Beginners and Beyond

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What is best for weight loss; endurance exercise or resistance training? (Read 102 times)

LRB


    "Exercise is a well established tool to keep healthy. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends a minimum of 150 min endurance exercise a week and 20 min of resistance exercise two to three times a week.This is only a minimum indeed and if you are reading this, it is likely that you want to do more to improve your health further. Whatever your goals are, it is important to determine which kind of exercise is the most effective, as we are all short of time.

     

    Several researchers have studied how and if endurance training, resistance exercise or a combination of both affect health parameters such as body weight, waist circumference, lean body mass, blood lipids, fitness... Lukas Schwingshackl and his colleagues have reviewed these studies to determine which modality would be the most effective, and in December 2013 they published their conclusions in PLoSONE.

     

    Results

    The main result was that endurance exercise was the most effective to reduce body weight, waist circumference and fat mass, and to improve fitness (as measured by VO2max). Resistance exercise however, was better to increase lean body mass. There were no significant differences in the improvement of the blood lipids between the exercise modalities.

     

    Researchers use waist circumference to estimate visceral fat, which is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. A reduction in waist circumference, suggesting a decrease in visceral fat, is thus an important result. An increase in VO2max is associated with reduced all-cause mortality and a lower risk of cardiovascular risk. Endurance training can thus really improve your life!

     

    Resistance training leads to an increase in lean body mass, thus in muscle mass and strength. This counteracts the loss you normally experience due to aging. This is important, as the tasks of daily life do not become lighter because you are getting older. If you want to stay active and independent in old age you have to maintain your strength.

     

    Lukas Schwingshackl and his colleagues concluded from their review that combining endurance with resistance training allows us to reap the benefits of both modalities, and is therefore the most promising regimen. However, they admit that this increases the time you spend exercising. In two of the reports they examined, the time even doubled.

     

    If you don’t have time

    In 2011, Criz Slentz compared the effects of endurance training, resistance exercise and a combination of both on 249 volunteers, taking great care that everybody was spending the same amount of calories while exercising. He also concluded that endurance training was more effective than resistance exercise to reduce visceral fat and to improve fitness, but he could not notice a difference between the effects of endurance and combination endurance/resistance training. As resistance training is more time consuming, he advised to keep to endurance training.

     

    Can I believe the review?

    Lukas Schwingshackl’s review is a meta-analysis, which means that they analysed, evaluated and compared studies done by other researchers in order to come to a conclusion. This saves people like you and me a lot of time and effort!  On the other hand, we have to trust that they have excluded all the bad studies and kept the good ones. In theory, there is always a danger that reviewers cherry-pick the studies they like.

     

    Moreover, reviewers can only analyse studies that have been published. As nobody likes to read negative results or no-reports, only the positive ones get published. It is therefore always possible that a review is biased because of a lack of data. This is called publication bias and is very hard to avoid.

     

    What does it mean for me?

    As yet, we can conclude that a training regimen combining endurance and resistance exercise is the best option. If you are short of time however, you should stick to endurance training."

     

    (link)

    John Rustle


    ^^^fussy biatch

      Both, together.   Sounds good to me, let's get it!

      redrum


      Caretaker/Overlook Hotel

        Christian Bale says 1 Apple and 1 Cigarette per day is what really "gits er dun!"

         

         Randy

        Gustav1


        Fear is a Liar

          A running we will go!

          I'm so vegetarian I don't even eat animal crackers!

          tom1961


          Old , Ugly and slow

            I try to lift twice a week for an hour and run 3-4 times a week.

             

            I think you need both unless you run for a living.

            first race sept 1977 last race sept 2007

             

            2019  goals   1000  miles  , 190 pounds , deadlift 400 touch my toes


            Antipodean

              Yay, me! I ran this morning and did weights in the gym tonight. Got it covered! 

              Julie

               

              "It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

              ~ Sir Edmund Hillary


              You Rang?

                Eating less calories than you burn works better than both endurance and resistance combined!  That being said, I found that release of brain chemicals from endurance exercise gave me the mental acuity to eat less than I burned. I'm not sure I would have gotten the same biochemical boost from resistance training.

