You are correct that sustained aerobic exercise burns more calories than an anaerobic activity such as weightlifting. The benefit of weightlifting in particular is that, by building more muscle, you are increasing your body's BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) because more muscles == more energy necessary to run them. This translates to your body burning more calories while at rest.
While this is true it also applies to cardio workouts as well. They also build muscle and increase your metabolism. It's a myth that this is an advantage of weight lifting over cardio.
It really comes down to personal preference. Do the workout you're going to be able to keep doing.
True also, but you won't build muscle anywhere near as quickly because you need a caloric surplus to fuel the recovery from exercise (recovery in this context means "build muscle").
The body is a complex machine, and "calories in, calories out" is an over-simplified way of looking at energy usage and storage. I hope you didn't write off the T-Nation article just because it's a bodybuilding/musclehead website. There are actually some very good tidbits on why things that don't burn tons of calories themselves end up having a significant effect on weight loss. Of particular interest may be the effects that HIIT regimens have on EPOC.
For context, I have done both steady-state cardio and HIIT before and saw good results from both, even though I have always been of slight stature. Currently, I do Mark Rippetoe's "Starting Strength" barbell program, and, despite eating absurd amounts of food to fuel the increases in strength I'm making (generally eating at a 700-1000 calorie surplus), I have gained very little fat. It's like the T-Nation article says: the most effective weapon against fat loss is correct nutrition.
to be clear, traditional cardio activities DO NOT build muscle. In fact, they do the exact opposite.
I didn't say exercises, I said activities. Sprinting will actually build muscle, jogging 20 miles will not. It is a difference in how your body adapts to the stimulus.
So, with that in mind, no, cardio typically is not a good choice for people with what 80% of people are hoping to achieve. Put plainly, the time/reward tradeoff is just too low. Sprint, bike sprint, row, swimming, they are all better than the elliptical, typical running and the like.
If you are a world class marathoner and are running 6 minute miles for a marathon, you will probably have some muscle and look pretty lean. That being said, 99% of the world is not this and are basically working out for hours with very, very little benefit to the time. However, even a recreational sprinter is going to see huge benefits from sprinting in both muscle building and fat reduction.
Personal experience, I was running for miles for the last couple of years and still piling it on. Back to weights now 2 days per week and running one, and am burning it off surprisingly rapidly. Note, though, that I wouldn't be exactly beginner level when it comes to weights.
I don't know what your pace was or whether "for miles" means 2 miles or 10. But there are plenty of apps for iOS and Android that will tell you how many calories you burned on your runs, and if it was multiple miles and you were maintaining a decent pace, you probably burned many more calories on those runs than you do lifting.
The likely reasons you kept gaining weight while running, pick one or multiple:
- Not running as often as you lift, so the total calories burned per week (or month) was lower.
- Running too slowly so that your heart rate didn't get up to the point where you were really working.
- Ramping up your carb intake, whether consciously or subconsciously this is really common when people start running -- your body starts craving carbs. Which then results in a calorie increase, which is the real problem (not carbs themselves.)
- Policing your eating better while lifting.
Ultimately if you want to lose weight you have to not only exercise but also keep your daily calorie budget at a deficit. People who have trouble losing weight usually fail at the latter one.
I lost a lot of muscle mass, and I just wasn't running 'enough' to be burning all the fat off. I think the main problem was the muscle mass, which eats food even when I am sitting on the couch.
