Statistically, you lose more weight exercising aerobically than via other exercises, including strength-training exercises. However, strength-training exercises are the "best way to reduce your body fat," because building muscles improves your calorie-burning metabolism throughout the day, even when you're resting, according to the textbook "An Invitation to Health." You lose more weight when you do strength-training and aerobics exercises regularly, but you can lose weight if you do strength-training exercises but don't do any aerobic exercises.
Definitions
Strength-training exercises involve "repetitively moving muscles against resistance," including barbells, dumbbells, exercise machines, and body-resistance exercises such as pullups and pushups, according to the textbook "Essentials for Health and Wellness." Aerobic exercises stimulate the heart and lungs long enough to increase the amount of oxygen your body can process. This usually occurs after about one minute, reports "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease." Continuous exercises such as bicycling, jogging, swimming and walking are aerobic exercises, while stop-and-start exercises such as swinging golf clubs and baseball bats and throwing and kicking balls are nonaerobic exercises.
Weight Loss Stats
Aerobic exercises burn significantly more calories than strength-training exercises. On the average, 155-lb. people burn 739 calories an hour vigorously exercising on a stationary bicycle and 704 calories per hour vigorously bicycling outdoors, but they burn 563 calories per hour doing pushups vigorously and 422 calories per hour weightlifting vigorously, according to a Wisconsin study. The same people burn an average 493 and 563 calories per hour exercising moderately on a stationary bicycle and an outdoor bike, respectively, but they burn 317 and 211 calories hourly doing pushups and weightlifting moderately. You're exercising vigorously when your heart rate is 70 to 90 of its maximum, or 220 beats a minute minus your age, and you are exercising moderately when your heart rate is 55 to 69 percent of its maximum.
Recommendations
You shouldn't do strength-training exercises every day, but you should do aerobic exercises every day, according to The Merck Manual of Medical Information. You're risking an injury and a poor performance if you weightlift daily because your skeletal muscles need about 48 hours to heal after exercising. Lifting weights vigorously four days a week for one hour each day will burn 1,688 calories, or slightly less than half a pound, if you're 155 lbs., but you will lose far more weight if you also exercise aerobically. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends three to five 20- to 60-minute aerobic exercise workouts per week.
Metabolism
Muscle burns more calories than fat. The average 155-lb. person burns 739 calories per hour vigorously exercising on a stationary bicycle, but a person with a high muscle mass percentage will burn more than 739 calories, and a person with a low muscle mass percentage will burn fewer than 739 calories. In fact, men burn more calories than women, because they have twice the muscle mass percentage. Similarly, an average 155-lb. person will burn 246 calories per hour doing plumbing work, according to Wisconsin, but muscular plumbers will burn far more calories.
References
- "An Invitation to Health"; Dianne Hales; 2010
- "Essentials for Health and Wellness"; Gordon Edlin and Eric Golanty; 2004
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
- State of Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services: Calories Burned per Hour
- The Merck Manual of Medical Information; 2003
- American College of Sports Medicine: The Recommended Quantity and Quality of Exercise
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