How To Burn More Calories Lifting Weights (Do These 3 Things)

One of the biggest differences between weight lifting vs cardio is that while lifting weights is great for building muscle, it’s not so great if you’re looking to burn calories. In this video, I’ll explain how that affects your ability to burn fat and build muscle, and then cover how to burn more calories by covering three tweaks that you can make during your lifting workouts. By the end, you’ll end up with a full body weight training workout that you can get started with right away to burn fat.

Exercise alone is not very effective at losing fat if your diet is not under control. But with a proper diet, adding the right type of exercise to it can significantly speed up your results. When comparing weight lifting vs cardio, while resistance training doesn’t burn many calories compared to cardio, it does have one important advantage over the latter. Doing cardio alone can lead to a small amount of muscle loss.

This is important to note because muscle is what will help keep your metabolism high as you lose weight and will ensure you end up looking lean and muscular rather than just “skinny” after a diet. This means that, if you’re looking to burn fat and build muscle in the most optimal manner possible, a combination of resistance training with cardio is best. I’ll show you exactly how to do this with three tweaks and then give you an example workout that puts it into practice.

When it comes to how to burn more calories through weight lifting, the first tweak is with how much weight you’ll be lifting and how many reps you’ll be doing in your sets for each exercise. More specifically, research suggests that you can nearly double the number of calories you burn in a set by lifting lighter weights for more reps. However, although we can burn slightly more calories the lighter in weight we go, note that for the best muscle building results while still burning significantly more calories, a good recommendation is to use a weight that’s between 40-60% of the maximum weight you could lift for that exercise. For most people, this means choosing a weight that you could do around 15-30 reps with. Just remember, you still need to push yourself hard enough for this to be effective.

Tweak 2 to burn fat with weight training involves using the most muscle mass as possible within your workouts. Illustrating this is a 2017 study tested a variety of resistance training exercises and compared the calories burned. They compared several “isolation exercises” that only worked one small muscle at a time, to “compound exercises” that work several different muscles simultaneously. They found that lat pulldowns, which work several back muscles as well as the biceps, burned almost 20% more calories than bicep curls. Squats, which work the whole lower body, burn almost 35% more calories than leg extensions. We’ll apply this by filling our workout with big exercises that will work every single muscle of our body

Finally, the most important thing you can do to burn more calories is improve your time efficiency. How? You can do so by making use of a circuit style of training. Using this method will enable us to add more exercises and sets into our workout without having to stay in the gym any longer than normal. But we will want to be careful with the exercise selection to ensure we don’t compromise our gains by overworking the same muscle groups with not enough rest. Alright now that we’ve got the science down, let’s apply it into a workout that can be done either at a gym or even at home with just dumbbells.

The workout includes 3 circuits that each have 4 exercises. Within each circuit you will progress from one exercise to the next resting for only 15-20 seconds. Pick a weight that you could do somewhere between 15-30 reps with if you pushed hard. If you reach above 30 reps, then you know it’s time to use a heavier weight. Finally, if you’re a beginner, perform each circuit 2-3 times, intermediate 3-4 times, and advanced 4-5 times.

Circuit 1:
DB Bench Press → DB Row → DB Shoulder Press → Reverse Crunch

Circuit 2: Lower Body:
Goblet Squat→ DB RDL → DB Calf Raise → Weighted Crunch

Circuit 3: Full Body:
Reverse Lunges → Push Up→ DB Facepulls → Plank

You’ll get the most benefit from this workout if you implement it no less than 2 but no more than 4 times a week. That said, I wouldn’t use this style of workout if your main goal is to build muscle and improve your strength.

For those looking for an all in one step-by-step program that’s personalized specifically for your body and your fitness goals, you can take the analysis quiz to discover which science-based program would be best for you and where your body is currently at below:

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[xshaneen]

1. Lighter weights, more reps
2. Work out multiple muscle groups at once
3. Take shorter breaks between workouts

[danielgarity]

I have followed Jeremy for years, he had always been honest and straight to the facts. No gimmicks, no unrealistic expectations. Thanks for keeping real all the time!

