Losing fat while gaining muscle is an important part of changing your body composition. This can be tricky, but changing up your diet and exercising consistently is an effective way to achieve this goal. One of the best exercises you can do to lose fat and put on muscle is strength training.
Strength training is effective in helping your body burn fat, not just during your workout but even after the fact. Putting on muscle affects your body composition and your metabolism in significant ways. I spoke to some experts to help explain how strength training helps you lose weight and what you need to know to find success with it.
If you’re looking for more fitness advice, see how many calories you need to burn to lose weight, how to burn body fat at home and the trick you need to lose weight and gain lean muscle at the same time.
Cardio versus strength training
There’s a constant back-and-forth argument about which is more efficient in reaching your ideal physique: cardio or strength training. According to New York City-based personal trainer Oscar Colon IV, cardio is ideal for burning more calories during a workout session — and it’s key to keeping your heart strong — but strength training affects your body differently. “Strength training has a two-pronged effect because you burn calories during the workout and during the recovery and restoration of muscle groups you worked,” he says. As a result, you get more results for your effort.
It’s still a good idea to incorporate both cardio and strength training into a well-balanced fitness plan, so you can reap all the benefits. How much you do of one or the other may also depend on your current goals. If you’re training for your first marathon, cardio will be your main focus as you build endurance, whereas strength training will be a priority when you’re trying to get stronger or build muscle.
Read more: Changing Your Body
How muscles affect your ability to burn fat
As mentioned, strength training can help you burn more calories during and after your workout. This is thanks to the lean muscle you gain as a result of strength training. If your goal is to lose weight, having more lean muscle can help the process.
This also means that the more lean muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate will be. Your resting metabolic rate, or RMR, refers to the total number of calories your body burns when it’s at rest. Biologically speaking, resting metabolism aids your organ functions, neurological functions, breathing and blood circulation. Rachel MacPherson, an American Council of Exercise-certified personal trainer, performance specialist and Garage Gym Reviews expert, explains that muscle is metabolically active, meaning it burns calories even at rest, and although the effect is small, it’s significant and does add up over time. “This also helps to counteract the decline of metabolism and muscle mass as you age, which can contribute to middle-age weight gain,” she says.
Strength training also has fat-burning benefits when you’re fresh off a workout. “Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption is the process of your body regulating itself back to homeostasis after a strenuous workout,” Colon explains. In other words, you’re still burning calories as you recover, since your body stays warm for a while as it cools down.
How long it takes to put on muscle
Now that you know that lean muscle is the key component in fat burning, you’re probably wondering how long it takes to build muscle. This will vary from person to person, since genetics, hormones, gender, diet and other factors play a role in how much muscle you put on and how quickly. “If you consistently train three to four times a week for 30 minutes each session, you should realistically start to see results in three to four weeks,” Colon says.
MacPherson says you can put on muscle mass each week, and doing a 12- to 16-week hypertrophy training program is ideal for seeing a significant amount of muscle gain. “You can expect upwards of five to 10 pounds of muscle gain during this time,” she explains, adding, “As you become more advanced you will need to work harder for less gain, but you will still see results.”