do light weights burn fat?

[FBTiger58]

so me and my friend were arguing and i told him that i dont lift heavy weights because im cutting and i want to burn fat. so instead i do light weights with 15 reps each. my friend said thats wrong and lifting light weights dosnt burn fat and when your cutting your supposed to keep rep range the same. who is right? also, he told me to come here to prove whos right/wrong but how do i know what information is right you could all be wrong any links?

[nutsy54]

Wow - ask for our advice, then expect us to prove we're not liars. This thread could get interesting

[odoreater]

so me and my friend were arguing and i told him that i dont lift heavy weights because im cutting and i want to burn fat. so instead i do light weights with 15 reps each. my friend said thats wrong and lifting light weights dosnt burn fat and when your cutting your supposed to keep rep range the same. who is right? also, he told me to come here to prove whos right/wrong but how do i know what information is right you could all be wrong any links?

If you're in a calorie deficit both light weights high reps and heavy weights low reps would burn fat if you're in the "fat burning zone" (i.e., your body has deplted other energy stores). However, if you want to keep muscle I would suggest doing what you did when you were bulking that got you the muscle to begin with. So, in that regard, I would say that your friend is right and you are wrong. If you don't believe me then you can go do the research yourself.

[maxiw]

Light, moderate, heavy weight... potientally any form of activity will help to burn fat.

[jked4life]

While cutting, you definately want to stick to heavy weight, low reps. Thats what got you big in the first place, and thats what's gonna keep as much muscle on you as possible as the calorie deficit sets in. When cutting, you priority needs to be holding on to as much muscle as possible while torching fat. Its easy to fall into the trap of loosing as much muscle as fat. Keep your weight training routine pretty much the same (as long as its good to begin with), and adjust your diet and add cardio. Produce a calorie deficit of 500- 1000 calories per day, any more, you are eating muscle for sure.

[Be-Be]

If you want to know if the information is right or wrong, do your own research instead of asking our opinions. Know your source.

If you are lifting to fatigue for the target number of reps, heavier weights/lower reps will build muscle strength and lighter weighter/higher reps will build muscle endurance.

You burn fat by doing cardio & lifting in addition to having a calorie deficit like jked explained.

[Charlie Brown]

Any excercise done for 25-30 minutes or more will start to tap into your fat supply.

Personally I think youre wrong and your friend is right

[braindx]

Go heavy and hard all the time.

Take note:

you can only build or lose muscle and you can only gain or lose fat. When you are lifting hard and heavy, you are most likely going to gain muscle. If you are in a calorie deficient diet, you will probably not lose muscle but you may not gain muscle either. If the stimulus is not heavy enough and you are in a calorie deficient diet, you will start losing muscle.

Now, when we looking at burning fat, we have to look at mainly glycogen stores within the body. If you are in a calorie deficient diet, you will have low glycogen stores. If you do cardio, your muscles will first use up all the glycogen stores and then start burning fat for muscle through B-oxidation after about 20-30 minutes. Using training methods like high intensity interval training (HIIT) increase your metabolism and caloric turnover. A by product of increased metabolism and caloric turnover is the burning of fat -- basketball players simulate HIIT by running up and down the court and most of them have very little fat on their bodies.

In terms of lifting weights to burn fat we have to look at what each training method does. Lifting hard and heavy puts a HUGE stimulus on the muscles which will also increase your metabolism just like HIIT. Thus, this method, much like HIIT is a good way to help you burn off the fat. If you lift with light weights for high(er) reps, you will feel a burn, but it is more of an endurance burn. This will not really do anything for your muscles as the weight is not great enough to stress your muscles, and you don't do it long enough to deplete all of your glycogen stores and start B-oxidation in your muscles. Thus, lifting with light weights for high repetitions really doesn't do much except increase your endurance.

Metabolic conditioning by using lighter weights for higher reps CAN be used to help burn fat IF you are doing enough exercises continuously in a row like you would keep running during a cardio workout. This is the primary basis for metabolic conditioning workouts that programs like CrossFit use. Most of their workouts are based upon using "lighter" weights for various exercises, but you do continuous activity (much like supersetting) for up to 20-30 minutes in a row.

Anyway, that is more information than you needed. In terms of the question you are asking, your friend is right and you are wrong.

Cheers.

edit: fixing typos

[rockinuncc]

I'll tell you this because it worked for me. I saw great results doing circuit training when I was cutting. Do a full-body circuit 3 days a week with cardio in between. Go back and forth between heavy weight and lower weight to keep your muscles guessing. The idea of the circuit is to consecutively hit each muscle group with little rest between. Keep your heartrate up.

[The Real Deal]

your wrong. keep rep range same. why change from wat made u big. does that even make sense?!? this high rep misconception is retarded.

[maxiw]

Do both. You can't go heavy, flat-out, all the time, anyway... unless you're Superman.

Light weight has its place in weight training too. It helps endurance and recovery by stimulating extra blood flow which will indirectly help your strength and overall gains.