If you’re desperate to lose weight in as short a time as possible – and are going to be sensible about it – by fitting exercise into your healthy eating regime, then what do you go for in terms of either aerobic exercise or resistance training?
Well, according to researchers at Duke University in North Carolina it’s the former that work bests. They say resistance training is great for those with blood sugar difficulties but if it’s pure fat you want to burn then it’s the running, cycling and swimming that you need to do.
The researchers concluded their results after studying and recording 234 overweight or obese middle-aged men and women over an eight month period.
Three groups, three different exercise regimes
- Those in the resistance training group worked out for one hour, three times a week on a total of eight different kinds of weight machines.
- The aerobic group ran on treadmills or used elliptical machines till then ran around 12 miles a week (which took them around two hours 15 minutes).
- Another group – the combination group – who, it appears in study terms got the short straw, had to do both all the weight resistance training and the aerobic running.
And now for the results….
Sadly a total of 115 individuals dropped out for various reasons. But of those 119 who completed the study, the combination and aerobic groups lost the most total body mass and fat (3.6 and 3.8 respectively).
For reducing waist size, the combination group was best. However, they did put in twice as much work as the other two groups, said researcher Leslie Willis..
“If fat mass is something a person wants to target, I would say your most time-efficient method would be to focus on the cardiovascular exercise,” she said.
“Resistance training did increase lean mass, but it doesn’t change fat mass, so the pounds didn’t change.”
Interesting study, however, here at Overland Park Boot Camp we’re big believers in resistance training too especially since as we age our muscle mass declines so it makes sense to build these up as much as possible in order to enjoy a better quality of life all round. So, when we see you down at good ole Overland Park Boot Camp?
