Weight training or cardiovascular exercise? For years, fitness aficionados have argued about which workout to do first. It appears that research may eventually be able to provide some insight into the discussion, even if they may not yet have answers.

According to an April research released in the Journal of Exercise Science and Fitness, the sequence of your workout has a big impact on how much fat you lose. They discovered that doing weight training before cardio resulted in a far greater fat loss. Additionally, they engaged in more physical activity throughout the day in comparison to individuals who started with cardio.

The study looked at 45 young men between the ages of 18 and 30 who were deemed obese. For 12 weeks, they kept an eye on the subjects' behavior after dividing them into three categories. One was a control group that was instructed to keep up with their regular way of life and not alter their workout schedule.

The other two groups exercised for 60 minutes three times a week and were given sports watches to monitor their daily movements. This helped the researchers avoid reliance on self-reporting, which can often be inaccurate. Both groups had identical training programmes, with the only difference being the exercise sequence.

Strength training involved actual weights, with participants performing exercises such as the bench press, deadlift, bicep curl and squat. The cardio sessions involved 30 minutes of stationary cycling. Meanwhile, the cardio-first group walked 1,600 steps, and the second group increased their daily step count by approximately 3,500 steps.

The result

Participants from both groups experienced improvements in their cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, and body composition. They lost fat mass while gaining lean muscle mass. While cardiovascular fitness improvements were similar regardless of sequence, participants who lifted weights first experienced significantly greater reductions in overall body fat and visceral fat.

Why? The reason is that resistance training depletes muscle glycogen stores, or the sugar that’s stored in the muscles, which acts as your body’s quick-access fuel. When you lift weights first, you effectively drain this fuel tank, forcing your body to switch energy sources.

So, when you do cardio after lifting weights, your body relies on fat for energy. Thus leading to better fat loss.

Read Also: "Quick and Effective: 20-Minute Home Workout Routine for Daily Weight Loss"

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