Weight loss, especially fat loss, is probably the most common reason people exercise. As a result, one of the most frequent questions personal trainers get is, “What is the best type of exercise to promote fat loss?” There are common misconceptions about exercise for fat loss, and there has been new thinking about this over the past decade, which we will discuss. But before we do, imagine that I was going to begin an exercise program with the objective of losing fat, and that studies proved that cycling was the best exercise for fat loss. However, I do not enjoy cycling, but I do enjoy jogging. Would I be more likely to achieve my fat loss goal if I began a cycling program or a jogging program? For most of us, who train for overall health, fitness, performance, and weight control, doing the absolute “best” type of exercise is less important than consistently doing some form of exercise. Furthermore, most of us enjoy variety and have practical considerations such as time availability, weather conditions, orthopedic or medical issues, social factors, class availability, etc., all of which affect what exercise is available and practical for us each day.
With that said, generally speaking, exercise can contribute to fat loss in a number of ways:
- Exercise expends energy (i.e., burns calories), and increasing energy expenditure can contribute to fat loss.
- Exercise can temporarily increase the body’s metabolic rate beyond the energy expended during the exercise itself. This increased oxygen consumption and energy expenditure following exercise is called EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) and contributes to total energy expenditure.
- Exercise can help preserve or build muscle. Maintaining muscle mass is important for maintaining physical performance as we age and helps support our resting metabolic rate. Promoting a healthy metabolism is valuable for long-term weight control.
- Exercise can improve insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular fitness, and other aspects of metabolic health that are important to overall health and weight management.
So let’s look at different types of exercise, and characteristics of exercise, as they relate to these generalizations and fat loss.
For many years, we have categorized exercise as “aerobic” (meaning with oxygen) or “anaerobic” (without oxygen). Aerobic exercises (also referred to as cardiovascular exercise or “cardio”) are activities that can generally be sustained continuously, such as walking, jogging, dancing, distance cycling, etc. Historically, aerobic exercises have been included in athletic conditioning programs and general fitness training to promote endurance, cardiovascular fitness, and fat loss. Anaerobic exercise refers to higher-intensity efforts that rely more heavily on energy systems that cannot sustain continuous work for long periods, including heavy resistance training and sprinting. These activities have traditionally been used to promote increases in strength, power, and muscle mass.
Still today, many fitness exercisers believe that “cardio” is better for weight control and that “weights” are primarily for muscle toning or building. In reality, both aerobic and resistance training can contribute to fat loss, and resistance training is particularly valuable for preserving or building muscle while losing weight. For someone trying to reduce body fat, a well-designed resistance training program combined with cardiovascular exercise can therefore be more effective than relying exclusively on either approach.
Exercise can be performed at different intensity levels: casual walking, brisk walking, slow jogging, running, and sprinting. Many previously sedentary, deconditioned people have experienced significant weight loss simply by beginning a moderate-paced walking program. Moderate-paced walking is a relatively low-intensity, steady-state aerobic exercise and, for some people, can be an excellent way to increase daily energy expenditure. If those same people were capable of safely exercising at a higher intensity, they could burn more calories in the same amount of time and potentially produce a greater EPOC. Along these lines, higher-intensity exercise can be a valuable tool for fat loss. Unless, of course, participants dislike high-intensity training so much that they will not stick with their program. In that case, the theoretically “better” workout becomes the less effective choice.
While we often label exercise as either “cardio” or “strength,” most activities and sports utilize both aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. Many people participate in exercise regimens specifically designed to challenge both systems (see previous blog—Metabolic Conditioning), which can be an excellent way to improve fitness and contribute to fat loss. While it is a misconception that “cardio” is automatically better for fat loss than strength training or high-intensity metabolic conditioning, we certainly should not ignore cardiovascular exercise. It has many proven benefits, including improving heart and lung health, increasing cardiovascular fitness, improving insulin sensitivity and blood-sugar regulation, and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and stroke. It can also be an excellent contributor to fat loss.
High-intensity training would be very difficult for most people to perform every day, both psychologically and physically. There are many days when we simply may not feel up for a high-intensity workout, but we would happily go for a long walk, slow jog, or do 30 minutes of moderate “cardio” on a machine while watching TV. Muscles, connective tissue, and joints also need recovery between demanding workouts. Therefore, while high-intensity training can provide an efficient and valuable stimulus, lower-intensity training can be equally valuable as part of an overall activity plan because it allows us to remain active more consistently.
Of course, while not the subject of this article, healthy eating and avoiding excess caloric intake are essential for fat loss. Additional ways exercise can promote weight control are by helping manage stress and improve mood, both of which can influence eating behavior. Take certain forms of yoga as an example. Some types of yoga are relatively passive in nature—very meditative, not highly metabolically demanding, with heart and respiration rates not increasing significantly and muscles not being placed under great stress. Nevertheless, including this form of exercise in one’s overall activity plan can contribute to stress management, overall health, and weight control.
Clients hire personal trainers to help them get the most out of their exercise time. They want trainers to help them select exercises that address their particular needs and train at intensity levels they may be less likely to achieve without the encouragement of their trainer. Furthermore, while exercising regularly is one of the most effective ways to reduce body fat and maintain a healthy weight, many people unfortunately do not make time every day for exercise. This is all the more reason clients want to choose effective forms of exercise to achieve their goals—and all the more reason trainers often incorporate high-intensity training.
At 1TO1, we want to give our clients the greatest “bang for their buck” that we can. We want our clients to feel as if they not only worked smarter but also worked harder than they would without us. So our quick answer to the question, “What’s the best type of exercise to promote fat loss?” is high-intensity training that includes appropriately challenging resistance training, high-intensity anaerobic intervals, “Metabolics,” and the like. But an even better answer, without excluding these valuable training styles, is an activity plan that includes different types and intensities of exercise, allowing us to exercise consistently and on most days. The best exercise program for fat loss is the one that combines effective training with the consistency needed to make it work.