Episode 56: 9 Strategies to Speed Up Fat Loss Through Resistance Training

Trainer Tips

Apr 21

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In this episode of the Coaching Corner Podcast, I’m breaking down why resistance training should be your top priority during a fat loss phase—not just cardio.

Cardio definitely has its place, but relying on it too much can lead to muscle breakdown and a slower metabolism over time. To help you avoid that, I’m sharing 9 powerful strategies to make your resistance training more effective so you can burn fat, keep your muscle, and get long-term results.

🔥 Here’s what I cover:

Why cardio alone isn’t enough for sustainable fat loss
How lifting weights supports your metabolism and muscle retention
My 9 go-to training tips for fat loss:

Train consistently (3–4x/week)
Focus on compound movements
Use higher reps with moderate weights
Keep intensity high (train smart, not sloppy)
Choose weights that challenge you
Add metabolic finishers
Increase your daily movement (NEAT)
Prioritize recovery and sleep
Get your nutrition right—think protein, fiber, and a slight calorie deficit

If you’re trying to get leaner without losing strength, or just want to train smarter during a fat loss phase, this episode is for you.

Links:

Jayd (00:00):
So when you are in a fat loss phase, it's important that you're combating that breakdown of muscle tissue. That is a natural part of being in a calorie deficit because remember, your body's going to break down fat and muscle to make up for energy that you're not getting through food, and if all you're doing is cardio and moving your body and burning lots of calories through cardiovascular exercise, then that breakdown of your muscle tissue is going to happen a lot faster. Now you can combat this breakdown of muscle tissue by incorporating resistance training regularly into your weekly training routine.
(00:46)
Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. My name's Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've been a personal trainer for about 10 years, and I've created this podcast to share some of the tips and tricks that I teach my personal training clients. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how to tweak your resistance training to support your fat loss. Now, when people think about fat loss, they often envision a training routine that includes endless hours of cardio. But resistance training is what I like to call the secret magic bullet to sustainable fat loss. If you are looking to achieve a toned physique, meaning you have some muscle definition and a lean body composition, you cannot neglect doing resistance training at least two times a week. There are some ways that you can tweak your resistance training to make it even more effective at helping you to burn fat and change your body composition.
(01:41)
Now, before we get into this episode, make sure to like this video if you're following on YouTube and subscribe to the channels so you always get the latest episodes and other videos that I dropped throughout the week. If you're listening to this podcast, thank you so much. Make sure that you follow the channel so that you always get the latest episodes delivered to your device. If you are interested in working with me as your coach, I am taking on clients to my workout program, just go to my website, gd gaines.com or check the links in the show notes or the description of this video. Without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(02:19)
So many people believe that what they need to do to optimize their workout program for fat loss is to do lots of high intensity cardio to burn a lot of calories in each workout. The problem with this approach though is that it can very quickly lead to burnout or even injury even for intermediate and advanced exercises. Experts don't recommend doing this type of training more than two or three times a week. Another problem with this is that the amount of calories that your body burns in high intensity cardio is going to naturally decline over time. Your body is an adaptation machine. It is made to make movements that you do frequently automated so you save more energy on them because your body's built for the wild and in the wild. If you continue to burn a lot of calories more than what you are eating, eventually you're going to run out of your fat stores, which are your energy stores, and you could die.
(03:17)
So your body tries to make activities that are very calorie expensive, more efficient over time so you don't burn as many calories as your body adapts. When this happens, then in order to keep your body continuing to burn the same number of calories, you have to do more by increasing the amount of time that you're doing your cardio or increasing the number of times you do that type of training a week. Now there's only so much exercise you can do in the day before you start to experience a breakdown in your body or in your motivation. Another thing that can happen with this approach is loss of muscle mass. When you're doing really high intensity cardio for extended periods of time frequently throughout the week, your body is not going to be able to keep up with the repairs that are necessary to sustain that type of activity for long.
(04:09)
