[Tony Gentilcore]

Here is something I like to give to all my clients, especially women: Helps to debunk many of the myths surrounding resistance training and women.

High Reps vs. Low Reps for Fat Loss


A certain woman's goal is to simply lose some body fat and get "toned" (not big a bulky)....just enough to get "cut up". She has been under the assumption that high reps with low weight is the best way to achieve this goal.

Fat loss is going to, or should, come primarily from diet (as much as 80%) with the rest coming from cardio (primarily HIIT or interval training). Your weight training should be focused on getting strong, and keeping your muscle, not fat loss. Let the other 23 hours of the day take care of that.

Do not train with light weights. You'll just end up looking soft, as your muscles will not have, what is known as, good neurogenic or myogenic tone. Basically a measure of muscle hardness. Simply put, there are two types of muscle tone: myogenic and neurogenic. The first refers to your muscle tone at rest, the second refers to muscle tone that is expressed when movements occur. Lower reps increase the sensitivity of various motor neurons resulting in increased neurogenic tone. Myogenic tone is affected by the density of your muscles and is improved by stimulation of the contractile proteins myosin and actin. Higher rep ranges result in more sarcoplasmic (fluid) effects, which in turn yields a soft look and is temporary.


Light weights while in caloric deficit will likely also result in muscle loss, as your body, while attempting to adapt to a caloric deficit will try to 'slow down' and does so via various hormonal responses (ie leptin for example) as well as eliminating metabolically active tissue - muscle. If you don't need it, you'll lose it. You're not going to be building significant amounts of muscle in a caloric deficit. You can't build a house out of sweat - you need raw materials. However, what builds muscle is what keeps muscle, and while dieting for fat loss, you want to keep every last ounce you have. So, quite simply don't bother with these 20 rep sets. Train heavy and try to get/stay strong.


What about all these claims in magazines that high reps and long drawn out sessions of steady cardio is what burns the most fat?

Actually it's not a matter of what fuel is burned during exercise. That plays little role - hence why even though high intensity interval training uses a lower % of fat and a greater percentage of carbs DURING activity, it still results in greater energy loss.

The loss of muscle while on restricted calories and training 'light' is partially hormonal. Your body will always attempt to adapt to any change you throw at it - and this includes a caloric deficit. The more you deviate from your set point, the more your body will respond to bring you back. Hormones respond to OVER and UNDEREATING. On a diet catabolic hormones rise, promoting increased amino acid oxidation (protein breakdown). Anabolic hormones decrease (bad). Net protein accretion/retention decreases. Protein oxidation increases. Cell volume generally decreases, leptin production decreases, etc., etc. Our bodies are smart, very smart. In an attempt to 'slow down' to work at your reduced intake, it will try to do what it can to reduce whatever is metabolically active - muscle. So, specific to training. If you train light, you'll keep enough muscle to be able to continue to train 'light', or with higher reps, or whatever. But given this doesn't take a lot, from a relative and individual standpoint (ie. it takes more muscle to lift a weight that limits you to 8 reps, than it does to lift a weight that limits you to 20) you'll keep what you need to accomplish these generally 'easier' tasks.

The key to a lean, hard body is a nice balance between nutrition, cardio and low rep, heavy weight training. What builds muscle is what keeps muscle.