Cardio or Weights?

I get this question all the time… what’s the best exercise for weights loss?

The best exercise is the one you can do regularly. Basically you just have to move – this burns the energy (kilojoules/calories). As you get fitter, you will be able to run faster, lift more weight and be more active and therefore burn more energy.

Cardio can burn plenty of energy and your metabolism remains elevated for around 24 hours after training. Weight/resistance training builds more muscle fibres, which increases your metabolism every hour of the day (including sleeping). This is like putting a bigger engine in a car and as a result, more petrol is needed to run it.

Therefore, the answer to the question above is…BOTH cardio and weights.

Ideally you should be doing some sort of exercise EVERYDAY. The more you move, the quicker you will see the results. If you’ve got time for one or two exercise sessions a week only, then it’s best that you do a combination of cardio and weights in each of the sessions. If you exercise more than three times a week, then you can alternate between cardio training and weight training.

For ideas on how to structure a workout without any equipment, check out our “No Equipment Workout“.