In order to make up for the energy that you're not getting through your food, you're likely going to see a breakdown of the existing muscle tissue that you have Now as that muscle tissue declines, so will the number of calories that your body burns in that exercise and overall in your everyday life. So when you are in a fat loss phase, it's important that you're combating that breakdown of muscle tissue. That is a natural part of being in a calorie deficit because remember, your body's going to break down fat and muscle to make up for energy that you're not getting through food. And if all you're doing is cardio and moving your body and burning lots of calories through cardiovascular exercise, then that breakdown of your muscle tissue is going to happen a lot faster. Now, you can combat this breakdown of muscle tissue by incorporating resistance training regularly into your weekly training routine, but there are some ways that you can go even further by making your resistance training further support your fat loss by increasing the number of calories that your body spends every day without necessarily having to do more and more cardio.
(05:20)
So let's take a look at nine different ways that you can optimize your resistance training to keep your muscle mass from reducing and to increase your calorie burn over time. And the number one way to optimize your resistance training for fat loss is to train frequently at least three to four times per week. When it comes to fat loss, consistency is key. Working out more frequently will help to increase the total calorie burn of your body on a day-to-day basis, and working out for three to four times a week will give you the amount of time that you need to hit all of the major muscle groups. So for example, you could do a three day workout routine that's a total body split where you're working upper body, lower body and core every day that you train. Or you could try a push pull leg split and upper body, lower body, total body split.
(06:08)
All of these are great options for three day training programs. For a four day split, you could try alternating between upper body and lower body days. A lot of my clients really like this format because upper body days are a lot easier to recover from than lower body days, so they're not feeling quite as tired after every gym session as they would if they were doing total body. And when you're in a fat loss phase and a low calorie intake, you're likely going to be tired. So it is nice to have some days of your resistance training program that are going to be easier on your energy levels and easier to recover from. You could also do something like a body part split. We alternate between arms, chest, back, legs, et cetera. There are many ways that you could split up your workouts, but I do recommend that you try to stick to at least three to four times a week, and you can even do shorter sessions the more often that you're training, so you're not having to spend quite so much time in the gym as you get tired or and tireder during your fat loss phase.
(07:06)
Now, another way that you can optimize your resistance training for fat loss is to prioritize compound movements. These are movements that involve multiple joints working in action at the same time. The classic examples of compound movements are things like squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, press exercises like bench press or pushups. But variations of these types of exercises are also really great different types of lunges and the variety of deadlift styles. When you get multiple joints moving at the same time, this means that you're getting more activation and more muscles. The more muscles that are involved and your resistance training, the more calories you're burning during that workout. But it's not just about how many calories you're burning in your workout, it's also about how much muscle growth are you stimulating within that workout because when you recover from your workout and your muscles grow, the more muscle that you can build, the more your total calorie burn is going to increase on a day-to-day basis.
(08:09)
So both in and outside of the gym, we really want to make sure that we're boosting that calorie burn by stimulating the muscles. Compound movements are also super efficient. If you don't have a whole lot of time to spend in the gym, especially if you're feeling really tired, doing a few compound movements that hit multiple muscles at the same time could mean that you don't have to do quite as many exercises and spend less time in the gym. Also, many of the compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, and lunges involve the big muscles in your body. Big muscles burn a lot more calories than your smaller muscles in your upper body, so that also is going to increase the calorie burn from in the workout itself and also the recovery afterward. Now, it's important for a number of to do your compound lifts toward the beginning of your workout.
(08:58)
At the beginning of the workout, you're going to have a lot more energy than what you will have towards the end of the workout. I recommend doing your compound lifts or compound exercises at the beginning after your warmup and your priming, and then save more isolation based exercises like bicep curls to be at the end of your workout when you have less energy. Now, number three. Another way that you can optimize your resistance training for fat loss is to use a higher number of reps in each set using less weight and higher reps. Increasing the total volume of your training is going to go a lot further for you than doing really heavy lifts. For a small number of reps, this is going to do a number of things. Number one, more repetitions means more time under tension for your muscles. The longer that your muscles are under tension and having to work, the longer they're going to have to be spending calories.
