Strength Training Burns More Calories Than Cardio - Here's The Proof

00:00This is how you build muscle mass. This is how you increase muscle mass, which is what being toned means. What's up, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkie Stott, co-founder and brand personality of WarriorBabe, where we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkie Stott, and welcome to episode number 10, all about strength, training, burning more calories, and then cardio.

00:37I'm going to give you the proof today. So you guys have probably heard that too much cardio is bad for you. But what exactly does that mean? Like, huh? What does that mean? And so in this podcast, I'm going to break down for you and explain why too much cardio can be hindering the results you want to see with building muscle and being more toned and seeing changes in your body composition, and how to balance cardio properly with strength training.

01:08Because I'm not saying cardio is terrible. I'm not saying cardio is something you should not be doing. So first, let's just talk about why cardio is important for weight loss. So cardio exercises like running, cycling, swimming, they're great for burning calories and promoting weight loss. And cardio is great for your overall cardiovascular health. That's why I'm not saying cardio is bad. I'm just saying, however, when it comes to building muscle and changing your body composition,

01:40cardio alone or doing too much of it may not be the best approach. Okay, too much cardio without incorporating strength training can lead to muscle loss, which can be counterproductive to the type of results that you want to see within your body composition. It won't give you a toned lean look, right? You need muscle mass to achieve that look. Instead, it's going to leave you looking skinny fat, no muscle tone.

02:12I explained this to you guys in episode number one when I shared my whole journey with you all and how I was a cardio bunny at the beginning of my journey. But it just left me looking like a more skinnier, fatter version of myself, not to the goals I wanted to accomplish of building more muscle and looking more toned. Okay. When you engage for long periods of time with cardio, your body starts to break down muscle tissue for fuel instead of using fat. And so this can lead to a decrease in muscle mass and a decrease in your metabolism,

02:45making it harder to lose weight and burn fat in the long run. Okay. And I'm going to break this down. I'm going to just totally elaborate this where it makes absolute sense to your brain. All right. So if you're doing excess running and cardio, your body may start to adapt to that constant demand, and you may end up burning fewer calories than you expect. And so this is known as like the adaptive response of the body. As muscle mass decreases,

03:16your body will start to become more efficient at completing the same cardio exercises, leading to fewer calories being burned per session that you do for a cardio. This can make it harder to continue losing weight and burning fat. And why, if you're a cardio bunny, not yet seeing the results that you want, as you will need to increase the duration or intensity of your cardio workouts to see results. Okay. So let me dive a little bit deeper into this explanation.

03:48If you are doing an activity that requires very little strength plus muscle, and you're doing a lot of it, AKA cardio, and that activity requires burning a lot of calories, then your body will start to adapt. Your metabolism will start to adapt here. It will start to slow down, as I mentioned earlier. So our metabolism have this like range of how many calories it can burn. It can make it itself more efficient or less efficient with calories.

04:20When your body becomes less efficient with calories, it wastes more energy. It wastes more calories. You want to be less efficient. When it becomes more efficient, it conserves more energy. It conserves more calories. It holds on to more calories. So I told you guys I was going to elaborate this more and more and more and more and more and dive deeper and deeper and deeper so that it just makes sense to your brains. So I'm going to give you examples of what I mean with cardio versus strength training.

04:51So with overuse of cardio, your body recognizes, okay, we're burning a lot of calories here during this activity. We need endurance. We don't need a lot of muscle and strength. So let's learn how to conserve calories by paring down muscle, slowing the metabolism down so that you can become more efficient at endurance, more of a cardio machine. Okay. Whereas with strength workouts,

05:24where your workouts don't really burn that many calories. And like, this is where I can get even to the nitty gritty, the calories burned on like your fitness watches. Like, should it matter for this reason? Like that, that calorie number is like, it does not matter. Like, I just want to like burn that into your brain. The calorie numbers you see burned after your exercise for that day on your fitness watches doesn't matter. It's not directly linked to your metabolism. Okay. So with strength workouts,

05:54where your workouts don't really burn that many calories, calories, but those workouts require strength and muscle. Now your body is like, let's build this muscle and we can be less efficient with calories so that you can build that muscle, which is what will speed up your metabolism and help aid in the fat loss that you want to see with your body. You guys probably, you see all these people who like routinely go into the gym, right? Maybe you can like picture the people that are on the cardio equipments when you walk into the gym and you're like, oh my God, I see this person all the time doing the same thing every week.

06:29And so they're in there for like one hour to two hours and doing cardio, all different cardio equipment. They go from like the treadmill to the elliptical to the stairmaster. And they may be paying like such fine tuned attention to how many calories they eat during the day. Like maybe these guys are like trying to eat better. They're like, oh, I'm counting calories. I'm paying attention. I'm eating better. And now I'm going in, I'm watching the equipment. Tell me I'm burning X, Y, and Z. And so they're watching that via their workout sessions and they're measuring, using that measuring tool bill into the machines.

06:59And so like I ate 1800 calories today and I burned 600 calories on this treadmill. Awesome. That number on those machines virtually has nothing to do with anything. Okay. What you, what they don't realize what those people on those machines, or maybe this was you, this was definitely me. Okay. So you're not alone if this is you. And I'm hoping that I'm just going to make some light bulbs go off in your brain today. But what they didn't realize is that over a long period of time that they've been doing the same exact thing is that they've actually been slowing down their metabolism by conserving calories for that activity.

