Some debates may never be settled, like: "To-MAY-to" versus "to-MAH-to." Creamy versus chunky peanut butter. Strawberry jam versus grape jelly.

It's probably no surprise that the most heated debates unremarkably involve food, but there'due south a hotly debated topic that comes up a lot in the fitness world: Is it better to use light weights and high repetitions or heavy weights and low repetitions for fat loss?

Let'due south settle this right now. The answer is… both!

That answer may seem like a cop-out, merely it'due south accurate. A combination of heavy forcefulness training and loftier-repetition metabolic conditioning is the most effective and scientifically proven way to lose fat and maintain muscle. Here's why.

MYTH: LIGHT WEIGHTS WITH High REPS WILL TONE MUSCLE AND Fire FAT

Fact: Calorie-free weights with high reps alone don't tone muscle or burn fatty.

People often utilize light weights and high reps exclusively when aiming to lose fat, but this is a huge fault — especially if you lot want to have toned muscles, because lifting weights doesn't stimulate muscles enough for fatty loss. Focused nutrition and high-intensity interval preparation (HIIT) take care of fatty loss, while strength grooming will help yous proceed the muscle you already have. That said, to maintain the almost muscle possible, you take to elevator weights that are heavy plenty to convince your body that it yet needs that muscle tissue.

Practise: Use light weights and high reps, but non in the traditional sense of weightlifting. Instead, do full-torso exercises in a circuit, performing high reps with express rest. Come across HIIT methods beneath for examples.

READ More > SHOULD YOU LIFT WEIGHTS TO FAILURE?

MYTH: HEAVY WEIGHTS BUILD Musculus, Muscle ELEVATES METABOLISM, So LIFT HEAVY TO Burn down FAT

Fact: Heavy weights build strength, which helps you maintain muscle while losing fat.

Lifting heavy weights with low reps won't help you lose much weight, simply it will help you maintain difficult-earned muscle while losing fat. High reps (12 or more reps per set up) build muscular endurance but don't really build force. Sets in the 3–10 rep range work best for keeping the muscle you already have, so HIIT helps strip away the fat tissue on top of those muscles.

A landmark study published in the American Periodical of Clinical Nutrition found that overweight individuals who lifted weights while dieting lost significantly less musculus mass than subjects who only performed aerobic practice while following the same diet. The kicker: The subjects who lifted weights and the subjects who did cardio lost the same amount of weight overall.

The lesson? Resistance training using moderate to heavy weights gives your torso a reason to hold onto muscle tissue. In the cease, the weight you lose will be more than fat than muscle.

Do: Lift weights two–3 times per calendar week, using chemical compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, pushups and rows. Do 3–ten reps per set, and finish each gear up i–2 reps shy of failure.

MYTH: CARDIO BURNS More than CALORIES THAN LIFTING WEIGHTS

Fact: Straight cardio burns more than calories during the workout than lifting weights, but HIIT burns more calories overall because it raises your metabolism for several hours after your workout.

The near efficient way to lose fat fast is to create as big a metabolic disturbance every bit possible during your workouts. In apparently English language, you desire to button your body to its limit with quick bursts of intense exercise followed past periods of incomplete residual. That's the premise behind HIIT, and it'south hands-down more than effective than traditional cardio for fatty loss.

Some solid examples of HIIT methods include:

  • Sprint intervals on a stationary bike
  • Kettlebell swings
  • Medicine ball circuits

Practice: Perform HIIT 2–3 times per calendar week for 15–xxx minutes. Button yourself hard! This is where the "light weight, high reps" approach actually works.

THE Big TAKEAWAYS

In the finish, nutrition has the biggest touch on on overall weight loss, but using a combination of strength training (heavy weights, low reps) and HIIT (calorie-free weights, high reps) tin can help you lose more than fatty and keep more muscle. To summarize:

  • Maintain a subtle calorie deficit to ensure yous lose weight gradually (and utilize the MyFitnessPal app to rail your calories for better results).
  • Eat plenty poly peptide to maintain muscle (about 1 gram per pound of body weight).
  • Elevator moderate to heavy weights for sets of three–8 reps 2–three times per week to maintain muscle mass.
  • Perform high-intensity interval training ii–iii times per calendar week to stimulate fat loss.