Both Pilates and weight training offer ways to improve your physical fitness. Pilates includes exercises that will build strong abdominal muscles as well as stretching movements. Weight training builds muscle mass and increases your strength. While both activities will burn calories for weight loss, neither compares to the calorie expenditure that aerobic exercise offers. Because of their health benefits, they are both suitable additions to your overall exercise plan. Both activities also provide additional support for your cardio workouts.
Activity Level
One of the benefits of Pilates is that it offers a way to exercise with non-jarring movements. The emphasis rests on form rather than repetitions. This makes Pilates an appropriate activity for seniors and those with health issues. This same benefits come with weight training. Fast movements increase the risk for injury and are counterproductive. If you do repetitions quickly, momentum drives your weightlifting rather than effort on your part. In terms of activity for calorie burn, Pilates and weight training provide only marginal results.
Calorie Burn
A 150-pound person completing a beginner Pilates workout will burn about 252 calories an hour. That same person will burn about 234 calories an hour while weightlifting. For calorie and fat burn, the two activities are comparable. The difference lies in the ability to increase exercise intensity as well as how either can fit into your exercise schedule.
Increasing Intensity
Both forms of exercise have some latitude for ramping up the intensity level and thus the calorie burn for weight loss. A 150-pound doing advance Pilates will burn 432 calories an hour. With weightlifting, you can increase the cardio effort by shortening or skipping rest periods between sets. Your heart rate will remain high as you stay active your entire session. A 150-pound person doing a vigorous weightlifting session will burn about 413 calories an hour, making both activities similar in their calorie burn.
Considerations
When comparing Pilates and weight training for weight loss, you must take in account how often you can do either activity. Herein is where the two differ. Weight training involves the tearing and repair of muscle fibers. Consequently, you should follow an exercise session with two rest days, recommends the University of Maryland Medical Center. You can do Pilates, on the other hand, every day due to its effects on the body. In this way, you can burn more calories for weight loss each week doing Pilates than you can weight training.
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