It is commonly debated what form of exercise burns the most amount of calories: aerobic exercise or weightlifting. Factors such as your body weight and intensity of the exercise contribute to how many calories are burned during an exercise session. Furthermore, some activities keep your metabolism elevated longer than others after your workouts, which also contributes to your caloric deficit.
Aerobic Vs. Weightlifting
Aerobic exercise consists of activities that require oxygen to fuel the activity and are performed for an extended period of time, such as walking, jogging, cycling or swimming. Conversely, weightlifting is an anaerobic activity, meaning it does not require oxygen to fuel the activity and is performed in short bursts.
Walking, jogging and running are all aerobic activities, but the caloric expenditure between the activities can vary considerably. For example, for one hour of exercise, a 160 lb. person will burn 183 calories walking at 2 mph, 219 calories weightlifting, 584 calories jogging at 5 mph or 986 calories running at 8 mph, according to the Mayo Clinic website. In most cases, aerobic exercise will burn more calories than weightlifting, but increasing the intensity can also increase the caloric expenditure of the activity.
Aerobic Exercise
Lower-intensity exercise such as walking does burn a greater percentage of calories from fat than higher-intensity aerobic exercise, which burns more calories from carbohydrates. But higher-intensity exercise burns more total calories and keeps your metabolism elevated longer following your workout. Sprinting is classified as an anaerobic activity, but it can also improve aerobic endurance. Performing high-intensity sprint intervals will burn many calories in a shorter amount of time and keep your metabolism elevated longer following your workout session than lower-intensity aerobic exercise.
Weightlifting
Decreasing rest periods between sets and using compound exercises that work multiple muscles groups will increase the intensity during your weightlifting workouts, enabling you to burn more calories. Higher-intensity weightlifting sessions also keep your metabolism elevated longer following your workouts. Moreover, weightlifting helps to increase lean muscle tissue. The more muscle tissue you have, the higher your metabolism will be. For every 1 lb. of muscle you have, your body will burn up to 50 extras calories a day, compared to 1 lb. of fat, which only burns three calories a day, according to ExRx.net.
The Bottom Line
Although you may not burn as many calories while weightlifting as you do in aerobic exercise, weightlifting will help improve your body composition by increasing your metabolism. The most effective way to lose fat weight is to include both weightlifting and aerobic exercise into your exercise routine. Take part in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise such as brisk walking most days of the week. Additionally, strength train at least twice a week using exercises that target all the major muscle groups, and perform them using a weight in which muscle exhaustion occurs between eight and 12 repetitions for two to three sets.
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