Both are healthy for the body and necessary for weight loss, but they work very differently in the way they burn calories. Aerobic exercise, also known as cardio (running on a treadmill, for example), spikes your caloric burn which returns to a resting stasis typically within 1-2 hours. Anaerobic exercise, also knows as weight training, only spikes your caloric burn about 1/3 as much as cardio, but it increases your resting metabolic rate by 20-50 calories per hour for the rest of the day. So which is better? You know what I'm going to say here... neither is better than the other. In fact, you need to do BOTH do lose weight effectively.
Why? Exercise is about oxygen. When you exercise aerobically you intake and expend tremendous amounts of oxygen through your lungs but when you return to stasis the oxygen levels return to normal, along with your breathing. In anaerobic exercise the "interior" oxygen in the physical muscles gets "squeezed out" (okay, not literally, but it's an easy way to understand the process). Throughout the day following a muscle-building workout the muscles require more oxygen as they "rebuild" themselves. It's this rebuilding that makes them harder, stronger and sexier. Your muscles require fuel to obtain the oxygen that's necessary for this process, and they get it by burning your calories. Since it takes a long time for the muscles to rebuild you continue to burn your calories throughout the day, even long-after you're done with the exercise and the heavy breathing.
It's kind of like the tortoise and the hare. The hare is aerobic, sprinting and leaping and expending great amounts of energy, but also taking complete rest stops along the way. The anaerobic is like the tortoise, slowly and steadily and sure-footedly moving along, burning those calories evenly to the end.
The BEST way to lose weight with your exercise is through INTERVAL TRAINING, also known as a Boot Camp. You need both the tortoise and the hare to fully understand the story and interval training brings the two together. Interval training combines cardio with strength, and it also requires you to TAKE FREQUENT BREAKS. The frequent breaks part is the secret key to your success. The hare doesn't lose the race because he stops, he loses because he naps. Stopping and resting is not only okay, it's encouraged. Napping is not allowed when you're exercising.
So rabbits and turtles are your new best friends. The problem is most of us prefer kids and dogs and spouses and jobs to rabbits and turtles. We don't have the time or financial resources to attend weight loss camps that specialize in interval training. Nor do we have six hours a day to train. If we did we'd already be at our goal weight, right? Our kids and dogs and spouses and jobs are very important to us. So how can we live in the real world and still find the time to be with our rabbits and turtles?
There is a way...
If you step on a stairclimber for an hour by the end of it you're sweaty, your heart is pounding, your breathing is insane and your legs hurt. You get off, proud of what you accomplished, but utterly exhausted and already dreading the next session a mere day away. You've worked out for an hour and the effect of the spike will last another 1-2 hours, max. Then you're back to normal, burning your 85 calories an hour and wishing you could take a day off.
Instead, do this:
Warm up through an 8-10 minute deep-stretching abbreviated yoga session. It's short but necessary. It will condition your body for what's to come and set up your breathing for good inflow/outflow. I'll put up a video shortly demonstrating the positions you need to know. Don't worry, you don't need to be a yogi master to do them--I'm not going to make you pull your feet over your head or do anything scary or dangerous. Promise.
For now, stretch the way your gym teacher taught you, but do take a full 8-10 minutes to be fully comfortable and relaxed and ready.
THEN:
Do 25 jumping jacks.
Do 10 push-ups (on your knees is okay if you need to).
Do 15 stomach pulls (use a device, or do sit-ups)
Sit down and rest for THREE FULL MINUTES, sipping water slowly.
If you're at a gym do one full routine of a single muscle-group exercise, meaning do your arms or do your legs or do your torso. Don't do all three, just do one. Keep the weights at a moderate level--don't hurt yourself or push yourself beyond your limits. This should take about 20 minutes, tops. (I'll post a video soon about how to exercise anaerobically if you don't have access to a gym). Sit down and rest for THREE FULL MINUTES, sipping water slowly.
Do 25 jumping jacks.
Do 10 pushups.
Do 15 lunges on each leg (30 total).
Sit down and rest for THREE FULL MINUTES, sipping water slowly.Stairclimb or treadmill or use the elliptical s-l-o-w-l-y for three minutes, and then at the maximum speed you are comfortable with for a full 15 minutes. It's okay to really push yourself here (but don't hurt yourself). When the 15 sprint-like minutes are up, walk it down slowly for 3 minutes or until your breathing returns to a more normal state.
That's it! You've worked out, start to finish, for less than one hour and fifteen minutes and you've not only exercised your heart and lungs with terrific cardio, you've built your muscles too. You've burned the same number of calories you would have just treadmilling the whole time, but now your resting caloric burn will increase to 125 calories per hour for the rest of the day, including when you sleep. This little extra, for only fifteen minutes more than your current routine, will add up to beyond the 500 extra calories you need to burn every day to lose weight.
The psychological benefit to this form of exercise is in the variety. Walking on a treadmill for an hour can seem daunting, but sprinting for 15 minutes, well that's very doable. The weight training is fun, but it doesn't hurt because you're not overdoing it by throwing your body into every possible contortion in one session. The constant rests and sipping water will keep you hydrated and energized.
It's just like eating: A salad is not lettuce, it also needs tomatoes and cucumbers and some dressing and maybe almond halves to keep it interesting. Your proteins need a veggie on the side. Think of your exercising the same way--a routine with variety, an interval training session, will keep you motivated and excited in a way a solitary stair-climb cannot--even if you are watching a good episode of Dr. Who while you do it.
AND...
Don't make it a one shot deal.
Think of your body like a car. It needs to be turned on consistently to maintain the fluids and the systems. Rest = Rust.
Every four hours do 25 jumping jacks and 10 pushups or lunges.
This little boost will take 3 minutes out of your day, but it will keep the metabolic machine running smoothly and the fuel flowing. You take breaks to snack, why not take breaks to work them off too? Why limit your exercising to the "I gotta get to the gym" when there are things you can do in your kitchen while your waiting for the green beans to defrost? Do it with your kids. Call out "Homework break!" and dance in the living room. Do it on a road trip. Call out "Firedrill!" and run around the car like maniacs three times. Do it at work. Go into the supply closet and jump, Jack, jump.
As the Brady kids sang, "We gotta keep on... keep on... keep on movin'..."
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