossible to deplete them. I would not get into the mechanism of glycogen metabolism right now (it would take more space and time) but in reality the spill over of glucose happens most of the time. That means that glucose will be refused entry into full glycogen stores and be diverted into the liver where it will be transfered into triglycerides and deposited into the fat stores around the body. Regardless of the initial entry, complex and simple cards will only be used if they are needed, but if they are not they will be deposited into fat stores with the help of insulin. This is why all the top guys who aim to achieve top condition end up dieting on low carb diet 6-12 weeks before the show (regarding of the amount of GH, T3, IGF1, and other "helpers" for fat loss and metabolic boost).
Reality is one school, magazines and gym chats are the other...
Diabetic people (I had many diabetic clients) are advised not to eat fast carbs, but only complex. True, but don't forget, at the same time they have been slaves of injectable insulin too! Wonder why? 'Cause the difference between the simple and complex carbs is negligent, they all do the same damage. They all need insulin in order to get driven to the fat stores. I have managed to get some of my diabetic clients from injectable insulin to tablet insulin, and those ones that have been on tablets - off it! Reason being change in the diet and type of training .
Hope this reality tips will help you to pack a bit more muscle while not getting fat at the same time or loosing fat at the same time (contrary to popular belive it is possible very much).
Diet roughly made up of 60% protein, 20% essential fats and 20% carbs (from vegetables and fruit) would be the best bet for majority of people in order to keep their insulin glucagon balance right. Regarding to different metabolic rates, different training frequency and intensity and different chemical intake, this proportion may vary.
Best regards to you all,
Nash

[FitzChivalry]

I see where you are coming from as Poliquin advocates the same thing and judging by both of your results there must be something to it. I actually made my best/leanest gains on a 50/30/20 of protein/carbs/fat. What are your feeling on metabolizing that much protein as your example is even higher than mine and the idea that you need higher fats when you go lower carbs as a source of energy? Thanks for the reply, btw. I actually felt leaner and with less bloat by using mostly fruits and veggies as opposed to complex when I tried it out. Also, what about nutrient combining (i.e combining fats and carbs, etc.)? Sorry for all the questions but you seem very knowledgeable and your physique, website, past experiences speak for themselves.

[TGeorge824]

What are your thoughts on HIIT?

[MATT2388]

Since you posted this article i have made the changes to diet and my workout.

I read a few weeks back a study, that fats and protein do not stimulate the thyroid (TSH) or break down Reverse T3 to any great degree, unlike carbohydrates. This obviously is very important as T3 is metabolism controls the speed of all bodily functions.

Here found it: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/oJwgSL_...erractions.pdf

Dont you feel colder on this type of diet, and your metabolism slows down as the thyroid is not stimulated?



Also in my spare time, i like to sit down and watch a film or tv, while excersing about an effort of a gentle jog. Surely this is better then sitting on your bum, the brain then says "Right muscle is not being used, lose muscle and store fat as its all we need to survive!" and the top priority now is fat gain as all it needs to survive is by sitting,

While if you did low intense cardio, the brain will now be like "Oh the muscles are getting used slightly better hold off the muscle burning a tad but keep burning as its not intense enough to stop it completely, put a little extra into fat burning."

Even though the difference is not going to be as great as doing high intensity, its better then sitting, plus you cant keep doing high intensity, the body needs to repair, i find low intensity speeds up this process.

Your thoughts on this?

[nashjocic]

[QUOTE=TGeorge824;162260641]What are your thoughts on HIIT?
Hi George,
what is HIIT?

[nashjocic]

Since you posted this article i have made the changes to diet and my workout.

I read a few weeks back a study, that fats and protein do not stimulate the thyroid (TSH) or break down Reverse T3 to any great degree, unlike carbohydrates. This obviously is very important as T3 is metabolism controls the speed of all bodily functions.

Here found it: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/oJwgSL_...erractions.pdf

Dont you feel colder on this type of diet, and your metabolism slows down as the thyroid is not stimulated?



