how does anyone compare high reps to aerobics? What is the difference in fat loss between sessions using 40-60 reps a set and 30 min. of jogging?
The secret to fat loss lies in diet, not high reps or jogging.
If you want to lose fat with weight training rather than aerobics, you need higher reps with short rest periods.
By higher reps, I do not mean anything more than 15-20 max! If you are doing more than 15-20 reps, your intensity is too low. Your goal should be to keep your muscle while losing fat. This is best accomplished with reps in the 8-15 range and short rest periods (30-60 seconds).
Check out Poliquin’s German Body Comp program listed under the Delta 1250 diet in T-mag. Or his book “Manly Weight Loss.”
Considering those two options I would go with the weightlifting, but I don’t think you have to be so excessive with the reps. The issue I think you need to consider with the two is not only fat loss but muscle loss also. Aerobics will eat far more muscle than lifting will, and most people don’t want to lose muscle. Perhaps you might consider some circuit training at a lower amount of reps. A little circuit training will be far more intense than jogging and you will be more likly to actually gain muscle than lose it or at least maintain most of what you have.
Good Question! I have tried diet and jogging for 30 min 3x per week with reps in the 12-15 range 8 weeks out from competition and felt I was losing too much lean mass,so I cut out the jogging and got good results. I did not try increasing my caloric intake which might have worked also ( I’d rather diet than jog). Guess it depends on your body type-I’m an ectomorph. I’m going to try sprinting next time (anabolic fatburning)never saw anyone actually do 60 reps per set though.Wouldn’t that overtrain a “natural” BB?
Tudor Bompa is the one that has recommended higher reps based on the adaption the cell gets which is an increase in lipolytic enzymes. In other words the muscle burns more fat all of the time not just when exercising. The problem has been a loss of muscle size if this rep range is overemphasized. The body adapts too much to endurance activity.