Should I do cardio or weights to lose fat?
For fat loss, neither cardio nor weights burns fat the way people hope. Food decides fat loss; exercise decides what your body looks and works like as the weight comes off. A calorie deficit does the losing.
Within that, strength work is the quiet winner: it tells your body to keep muscle while the fat goes, so more of every lost pound is actually fat. Cardio burns a few more calories per session and is excellent for the heart, but on its own a share of the loss is muscle.
The practical answer is both, in small amounts: two strength sessions and some brisk walking or intervals each week, on top of eating a little less with enough protein. That is the whole formula.
See a doctor promptly if
- Weight loss you did not intend, especially more than 5 percent of your body weight in six months
- Rapid weight gain over days to weeks with swelling of the legs, or breathlessness lying flat
- Vomiting after eating, laxative or diuretic use for weight control, or feeling unable to stop eating and being distressed by it
- Feeling that food or your body has taken over your thinking, or having thoughts of harming yourself
- New heavy fatigue, cold intolerance, hair thinning or constipation alongside weight change
- Loud snoring with witnessed pauses in breathing, or falling asleep during the day
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Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS · How we review
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