                 

                Rick

                Rick 

                PR: 5k 25:01 (10/15) 10k: 57:44 (7/14) HM: 1:57 (5/15) FM: 4:55 (1/15)

                  Weights?

                   

                   

                  (Too much running.)

                   

                   I found that release of brain chemicals from endurance exercise gave me the mental acuity to eat less than I burned. 

                  No idea how you do that. When I am putting in a lot of miles, I cannot stop eating, and maintain constant weight.

                  Dave


                  You Rang?

                     

                     No idea how you do that. When I am putting in a lot of miles, I cannot stop eating, and maintain constant weight.

                    At the time I was morbidly obese and dealing with depression.  I wasn't running that much (20 to 30 miles a week) and logging my food intake.  Running kept the depression symptoms at bay.  Also, I found that when I ran in the morning, I would log my miles.  I then logged my food for the day (to the extent I knew what/where I would be eating).  I found that I was far more likely to stick to the limited number of calories I was given by the weight loss plan if I made the log entry of what I was going to eat before I ate it.  I found that it was easier to turn down offers of food simply because it was not in my plan for the day.

                     

                    Rick

                    Rick 

                    PR: 5k 25:01 (10/15) 10k: 57:44 (7/14) HM: 1:57 (5/15) FM: 4:55 (1/15)

                    LRB


                      Christian Bale says 1 Apple and 1 Cigarette per day is what really "gits er dun!"

                       

                      Do not forget the recently released American Hustle:

                       

                       

                      Gator eye


                        God I hate weights, I lift things up, I put things down, I lift things up, I put things down, I lift things up, I put things down. It's even worst than a treadmill.

                        catwhoorg


                        Labrat

                          I'll take #3, Behaving better in the kitchen.

                          5K  20:23  (Vdot 48.7)   9/9/17

                          10K  44:06  (Vdot 46.3)  3/11/17

                          HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17

                          FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18

                           

                          happylily


                            Warning: Long and boring post.

                             

                            I was 14 and I was a nerd with glasses in high-school. All the girls wore skinny jeans and glittery tops, except me. I had it in my head that I was too fat for that. I started exercising that year because I thought that if I couldn't be really skinny like the others, at least I could be stronger than them. It never crossed my mind to diet and I'm glad it didn't, because at 114 lbs and still growing, it would have been unhealthy for me. I disliked team sports, so I made up my own exercise regimen at home. 20 minutes of stretching, 20 minutes of small weights, push-ups and sit-ups and 20 minutes of aerobics. I did that 4-5 times a week, for 28 years. Just like I brushed my teeth daily, I exercised religiously. I lost weight (a few lbs), but it didn't matter to me anymore.

                             

                            One day, at 42, I became bored with my home routine. I walked into a gym, could only figure out the TM and it was love at first try for me. I ran 6 miles that day. 24 that week. I stopped doing my home routine. No more stretching, no more weights, only very occasional push-ups and sit-ups. I'm happy that I worked out this way all my life. I think it prepared me well for running. But now I feel I've paid my dues, I've built the foundation. I'm old enough to have gained the right to do only things that I really like. And I really like racing. I know I should still stretch and do resistance training, but with work, family and only 10 hours available for exercising, I choose to run as many miles as I can. When I retire (if I'm ever allowed to), I will gladly re-introduce a full exercise regimen into my daily routine.

                             

                            Not sure that it has any relevance to LRB's original post, but this was the story of my life so far. Fascinating stuff, right? 

                            PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013

                                    Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013

                            18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010

                            Slymoon Runs


                            race obsessed

                              I have a 7yo DD and it is Girl Scout cookie time, my resistance training is lifting those damned evil things to my mouth and then running it off.

                              happylily


                                I have a 7yo DD and it is Girl Scout cookie time, my resistance training is lifting those damned evil things to my mouth and then running it off.

                                 

                                LOL...

                                 

                                My resistance training these days is resisting eating all the Christmas fudge still in the house. 

                                PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013

                                        Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013

                                18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010

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