[sarahnowak]

do this 2-4 times a week
Circuit 1:

DB Bench Press 7:03
DB Row 7:20
DB Shoulder Press 7:29
Reverse Crunch 7:41

- Rest 15-20 sec
- 3-4 sets
- 15-20 reps

Circuit 2: Lower Body:

Goblet Squat 8:03
DB RDL 8:22
DB Calf Raise 8:34
Weighted Crunch 8:47

- Rest 15-20 sec
- 3-4 sets
- 15-20 reps

Circuit 3: Full Body:

Reverse Lunges 9:12
Push Up 9:20
DB Facepulls 9:38
Plank 9:48

- Rest 15-20 sec
- 3-4 sets
- 15-20 reps

[TheTheawesomeguy]

How to burn more calories lifting: take 2-3 minutes rest between sets and walk around the gym (or on the treadmill) during that time; this easily adds 3-400 steps to your daily total

[karlbodmer]

The #1 thing is planned and structured diet, because the only way for your body to burn fat is to use it as energy. Basically, you need to eat below your energy maintenance level (in terms of calories) and your fat cells will be used to compensate the missing energy (calories). That's how your body works. There are other things to consider as well, such as hormonal status, diseases... but caloric deficit is a must. You have a lot of online diet helper like dietarize, or even promusclegains... Losing weight is just a simple math, really...

[wallstreetoneil]

Cardio/Weight workout - 15 to 30 reps with appropriate DB weights
C1 (upper body - DB bench press, bent over row to hips, standing shoulder DB press, core reverse crunches ) X3
C2 (lower body - goblet squat, Romanian deadlift, calf raise, weighted crunches) x3
C3 (full body - reverse lunges, pushups, DB face-pulls, plank) x 3

[LVGirl]

I’m in my 40’s now, but started gym workouts in my 20’s. After enough trial and error over the years, and after reading Shape and Fitness magazines in my 20’s, I learned all that you’re saying. GREAT video! 😊❤️

[MamaSwole]

I’ll never get over how good the editing is

[justroxanne]

Tweaks to increase calorie burn:
1) Less weight, more reps 2:38
Train near failure, 40-60% of max
2) Increase muscle mass used 4:06
Compound exercices instead of isolation exercises
3) Implement circuits 4:55
Time efficiency. Train separate muscles with shorter breaks
The Workout: 6:25

[alwayspooh]

As a sports scientist and lecturer in sports science, Jeremy is knowledgable, scientific and aware of individual needs. First class videos.

[petertrudel]

Superset your whole workout.
Push moderate heavy weight
Work hard and stay consistent
This burns about 600 calories
Then get the cardio in immediately
After your workout I do 45 minutes
On the treadmill at 4 speed and 10 inch incline. That's 600 calories
Eat your protein and fruits and veggies. That's the code!!

[dhoom-z]

Videos like this is why I was watching people in the fitness industry. Finally found a video that explains it 100 perfectly. Hopefully I will lose my weight with these exercises and tips. Thank you so much for the info ❤

[noctAQ]

everything he said is accurate. my way of training is actually very similar to this + diet. lost fat, I’m surprised with the results myself

[couscousushi]

You have completely and dramatically helped me improved my workouts. Thank you so much for always putting short, effective and information packed videos.

[Briaaanz]

Hopefully the study you reference will finally kill the whole VShred mentality of how cardio is not effective at fat loss

[NEXTLEVELHEALTHwithTim]

I weight lift 5 days a week with a strength and muscle building focus. I get my cardio by playing in an outdoor soccer league and line dancing! Definitely need some of both! But you have to find cardio that you actually enjoy. Some of us weren't meant to run on treadmills! Thats torture for most people. Plenty of cardio options out there so keep trying different ones until you find something you like!

[innovatixn]

How to burn more calories: Leg day everyday.

[AKRocksism]

no lie, the years of knowledge ive learned from jeremy would qualify me as a dietitian or a personal trainer LOL i love it

[IM-uhtk]

2:40 lighter weights with more reps

4:08 compound exercises

5:04 rest less

[StickNate]

I just (almost) completed this right now. I used 25lb dumbbells for benching and 10s for the dumbell press. During round 2, I was struggling to get to get the dumbbells up during the shoulder press.

During the third circuit, 2nd set; I couldn’t get past 11 push-ups.

It’s crazy. At the GYM I can use much more weight; but yeah… I do a light warmup followed by lots of rest between sets; searching for songs on my iPhone etc.

This workout really humbled me, but I also learned my conditioning and endurance is not what I thought it was.

Thanks for the video!