Why You Should Weight Train Before Cardio to Maximize Fat Loss

Weight training such as weightlifting is one of the most powerful fat loss tools in your arsenal.  Most people neglect to understand the significance of weight training when it comes to fitness.  Weight training builds muscles, which burns calories throughout the day, which in turn consistently reduces your weight.  

However, to maximize your fitness goals through weight training, you should do them right before cardio.  I will explain why.

Combination Training

Every good fitness regime has both weight training and cardio.  First, weight training builds our muscles, making us strong, which reduces the risk of injury.  Second, these muscles help make us thinner by burning calories.  

Cardio, on the other hand, gives us stamina and strengthens both our heart and lungs.  Endurance training with cardio lowers fat, increases muscle strength, and can even lower depression!  Combine both weight training and cardio, and you get the best possible results: a tight, sexy body!  (Hey, to some people, that’s most important.)

However, there’s been a lot of debate over whether it’s best to begin by weight training or by hitting the treadmill at the gym first.  As long as you are getting some form of exercise, it doesn’t matter the order.  However, to maximize results, you should weight train before doing cardio.

The Science of weight Loss

Let’s discuss our body a bit.  Our daily energy comes from glycogen stores in our blood, which comes from the food we eat.  Carbohydrates provide the bulk of glycogen, but our body can turn fat into glycogen, which is how fat loss occurs. 

When weight training, our body uses a lot of the glycogen quickly; when doing cardio, our body uses glycogen slowly.  Without glycogen, we have a hard time weight lifting because our body would need to melt fat in order to get the needed energy.

So, when weight training, our body can easily access energy through our blood.  This reduces the amount of energy available, which our body now has to turn to carbs from food we just ate, or fat, which takes more energy to process.  After weight training, there is little energy left.  By depleting this energy first and then moving on to cardio, our body can now process fat into energy, slowly burning away the flab.

If we do cardio before weight training, then our glycogen stores will be depleted and our muscles wouldn’t work to maximum strength, thereby reducing our weight training potential.  When weight training, we need quick energy available to push out those tough reps.  When doing cardio, our body does not need quite as much quick energy.  Instead, it can burn fat slowly in order to get the proper energy into our cells.

Weight Training Vs Cardio Debate

So there you have it, the weight training versus cardio debate.  Again, I want to stress that if you do either or both at any time, you are a step ahead of the game.  Our body can store a full day’s worth of energy in our blood, so you would really have to push hard to deplete all of the glycogen (nearly 20 miles of running).  So, if your routine is cardio followed by weight training, stick to that.  You don’t need to mess up a great weight training/cardio routine in order to try to maximize results.

My final piece of advice is to get plenty of rest and eat a proper balanced diet.  With these things combined, you’ll be one step ahead in the fitness game.