Traditionally we’ve all thought of cardio being the answer for weight loss, it’s true the higher number of calories burnt via cardio can help cause weight loss, or more specifically, fat loss.
However, what we’ve also begun to accept is that the primary method and most efficient method is via nutritional management and manipulation. This is entirely down to the laws of thermodynamics and how it is much easier to consume less calories by reducing the amount of food consumed and thus creating a calorie deficit rather than trying to exercise more.
To be really clear, it’s easier and faster to not have 1 chocolate bar than it is to burn 200 calories.
Many practitioners have spent years stating the importance of weight training for whole body health as well as it’s usefulness in the quest for improving body composition or fat loss.
My most effective period of weight-loss, which was almost 9kg in 4 weeks, was when I combined a flexible but aggressive calorie deficit weight-loss protocol with a 3 times per week, weight training programme that looked at maximal hypertrophy (muscle building) via volume training.
Now there are some really strong studies to support these claims.
The first review in the Journal of Sports Medicine published in June 2025 by Havers et al., identified that muscle growth directly relates to fat loss via 3 mechanisms.
1 – Building muscle requires a lot of energy and therefore it increase energy expenditure, not just during the exercise but afterwards.
2 – It improves what’s known as nutrient partitioning. In simple terms it prevents muscle loss and encourages weight loss to come from fat mass.
3 – There are long-term effects, the more muscle you have means you burn more calories at rest, it means you burn more calories when you’re active, it means you have more mass to be maintained via energy and over a long duration this can be a considerable number of calories.
It looks like having more muscle means it is also easier to maintain your current physique and easier to become more lean when you wish to do so.
The second study was by Lafontant et al., (2025) was published in the International Society of Sports Nutrition and was a Review and Meta Analysis of 31 studies looking at resistance training vs aerobic training for fat loss.
They agreed with the old notion that yes, aerobic exercise burns more however, resistance training was just as effective to improve body fat percentage, your body composition by increasing muscle mass. On top of this but if you actually spent the same time exercising in each method, there wasn’t any difference in fat loss and in some of the research studies that per minute resistance training was more efficient.
The mechanisms were as explained already and they also identified that resistance training doesn’t necessary struggle as much from reduce energy intake and can help regulate appetite better. Plus, other research shows that muscle mass improves insulin sensitivity, something very important for long-term health.
So in practical terms what does this mean?
1 – You need to focus on your diet to lose fat and improve your health.
2 – Bias your exercise to the method you enjoy most.
3 – Do not forget about the importance of weight training, it’s critical for long-term health and will most definitely help with fat loss as well as weight maintenance. Unless you’re doing sport specific training, then focus on muscle building (hypertrophy) and you may therefore wish to consider volume training to increase your muscle mass faster!
What was my high volume hypertrophy programme?
- 3 Weight Sessions per Week
- 100 challenging reps per bodyweight a minimum of twice per week on 2 body parts.
- 1 – 2 sets on all other body parts including abs.
- I kept all sessions under 1 hour, rest periods at around 90-120 seconds.
- I supersetted on days I felt I could manage it.