If your goal is fat loss then restricting calorie consumption is not what you should be doing. This will cause initial weight loss but this weight loss is not only fat loss but also muscle and bone etc. This loss of muscle will cause your metabolism to drop which in the long run will cause more fat storage. Also a rapid reduction in weight will put your body into a starvation response. The way the body enters starvation response is that the rapid loss of fat causing a reduction in the hormone leptin which is detected by the hypothalamus and then starvation response is initiated. This results in a decreased metabolism, increased hunger and increased lipoprotein lipase which is the enzyme responsible for storing triglycerides into adipocytes. Eating a diet that is natural and balanced for your individual metabolic type that includes plenty of fat (saturated and unsaturated), plenty of protein and free from sugar, processed food, caffeine, alcohol and wheat should help you to burn fat and your ideal weight.
People spend hours and hours on cardio machines hoping for fat loss and to gain a better body. I have put resistance training and continuous cardiovascular training into a table so that you can see the pros and cons of cardio and resistance training.
| Continuous Cardiovascular Training | Resistance Training |
| Raises the stress hormone, cortisol. Raising your stress hormones will stop your body from fat loss. It will also make your body lose muscle which will make lower your metabolism | Lowers the stress hormone, cortisol which will aid in fat loss |
| Lowers anti ageing hormones like GH, testosterone, progesterone and DHEA. This obviously speeds up the ageing process. It will also make it more difficult for you to add muscle which will keep your metabolism low | Raises anti ageing hormones like GH, testosterone, progesterone and DHEA. These hormones being raised will allow you to achieve more fat loss by adding muscle to your body |
| Only burn calories while you are doing it. After you stop the session of cardiovascular training you are doing you stop burning calories which means no more fat loss | Burn calories during and after. While you are doing the resistance exercises you will be burning calories and after you have finished as it takes a few days for your body to repair the muscles so they are burning more calories to do that. Also the more muscle that you have on your frame the higher your metabolism |
| Makes you lose muscle tone. If you look at a marathon runner they look ill and emaciated due to having very little muscle | Its fun. Resistance training is far more enjoyable than cardiovascular training. If your not enjoying resistance then you should be using more variety and techniques to make it more fun |
| Its boring! | Resistance training will produce a far more desirable body. It will fill out the body where it is supposed to be filled out with a toned athletic look. Even if you are a female it will give you a better look, it is impossible for a female to put on large amount of muscle. They just don't have the hormones to do it. Females who say they have put on too much muscle in the past more likely than not just got stronger and harder muscles that were made to look big by fat on to of it |
| Continuous aerobic work plateaus after 8 weeks of training. Studies have shown that after 8 weeks of training your progress will plateau and you are wasting your time trying to improve. Incorporating some interval or fartlek training into your program will bypass this | Resistance training will eventually start to plateau but if you change your program every 4-6 weeks then you should never get to that stage |
| Worsens power. This means it also reduces your speed. If you do lower body cardiovascular training your vertical jump decreases. If you do upper body cardiovascular training your medicine ball throw decreases | Obviously resistance training increases power and strength |
| Increases oxidative stress. Oxidation is the process the forms free radicals in the body. Normally the body can neutralize free radicals with antioxidants. When there is an excessive build up of free radicals it leads to a change in your metabolism which can accelerate ageing | There is far less oxidative stress when you do resistance training over cardiovascular training |
| Adds to adrenal fatigue. This can stop fat loss and produce other undesirable consequences like tiredness, fearfulness, allergies, frequent influenza, arthritis, anxiety, depression, reduced memory , difficulties in concentrating and insomnia | Can actually slow down adrenal fatigue by balancing out the hormones |
| Adds stress. If you add cardiovascular to your already stressed life then you are making your body more stressed which will not only stop fat loss but it will make you add some body fat | Out of the two types of exercise, resistance training adds far less stress to the body so if your body is already stressed out then again resistance training is for you |