07:35So you train your body to get better at what you're teaching it to do. Or what your workouts are doing. So if your workouts are high calorie burning require, they require very little muscle, then your body learns to adapt to that workout by slowing down its metabolism. Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it. And there's so much more to come with it. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. And also it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too.

08:09Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show. Guys, it's probably why you've seen these people inside the gym that like, again, you've seen them every single week for like the last 52 weeks and they look virtually the same, right? Maybe they've lost some weight. Okay. But it's not conducive to building muscle. Strength training is essential for building muscle, increasing strength, and so, so, so much more. So by using resistance to target specific muscles, such as weightlifting, resistance, band training,

08:39or bodyweight exercises, you're causing micro tears in the muscle fibers to happen, which then repair and grow back stronger and bigger. This is how you build muscle mass. This is how you increase muscle mass, which is what being toned means. So I know I freaking hate that word toned. You guys toned is building muscle, but women get so afraid. And I'm going to talk about this in another podcast to build muscle because it's going to make them bulky. That is so not true. Okay.

09:10Strength training, breaking down these fibers, making them grow back stronger and bigger is how you build muscle and increase muscle mass. That's just how you get toned. That's how you get a lean toned body. And it's important for overall health strength and your metabolism. Okay. Strength training has a metabolic benefit, as I've already explained, which is important for and burning fat. A higher muscle mass means a higher metabolism, which can help you burn more calories, even while at rest.

09:40This can be achieved by progressive strength training, which means consistently increasing the weight and the reps that you do and keeping your muscles challenged with every single workout. That's why professionals, you see that we change up people's programs every six to eight weeks or every, every four weeks, whatever it may be specific to the individual. That's to keep your muscles experiencing a challenge to them so that they can, they're constantly growing. They're constantly getting bigger. Now, another issue with excessive running and cardio is that it can lead to a condition called

10:13overtraining. When you're running for long periods of time, your body is in this constant state of inflammation, which can lead to muscle breakdown and can cause hormonal imbalances in the body. This is completely counterproductive when your goal is to build muscle. The term overtraining refers to like a state when the body is constantly fatigued and unable to recover from exercise, which makes muscle building almost impossible. You guys like rest and recovery is something so important to building muscle.

10:46I always say, you guys will hear me say this when you were inside of the gym during your strength training workout, you are breaking down the muscle. It is during the 24 hours, 48 hours after with proper nutrition, rest and recovery that you are building the muscle. So if your body is constantly fatigued and unable to recover because you're overtraining it, it's going to make building muscle almost impossible. So to maximize fat loss and building muscle, guys, it's so important to incorporate both cardio and strength training.

11:17Again, like I'm not saying cardio is terrible. It's just, you got to find the balance. Cardio is great for your cardiovascular and overall health. Like right now, a goal of mine in 2023 is to incorporate two endurance days. One of them being a three to four mile run and the other one being like a CrossFit endurance workout. But majority of my other workouts are all strength training because of the ultimate goal I have for my body and want for my body. So instead of excessive cardio, try to balance the load with shorter,

11:47more intense sessions, or like what I just said, choosing two of your workouts out of the week to be more endurance style. So hit is a great recommendation here, but there is a way to do a hit right. You don't want to overdo this either. Okay. Shorter, more balanced cardio sessions will burn more calories and promote muscle growth. And you want to focus on progressive strength training. Like I've mentioned this way, you can increase the weight and the reps and do, and do these things that keep challenging your muscles. And most importantly, you guys,

12:18which I haven't mentioned yet in this podcast, but like, it's also very important that you eat enough protein to, you feel the muscle growth. So make sure you're getting enough of that in your daily diet. That's why I love tracking macronutrients. It helps me recognize and have more awareness to how much protein I am eating. Lastly, as we wrap up this podcast today, it is super important to monitor recovery time and your scheduled rest days so that the body can heal and grow. So you'll always hear me say,

12:50as I just said, I'm going to constantly keep repeating it. So it's just ingrained in your brain, like burning it in your brain that you build, you break down muscle in the gym and you build it in the hours and days following the proper nutrition, rest and recovery. Remember, recovery is just as important as training and your body needs time to repair and build muscle. So to wrap it all up, too much cardio, not enough strength training can negatively impact your ability to lose fat and build more muscle by leading to muscle loss,

13:22the adaptive response to your body and over training. Okay. So to achieve your goals is important to strike a balance between cardio and strength training. Focus on progressive strength training, eating more protein to feel muscle growth, and making sure that you're watching your recovery time and scheduling rest days into your plan weekly so that the body can heal and grow. So guys, that wraps up the podcast for today. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for being a follower of the podcast. If you haven't yet subscribed to it,

13:53please do. Please rate and review it. I would highly appreciate that. That could also help impact somebody else's world as well because they'll see this podcast, they'll listen to it and their life could change. So by you just rating and reviewing it, you could change somebody else's life too as well. All right, guys, I'll see you in the next podcast. Real quick. The only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review and share this podcast.

14:25So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review, it will take you at 10 seconds and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

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