(09:54)
So within the workout, high rep sets are going to by definition, burn more calories than low rep sets. High rep sets are also going to get your heart rate up, especially if you're training within that 10 to 20 repetitions per set range and with your heart rate elevated, that is going to boost your fat loss. Higher repetition sets also boost your post-exercise calorie burn so your body will burn more calories for longer even after you stop working out. It's also generally safer on the joints to use less weight and do more repetitions, which is very important, especially when you're in a calorie deficit. Being in a calorie deficit means that your body is going to not be able to recover as well from your workouts as when you are in a maintenance phase or if you are in a bulk. This means you're more at risk of getting injured.
(10:45)
But when you're using less weight and doing a higher number of repetitions, you greatly reduce the likelihood of getting injured from your exercise. And of course, higher volume training also is the best way to increase muscle growth and hypertrophy, which will one, combat the loss of muscle from being in a calorie deficit and will also boost the amount of lean muscle tissue in your body, which will in turn increase your daily calorie burn. So when we talk about higher volume training for your resistance training, we want to be shooting for sets with reps of between eight and 15 reps per set. Especially on your compound lifts, you want to keep it within that range. But on your isolation exercises like bicep curls, tricep, kickbacks, leg extensions, you could do as many as 20 repetitions per set. Just keep in mind, the longer that your muscles are burning, the better.
(11:37)
We want to approach muscle failure. That point where your muscles completely give out, you don't necessarily need to go all the way to muscle failure, but stopping just short of it is a great way to ensure that you're getting a maximum calorie burn within the workout, that you are stimulating muscle growth to combat the loss of muscle tissue, and that you're also going to be increasing the amount of muscle in your body, which will increase your total calorie burn on a daily basis, even on those days that you're not working out. Now, number four, another way to optimize your resistance training for fat loss is to increase the training intensity and my training intensity. What I mean is that your workouts should be challenging for your overall total body system. Not only do we want to get the muscles burning, but we want your total system to be challenged.
(12:23)
We want your heart rate to feel like it's getting spiked at the end of every set, and we want you to go into each successive set, not feeling quite as recovered as you did with the previous sets. Now, great ways to do this is to decrease the amount of time that you rest between your sets. Generally speaking, when my clients are in a fat loss phase, I like them to rest between 30 and 60 seconds. This ensures that going into set 2, 3, 4, et cetera. Their muscles are not quite recovered and they're going to get that burn happening sooner. Another great way to increase intensity is to incorporate circuit training or super sets. Super sets are when you alternate between two or more exercises that usually hit the same muscle group. So for example, you might do a set of squats followed by a set of lunges.
(13:10)
Circuit training is when you alternate between a variety of exercises that usually hit multiple different muscle groups, so you might do some squats, and then you might do pushups followed by lunges, followed by pull downs or pull-ups. This is a great way to keep you moving, so your body is spending minimal time at rest, which would increase your calorie burn within the course of the workout. You can also use training techniques like drop sets or practicing myo reps to help yourself push past your limits of fatigue. Number five, another way to make sure that your resistance training is optimal for fat loss is to make sure you're using the right weight during your sets. The weight that you use in an exercise should make the exercise feel challenging within eight to 12 reps or whatever the recommended rep range is for your program. The goal is to get the target muscles burning while maintaining proper technique through the entire set.
(14:04)
And of course, you want to gradually increase the number of reps you do or the amount of weight that you use over time. Whenever you repeat an exercise from one week to the other, you should be adding something to increase the challenge. And we do have an entire episode on how to progressively overload your muscles and your resistance training, which I highly recommend you check out to get more information on how to progress your resistance training to make it more challenging over time. You can use any of the suggestions in that episode to make your resistance training more intense. Now, number six. Another great way to optimize your resistance training for fat loss is to add what are called metabolic finishers. Now, these are exercises that you do after the main portion of your resistance training workout. The goal here is to increase your heart rate, get it up, and also focus on getting your muscles burning.
(14:55)