Also in my spare time, i like to sit down and watch a film or tv, while excersing about an effort of a gentle jog. Surely this is better then sitting on your bum, the brain then says "Right muscle is not being used, lose muscle and store fat as its all we need to survive!" and the top priority now is fat gain as all it needs to survive is by sitting,

While if you did low intense cardio, the brain will now be like "Oh the muscles are getting used slightly better hold off the muscle burning a tad but keep burning as its not intense enough to stop it completely, put a little extra into fat burning."

Even though the difference is not going to be as great as doing high intensity, its better then sitting, plus you cant keep doing high intensity, the body needs to repair, i find low intensity speeds up this process.

Your thoughts on this?

Hi Matt,
stimulation of T3 is very complicated process and there is no way that you will stimulate more T3 by simply eating more carbs?! What you can stimulate is your own BMR (basic metabolic rate) by eating protein in every meal and training with high intensity. Every protein meal will jump start you BMR by 30% more, compering to carb meal that will do the same by only 10%. That higher BMR will help you burn more body fat while you are seating on your bum than doing any so called "cardio" work.
Regarding your hight and body weight, I would like to see you a bit heavier in lean muscles. Bearing in mind that a single extra kg of lean muscle would require extra 100 calories per day just for survival, adding few of them would force your body to become real fat burning machine! Back to you very metabolicaly inefficient aerobic exercise; 1 hour of low intensity biking, for example, would help you burn around 300 cal; take away around 100 cal that you will burn any way (BMR) by just watching TV and you are left with 200 cal per hour. Now, divade 3500 cal (needed to loose 1 pound of body fat) with 200 and you will come up with 17,5 hours of aerobic exercise (17,5 session, or days if you do 1 hour per session every day)! If you thing that this is efficient and good enough for you, than do it. I would not. If you are thinking about fat loss, you better start thinking about reducing you calorie intake by 500 per day and reducing overall amount of carbs, while training with high intensity. Building more lean muscles, eating more protein and less carbs will help you speed up your metabolism (fat loss) and increase life boosting hormons: testosteron and growth hormon! And this is what I call jackpot combination!
Good luck and best regards,
Nash

[FitzChivalry]

I see where you are coming from as Poliquin advocates the same thing and judging by both of your results there must be something to it. I actually made my best/leanest gains on a 50/30/20 of protein/carbs/fat. What are your feeling on metabolizing that much protein as your example is even higher than mine and the idea that you need higher fats when you go lower carbs as a source of energy? Thanks for the reply, btw. I actually felt leaner and with less bloat by using mostly fruits and veggies as opposed to complex when I tried it out. Also, what about nutrient combining (i.e combining fats and carbs, etc.)? Sorry for all the questions but you seem very knowledgeable and your physique, website, past experiences speak for themselves.

So this is more of a cutting diet and not really applicable to gaining mass?

[nashjocic]

So this is more of a cutting diet and not really applicable to gaining mass?

Gaining mass is approved by me only if you are talking about gaining lean muscle tissue. In that scenario it's not the diet but intensity that will decide your lean muscle gain. Train with higher intensity and fallow you instinct when it comes to diet. Eat right (sugested food in right balance) when you are hungry and the weight that you will gain will be the right one. Change the diet and expect to gain weight (mainly fat) even with low intensity training. The real problem starts with high intensity training. Issues like how intense, what exercises, how many times per week etc, will be you next chalange. That may take some time, but once you learn it and apply it the good changes will hapen.
Good luck,
Nash

[MATT2388]

Do you believe that in keeping to maintanance on a clean diet as you suggest, high protein, fruit and veg for carb and healthy fats, that you can change your body composition, even though your not giving it calories or decreasing overall calories?

Say for example you only do High intensity weight training, and you have good recovery, even though the body has not got excess calories or in a defect of calories, the body will still adapt as the body i cant see the body saying "Ok we do not have any excess calories or defect calories, keep fat mass and muscle mass levels the same, do not adapt!"

