To Burn More Calories, Separate Your Cardio and Strength

In 2020, scientists published a meta-analysis in the Journal of Sports Science titled “The effect of exercise interventions on resting metabolic rate: A systematic review and meta-analysis.”  The focus of this paper was to delineate what forms of exercise help us burn more calories following the workout.   

The researchers concluded: 

• This systematic review and meta-analysis clearly show that resistance exercise generates increases in resting metabolic rate (no surprise here). 

• Aerobic exercise does not induce an increase in resting metabolic rate (again, no surprise here).

• Combining our strength training and aerobic exercise into the same workout does not induce an increase in resting metabolic rate (this would be surprising to the millions of exercisers who engage in workouts, classes, and programs that combine strength and cardio into one session). 

Take home message: If one of your primary exercise objectives is to burn calories, do not combine your strength training and cardio into one bout of exercise.  Instead, separate your cardio (aerobic) exercise from your strength workout by at least a few hours.