Running Shoes or Dumbbells for Sustainable Weight Loss?
The answer is an ambiguous one, because it really depends on the person. However, resistance training changed my life in more ways cardio ever could — and now it's changing my clients' lives too.
For years, I stumbled around the gym floor not really sure what or how I should train. Grabbing my running shoes and heading out for a run just seemed easier — less admin, and less making a fool of myself. I've always been a natural runner; even at my heaviest, I could head out for a 5km run pretty easily. It would always be when I was trying to lose weight, though — and if you've read my story, you'll know that never really worked out.
Just to get a couple of things out of the way before I explain more below: I'm not shunning high-intensity cardio or running. Both are good for your heart health, and both can support weight loss. But cardio alone can cause some not-so-awesome effects on your body and overall metabolism when you're relying on it as your main source of EAT (Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). I wrote an article deep-diving the factors that make up your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) [here].
The Running Shoes Reflex — Why Cardio Is Usually the First Instinct
Someone decides they need to lose weight, and the very next thing that happens is a pair of running shoes gets dug out of the closet. It's an understandable reflex — cardio burns calories in the moment, it feels productive, and it's what we've all been conditioned to believe fat loss looks like.
The problem is what happens over time. Your body is annoyingly efficient — the more you repeat the same cardio, the better it gets at it, and the fewer calories it costs you to do the same work. On top of that, relying on cardio alone — especially paired with a big calorie cut, which is common because we don't understand how expensive high-intensity cardio like running actually is — tends to chew through muscle over time, not just fat. Less muscle means a lower metabolic rate, which makes the whole thing harder, not easier. And prolonged cardio has a nasty habit of cranking up hunger, which is exactly the moment your discipline needs to hold up the most.
Cardio isn't the enemy here. Treating it as your entire fat loss strategy is.
What Resistance Training Actually Does to Your Body Composition
Muscle isn't just there to look good. It's active tissue that costs your body energy to maintain, all day, every day, whether you're at the gym or on the couch. More muscle means a higher resting burn.
When we build muscle over a consistent period — whether you're in a calorie deficit or simply eating at maintenance — your body will start to burn fat while growing muscle at the same time. It's a slow process, and it usually takes 4-6 months before you start to see real physical changes, but those changes can be significant once they show up — muscle you've genuinely never seen on yourself before. This is called body recomposition (recomp), and it's one of the best things that can happen for long-term weight loss sustainability.
You'll know it's happening because the scales aren't really moving, but you've gone down a dress size or two — that's a sure sign of body recomposition.
Why Muscle Matters More Than the Scale During Fat Loss
Muscle also plays a role most people never hear about: it's where a good chunk of the carbs you eat actually get used, rather than stored. The more muscle you're carrying, the better your body gets at moving that food toward fuel and recovery instead of fat storage — which, in practical terms, means more room to actually enjoy your food without it working against you. Something cardio alone can't give you.
This comes down to insulin sensitivity — basically, how efficiently your body handles blood sugar. Better insulin sensitivity means steadier energy, less fat storage, and a lower long-term risk of things like type 2 diabetes. Building muscle is one of the most reliable ways to improve it.
Cardio's Place — Not Useless, Just Not the Priority
None of this makes cardio pointless. Steady-state stuff — a brisk walk, an easy jog, cycling at a pace you can hold a conversation at — is genuinely useful for recovery, heart health, and a small extra calorie burn on top of everything else. It just belongs in a supporting role, not the lead one. Where people get into trouble is stacking long, high-intensity cardio sessions on top of an already aggressive deficit — that's a fast track to muscle loss and burnout, not results.
One caveat: if you genuinely love running or high-intensity training, fill your boots. Just make sure it's for the right reasons — and if you haven't been active in a long time, starting off at a thousand kilometres an hour probably won't end well for your goals.
What Actually Drives the Results: Progressive Overload
If you want to keep getting something out of resistance training, you can't just repeat the same workout forever. Progressive overload — gradually asking more of your muscles over time, whether that's more weight, more reps, more sets, or less rest between them — is what keeps your body adapting instead of plateauing.
You'll see a lot of people at the gym without a plan, jumping from machine to machine. Your training needs a schedule, because different movements impact different areas of your body, and some are far more fatiguing than others. That's exactly why I encourage people to have a weekly plan in place — and a way to log it — which is exactly what you get when you sign up to either the Flexible Method or Flexible Training plan. Find out more [here].
Getting Started — What This Looks Like in Practice
Two things carry most of the weight here:
Training with intent. Consistent resistance training, structured around progressive overload, rather than wandering the gym floor hoping something works.
Eating enough protein. Protein is what your body actually uses to repair and build muscle — especially important while you're in a deficit, since it's what stops your body from cannibalising muscle for energy instead of fat. Spread it out across your meals rather than trying to cram it all into one.
Everything else — the deficit, the cardio, the tracking of your training — supports these two. It doesn't replace them.
Where to Go From Here
None of this happens in isolation. If you haven't already, it's worth understanding [what a calorie deficit actually is and how it works], and [why willpower alone was never going to get you there long-term] — both tie directly into everything covered here.
Or, if you've had enough of reading and want to find out more about how I can help, click [here] to check out my plans. And if you want to keep up with future articles and newsletters, sign up with your email below.