The body is built to adapt to whatever environment it is in, if that means adapting to sitting down and doing no excersise, the body is not going to grow muscle, only fat. On the other hand if the body is trying to adapt to doing short bursts of high intense excerises, it needs strong energy at a quick rate which it cant get from fat, but only muscle, so the body adapts to building muscle.

[PlayerSupreme]

Let me add a response:

I used to actually teach aerobic exercise. I did this for over 20 years. I didn't teach low intensity aerobics though. I taught what was called heavy hands aerobics.

We held weights in our hands and did high impact, boxing, kick boxing types of movements.

I developed the best cardio monsters in my town.

The classes were so intense that they were popular with other instructors who wanted to get super fit.

It was the high intensity level that caused us to keep burning calories after the class was over.

I reached super low body fat levels:





This post is about intensity of exercise and weight training if done properly does apply a high level of intensity.

On my blog in my own studio if you click on my sig file you will see that I combine weight training with cardio when I am training this ballerina in the video that is posted there.

[note: she is 53 years of age and on her last set. before you start sumthin]

In my own training I use super high intensity. My arms grew from the above photo of 14 inches to 18 and 1/2 inches as a 100% natural with NO additives.

When you do super high intensity the old Darden style and add what I do is a few laps of it you get a circuit style that will put you in the hospital.

But I own my own gym so it allows me to do this type of training.

I have found that low intensity aerobics attracts beta low intensity folks. They stay fat also. Constantly whining about being fat.

I tried to teach those classes and it didn't work for me.

In the higher intensity classes where the type A's lived you will always see a higher level of body composition and attitudes to match.

[Grinners]

Is the above post an advertisement...?

[PlayerSupreme]

Is the above post an advertisement...?

Uhh no dog. I sent you to my blog which I make available to my client for newletter purpose.

If they cannot get to a workout they can go there and get a ab workout or bun workout.

I don't think I have any sales shyt on there. But maybe in the future...

[ultragymrat]

I can hear all of this stuff, but last year / begginng of '08 I slowly changed my weights to cardio ratio to 20 - 80 and and lost 50 pounds (220 to 170 over 6 months) and I know that I didn't lose 25 pounds of of muscle but a combination of 50 pounds of water, fat and some muscle...

I want to beleive the above theory, BUT in my experience boosting your cardio (I did running and HIGH intensity elliptical) for a while will help you to lose significant weight because you are burning a lot of calories, now I am past the point of wanting to lose a lot and am trying to bulk up, so I want to believe that weight training more as I am now will help me to stay lean, but I am afraid of dropping the cardio too much.

[nashjocic]

I can hear all of this stuff, but last year / begginng of '08 I slowly changed my weights to cardio ratio to 20 - 80 and and lost 50 pounds (220 to 170 over 6 months) and I know that I didn't lose 25 pounds of of muscle but a combination of 50 pounds of water, fat and some muscle...

I want to beleive the above theory, BUT in my experience boosting your cardio (I did running and HIGH intensity elliptical) for a while will help you to lose significant weight because you are burning a lot of calories, now I am past the point of wanting to lose a lot and am trying to bulk up, so I want to believe that weight training more as I am now will help me to stay lean, but I am afraid of dropping the cardio too much.

Again, you are talking about the weight loss. You will lose WEIGHT by doing endless cardio, but what kind of tissue you will lose is another question. It is most likely that without high intensity training and real diet most of your weight loss will be from muscle tissue. There is no other way physiologicay. I would like you to post your photo, so we can all see in what kind of shape you have ended into.
As you know, my thoughts are not just virtual, they are suported with my photos, website, articles, books, videos etc. This is what I like to call hard core reality; and trast me, things are there either black or white. There is no room for individual preferances, believes or theories. Physiology is one for all of us; fat and lean, black and white, short or tall etc.
Best regards,
Nash

[struck]

I don't see how can you effectively lose fat without being severely overtrained. I usually perform 3x5 for full body at least once a week to maintain strength and I don't see how can I add resistance training without being overtrained.

Do you have any recommended training program?