Weightlifting and exercise are both viewed as aids to weight loss. Each has its own unique benefits, and both can help people lose weight. Neither weightlifting nor exercise in itself is likely to increase weight loss significantly, but both can contribute to a well-rounded weight loss program. The only obvious negative to any type of exercise, whether it is purely weight training or cardiovascular-dominant exercise, is not doing it at all!
Cardiovascular Exercise
The most popular cardiovascular exercises, like walking, swimming, biking and running, all help to some degree with weight loss because they do burn calories--and over time, every calorie counts. One pound of fat contains roughly 3,500 calories. Assuming caloric intake remains the same, a person needs to burn an extra 500 calories per day in order to lose 1 lb. of fat a week. This means a 130-lb. woman would have to run for an hour at 5.2 miles per hour every day for a week to lose 1 lb., says cellshealthmakeover.com. Most people won't choose to sustain this level of cardiovascular work or are not able to.
Weightlifting
Weightlifting builds muscle and increases lean body mass; but in addition to burning calories during the workout, it causes the body to use extra calories afterward. Because muscle requires more energy to maintain, in the absence of available calories through a modified diet, the body will look to stored fat energy for needed calories. The calculator on self.com shows that a 130-lb. woman lifting weights at a moderate intensity for an hour will burn 185 calories. At a vigorous intensity she will burn 372 calories.
Expert Insight
Calorie for calorie, exercise has a slight advantage over weightlifting when you compare calories per minute utilized. Physical activity on average will burn 10 to 12 calories per minute versus 8 to 10 calories with weight training. On the flip side, "For every three pounds of muscle you build, you'll burn an extra 120 calories a day--just vegging--because muscle takes more energy to sustain," states Wayne Westcott, director of research at a YMCA in Quincy, Massachusetts, on womenshealthmag.com. In addition, Westcott says, you'll burn another 25 calories after the session as your body works to help your muscles recover. If you lift more weight or rest less, that number will be even higher.
Myths
People cannot reduce fat in one area of the body versus another. Spot reduction--the idea that training a specific body part will reduce the amount of subcutaneous fat in that area--is a myth. Combined with proper diet, both physical exercise and weight training help utilize stored fat (energy) in the entire body, which will help reduce the overall body fat percentage and the size of fat cells. Post-exercise oxygen consumption, the increase in calorie expenditure following a workout, is more likely to occur after high-intensity exercise like weightlifting than after moderate-intensity aerobic exercise.
The Bottom Line
Both types of exercise can be used as tools in a weight loss program. Individuals need to decide what is right for them in order to achieve both short-term and long-term weight loss goals. A full body training program that includes both cardiovascular and resistance exercise, combined with a proper diet, is a sound approach to dropping pounds over the long term.
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