A great example of this is a 10 minute Im om, which stands for every minute on the minute. So every minute right on the dot, you start a set of an exercise like kettlebell swings or burpees before resting until the next minute hits. Doing that for 10 minutes is a great way to get your heart rate up and get your muscles burning. You could also do five rounds of 30 seconds of kettlebell swings, battle ropes, or sled pushes. You could also do five to 10:00 AM wrap circuits. This would be a circuit of a handful of exercises where you do as many reps as possible in each exercise for between five and 10 minutes. Number seven, another way that you can optimize your training program for fat loss is to incorporate neat, which stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis. So anytime that your body is moving, even when you're not necessarily exercising or working out, your body is burning more calories.
(15:56)
So lots of activities that of daily living can burn more calories. I suggest setting a daily activity goal for yourself when you're in a fat loss phase, walking more is a great way to get your body burning more calories. I like to shoot for between 8,000 and 12,000 steps a day. You can use your smartphone or wear an activity tracker device to track the number of steps that you take every day, and also you can track your heart rate throughout the day as well. I recommend also taking the stairs instead of the elevator. And if you have a sedentary job, you could stand more pace around or take walking meetings. And if you have a phone call that you need to do, go for a walk and walk and talk at the same time. And number eight, another thing that you should do is prioritize your recovery.
(16:40)
Remember, we do not build any muscle while we're actually in the gym working out. The muscle building happens after the workout, when you're at rest, when you're sleeping, if you have eaten properly, your body will take the food that you eat and it will turn it into muscle to combat that muscle loss and it will burn fat. So it's very important that you're prioritizing getting good effective rest. Aim for sleeping between seven and eight hours a night at least. It's also important to manage your stress because the more stressed you are, the harder it is going to be for you to get effective sleep. So manage your stress through different practices like mindfulness, meditation, journaling, talking with a therapist or trusted friend. It's also important that you're taking your rest days to give your body time to recuperate and repair the damaged tissue that happens normally through the course of training effectively.
(17:34)
And finally, number nine, it's super important that while you're in a fat loss phase and working out to build muscle and combat muscle loss, you need to dial in your nutrition. It's so important that you're giving your body enough protein and the right amount of calories to prioritize building muscle and burning fat. A good rule of thumb to shoot for is one gram of protein per pound of lean muscle tissue. And you may even want to do more when you're in a fat loss phase to ensure that you're getting as much protein as you need to build. Muscle protein is also pretty satiating and can help to reduce cravings. So a high protein diet is going to help a lot. It's also important that you're eating enough fiber. Dietary fiber helps to make you feel more full at the end of a meal or a snack, which will reduce your cravings.
(18:24)
And high fiber foods like vegetables, whole grains, fruits, these are all pretty satiating foods that are pretty low in calorie as well. And again, you want to prioritize whole unprocessed foods over packaged foods like crackers, cookies, chips, et cetera. Packaged foods are more likely to have added sugars or fat and other things like preservatives and salt that will increase your inflammation, increase your cravings as well, and just make it harder for you to achieve your fat loss and weight loss goals. And remember that for fat loss, you do need to maintain a calorie deficit. We need your body burning more calories than what you're eating. So a pretty modest calorie deficit of 200 to 500 calories below your maintenance level of calories is enough for you to achieve a nice sustainable fat loss at a rate that is going to minimize the amount of muscle that you lose.
(19:20)
Especially if you're doing resistance training. The steeper that you go in your calorie deficit, the more likely it is that a lot of your weight loss is going to come from muscle tissue. So if you're in a steep calorie deficit of like a thousand calories or more, just know that that is going to come at the cost of your lean muscle tissue, and as your lean muscle tissue goes down, so will your daily calorie burn. So I recommend sticking to that 200 to 500 calorie deficit a day if you want to retain muscle and improve your body composition while burning fat. So there you have it. Nine ways that you can optimize your resistance training or fat loss.
(20:02)
Thank you so much for watching this episode. I hope that you found it helpful. I'm curious to know what things you're using to optimize your training for fat loss. Leave those in the comments below this video if you're watching on YouTube. And don't forget that you can connect with me while I'm live on my Twitch channel. Just go to Twitch.tv/Jaydigains. Make sure to subscribe to this channel if you're watching on YouTube and to follow the channel. If you are listening to this podcast, again, I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care.