Why Strength Training is Crucial During Fat Loss

Lifting to preserve muscle > training to burn calories
5 min read
By: Dylan Dacosta

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I clearly have a bias towards strength training. I mean, I am a coach who helps people get stronger in the gym. 

But this bias isn’t exclusively from my profession. 

It’s also because strength training is actually awesome. 

From building muscle and strength, to increasing joint/tissue resilience, to increasing sport performance, it’s helpful in seemingly countless ways. 

But today, let’s talk about a less discussed benefit. 

It’s ability to help preserve and even gain lean mass while losing weight. 

I’ve talked about this before, but a new study came out that I wanted to cover briefly to hammer home how helpful strength training in particular can be when aiming to lose body fat. 

This study from Martins et al broke down the % of fat free mass lost from 3 separate groups of “overweight” (according to BMI), premenopausal women (141 women in the analysis). They were all untrained too. 

The three groups were:

• Diet Alone

• Diet + Aerobic Training 3 x Per Week

• Diet + Resistance Training 3 x Per Week

The researchers wanted to see how these interventions impacted % of fat free mass lost (not fat) during weight loss and if % of fat free mass lost played a role in fighting weight regain.

Simply put, *on average* the resistance training group actually recomped (built muscle while losing fat), while the diet only group lost 9.7% of their total weight loss from fat free mass.

The cardio group lost less fat free mass than the diet only group but also had a tendency to lose more fat free mass than the resistance training group. 

*there were large standard deviations with these mean findings and that should be noted because not everyone will experience results such as these*

That doesn’t mean that the 9.7% was all muscle they lost, as there is some fluid they would have lost as well. 

Regardless, the only difference was strength training since they were on similarly calorie restricted diets.

Lastly, % of fat free mass lost did have a small correlation (r = -0.21) in predicting more weight regain as well, but those findings weren’t as robust. 

A previous study I covered showed that protein can also play a role in preserving/gaining lean mass during a fat loss when combined with resistance training. 

This was on untrained men undergoing pretty intense diets, but interestingly enough, the “low protein group” essentially lost no lean mass, but the “high protein” group actually gained lean mass. 

In this example, while both groups were surely eating adequate protein, the “low protein group” still mitigated essentially all fat free mass loss from what seems like mostly strength training. While “high protein” helped maximize fat loss and even gain lean mass. 

It’s worth nothing, recomping would be less likely in leaner and more trained folks.

A fair interpretation of this as I’ve mentioned before, is that resistance training is like Batman and high protein intake is like Robin in terms of changing body composition. 

On his own, Batman is still pretty badass. While Robin kind of needs Batman in order to be of full service. I don’t know, I’m not a comic book guy, but this seems fairly accurate and I think you get the point. 

If you plan on maximizing fat loss, when it comes to your training, I suggest training as if you were trying to build muscle. 

You might not be able to build a lot of muscle, but at least this will help ensure you preserve as much muscle and maximize your ratio of fat loss in terms of the body weight you lose. If you have no idea where to start in order to focus on building muscle, give this article a read first. 

Secondly, eating high protein in combination with strength training is a no brainer. The range of 1.6–2.2 grams per KG of bodyweight will likely be a solid range for you if you’re looking to maximize muscle gain/retention. 

Takeaways

• If you are looking to maximize fat loss while keeping muscle mass, resistance training should be your bread and butter in regards to training.

• If you just loathe strength training, aerobic training does seem to beat out no exercise for preserving lean mass.

• Preserving lean mass is generally advisable during weight loss and may help a little bit in increasing your likelihood of successful weight loss maintenance.

Cheers,
Coach Dylan 🍻

References:

1.Association between Fat-Free Mass Loss after Diet and Exercise Interventions and Weight Regain in Women with Overweight
https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Abstract/9900/Association_between_Fat_Free_Mass_Loss_after_Diet.73.aspx?fbclid=IwAR1Bq3c8dNMhMRRJaObEPmTae1mpsAHeo8vIaVLQGIbT-SJM2QupAALq6OQ

2. Higher compared with lower dietary protein during an energy deficit combined with intense exercise promotes greater lean mass gain and fat mass loss: a randomized trialhttps://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/103/3/738/4564609?login=false

3. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5867436/