One Big Health Nut

One of the most basic questions regarding exercise requiring an answer is whether or not higher repetitions and lighter weights will burn more fat than lower repetitions and higher weights.  The answer is no.  Performing higher repetitions with lower weights will burn some fat and help moderately tone your body.  But to achieve accelerated results, you should really strive to utilize moderate to heavy weights with lower repetitions.  

          Weight training exhausts the initial energy stores within the body after only minutes.  Once the energy stores are exhausted, the body utilizes carbohydrates and begins burning fat.  Aerobic exercise requires at least 20 minutes to begin burning fat, and then it only burns fat at a 50% rate.  Exercising with lower weights and higher repetitions correlates more to aerobic exercise than weight training.  Additional repetitions will have minimal, if any, effect on the amount of fat burned.   

          If you want to lose fat, higher intensity weight training is recommended.  The drawback is that you may experience increases in muscle mass that initially may outpace fat loss.  This can have a bulking effect.  But if you continue to adhere to a consistent and regular exercise schedule, the fat loss will catch up to the muscle tone you are building.  Weight training with higher weights allows your body to continue burning fat at an accelerated rate for several hours after you have ceased exercising.  Aerobic exercise ceases burning fat immediately after you have completed exercising.