Research

Energy balance

Aerobic training is superior to strength training for reducing total body fat mass and body fat percentage in overweight/obese young adults.

If your primary goal is to lose body fat (not just weight), prioritize aerobic exercise (walking, cycling, running) over strength training. While both help, aerobic exercise resulted in significantly greater fat loss in this study.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
An improvement in total body fat was observed in both the AT and the ST groups, but the only significant improvement occurred in the AT group compared to the CG (AT-CG = −1529.172 g)... total body fat percentage decreased in both the AT and the ST groups compared with the CG... only the losses in the AT group were significant in comparison with both the CG and the ST group
José Carlos Fernández‐García et al. · Scientific Reports · 2020

Why this rating

Statistically significant difference found between AT and ST for fat outcomes.

Source

Longitudinal Study of Body Composition and Energy Expenditure in Overweight or Obese Young Adults

José Carlos Fernández‐García et al. · Scientific Reports · 2020

DOI 10.1038/s41598-020-62249-8

rct · n=109Cited 10×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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