Strength Training beats cardio for Health & fat loss- new study

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Analysis of effectiveness of responses both within and between interventions differences for treatment options modalities (e.g., diet, exercise, or combination therein) along with submodality of treatment (e.g., high intensity versus low intensity, high protein/low carbohydrate diets) indicate a continuum of effectiveness. Most importantly is that protocols utilizing exercise were more effective than those that employed just a hypocaloric diet. With the combination of diet with exercise (especially RT) being more effective than diet or diet with ET in reduction of body mass and fat mass while retaining of FFM following treatment. And are at least as effective for changing hormonal levels and blood lipid profiles. Also, while popular ideas suggest the necessity for acute energetic imbalance, there appears to be no relationship between any treatments effectiveness for inducing acute changes in energetic balance with the effectiveness for induced responses to body composition or biomarkers of health from said treatment program. All of which reinforces the idea of a more complex network of factors that influence overall body composition and health issues for the adult who is overfat, and further stresses the idea to focus treatment on generating a metabolic stress to induce chronic endocrinological (and cytokine) changes as opposed to the focus on the kcal/d (kJ/d) ratios of intake to expenditure.

Further, based on ES for responses to RT (in combination with diet, or with diet and ET), one would be able to expect that at the very least 55% of any population of overfat adults should have beneficial responses in all body compositional measures from the incorporation of RT into a treatment play, along with an even greater percentage having a favorable response to altering fasting levels of insulin, total cholesterol, low-density lipoproteins and triglycerides. Additionally, when exercise is utilized at appropriate intensities (i.e. higher levels) both ET and RT provides an effective stimulus to alter TNF-a, CRP, leptin and adiponectin levels that all indicate a reduction in the risk for cardiovascular disease and improved metabolic flexibility for the adult who is overfat. With RT producing a greater level of effectiveness for altering these measures, especially when RT is progressive and periodized with a training volume of 2-to-3 sets at 6-to-10 reps with an intensity of =75% 1RM and a rest interval of 60–90 seconds, and utilizes whole body (and free-weight) exercises. And thus indicates that RT should be more readily recommended as an appropriate treatment option to adults who are overfat than what has been recommended currently.

Yet, however the effectiveness of this combination of diet and RT might be for inducing changes, the concept of self-selection of exercise patterns means that some adults who are overfat may select toward protocols of ET for exercise. For those who self-select toward ET, it appears that ET is more effective when performed at high intensity (e.g., =70% VO2max, or HRmax) steady-state method or as an interval training style (based on ES calculated gives an expectations of at least 40% of the population showing beneficial responses to intervention). Likewise, some may select away from exercise altogether, which based on overall effectiveness should be discouraged but if utilized as a stand alone intervention, diets can be effective if hypocaloric and comprised of a higher percentage of total caloric intake from protein, with an expectation for at least 55% of the population showing a beneficial response from the intervention.

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Conclusions/interpretation: In normal-weight type 2 diabetes, strength training was superior to aerobic training alone, while no significant difference was observed between strength training and combination training for HbA1c reduction. Increased lean mass relative to decreased fat mass was an independent predictor of reduction in HbA1c level.

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Great Stuff! I always enjoy and learn from you posts. Thank you

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what about a population that isn’t under-muscled (like presumably H&F board posters)? Probably not as big of an effect.

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I believe being adequately muscled, strong and cardiovascularly fit are all essential for health. If one is lagging (like muscle mass in this study) then focusing more on that makes a lot of sense. But saying the others aren’t important is probably wrong

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A new study compared 406 overweight individuals doing 3 hours of either cardio, strength training or a 50-50 mix of the two for a full year.

Body fat percentage decreased almost exactly the same amount in all 3 groups. The cardio groups had the greatest improvements in cardiovascular health (shocker).

The groups doing cardio experienced a greater decrease in waist circumference, but the strength training group gained significantly more lean body mass.

Macronutrient intakes did not significantly differ across groups, but the strength trainees were consuming 100-200 kcal more per day throughout most of the study. So you might wonder if strength training would eke out cardio for fat loss on a truly calorie-equated basis. Indeed, in contrast to mainstream wisdom, multiple prior studies found that lifting weights is more effective for long-term fat loss than aerobic exercise for 3 reasons.

1. While endurance training tends to burn more energy during the workout, this is compensated for partly by greater post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) and increased muscle mass from strength training. Lugging around kilos of extra beef costs more energy both at rest and in particular when moving.

2. Some research suggests strength training is more appetite suppressing than cardio, though this finding is not consistent.

3. Strength training does not suffer from constrained energy expenditure, whereas cardio does.

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Everyone knows strength training is better for muscle growth but cardio is better for fat loss... right?
Not right. A new study by Brellenthin et al. supports that strength training is more effective per minute of exercise than endurance training for both fat loss and muscle growth, or in this case specifically the prevention of fat gain.
The researchers followed about 12000 healthy adults around for 6 years and analyzed the probability someone would get obese relative to their exercise habits and other variables.
Of course, the more exercise people did, the lower their chance of becoming obese. When comparing the types of exercise, those who did at least 2 strength training workouts per week but no cardio had a lower obesity risk than those who did no strength training but did at least 500 MET-minutes of endurance training per week.
These results are in line with a 2015 meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials by Clark: during ad libitum diets, strength training induces more long-term fat loss per minute of exercise than cardio.
Strength training can burn a comparable number of calories as cardio per session. Cardio can burn calories quicker (often higher kcal/min) but generally only at intensities you can't sustain for over an hour. However, strength training also increases your metabolic rate over time, whereas cardio does not. Gaining a lot of muscle has been found to increase energy expenditure considerably.
Second, strength training generally improves appetite control more than cardio.
Third, cardio suffers from constrained energy expenditure, whereas strength training does not (though maybe at super high volumes we haven't seen in research).
As a result, in real-life settings over the long run, strength training is generally more effective to reduce your energy intake and to increase your energy expenditure than an equal number of minutes of cardio.
Thus, if your primary goal is fat loss, unless you actively want to avoid muscle growth, you should spend your first exercise time on strength training. In fact, you don't have to spend any time on cardio at all. I generally only recommend cardio to a small portion of my female contest competitors that have to go down below 1200 kcal on training days otherwise. (Of course, if you like cardio, feel free to do it! All exercise types are better than none.)

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90%+ of the population is under muscled, under strength and 50% of those are over fat

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Can you address your omission of the study population when talking about the study? It is absolutely critical

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No reason to overcomplicate it or make it an either/or, IMO.

Resistance training is very good for you in many ways. Having a healthy heart is also very good for you in many ways.

Resistance training can actually provide cardio benefits, but as you age, the reality is that there isn't a reason to pick one or the other.

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strength training is more effective per minute of exercise than endurance training for both fat loss and muscle growth

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We have been down this road before in another thread. After several pages, you eventually admitted you were biased towards strength training and against cardio because of personal preference not scientific evidence when I presented the data on the importance of VO2 max.

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