Matt Schwab - FITNESS COACH

   Although a weight-training workout doesn't typically burn as many calories as a cardio workout, it has other important benefits. For example, weight training is more effective than cardio at building muscle, and muscle burns more calories at rest than some other tissues, including fat. Because of this, it is commonly said that building muscle is the key to increasing your resting metabolism — that is, how many calories you burn at rest.

   One study measured participants’ resting metabolisms during 24 weeks of weight training.

In men, weight training led to a 9% increase in resting metabolism. The effects in women were smaller, with an increase of almost 4%. While this may sound good, it’s important to think about how many calories this represents.

    For the men, resting metabolism increased by about 140 calories per day. In women, it was only about 50 calories per day. Thus, weight training and building a little bit of muscle won't make your metabolism skyrocket, but it may increase it by a small amount. However, weight training also has other important calorie-burning benefits.

    Specifically, research has shown that you burn more calories in the hours following a weight training session, compared to a cardio workout. In fact, there are reports of resting metabolism staying elevated for up to 38 hours after weight training, while no such increase has been reported with cardio. This means that the calorie-burning benefits of weights aren't limited to when you are exercising. You may keep burning calories for hours or days afterward. For most types of exercise, a more intense workout will increase the number of calories you burn afterward.