Women's Study on fat lost and lean muscle gains.

Women in their 30s lost 2 pounds of fat for every 1 pound of muscle they gained in this 16-week study.
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• 10 were put in the Dietary Intervention Only group
• 10 were put in the Resistance Training Only group
• 10 were placed in the Resistance Training Plus Diet group
• 10 served as controls
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Each of the women in the first three groups received daily macro and calorie goals, based on DXA and resting metabolic rate tests. They each ingested 3.1 grams of protein per kilogram of fat-free mass. 20% percent of the total calories came from fat, the rest from carb. The women in the Resistance Training Only and the Resistance Training Plus Diet groups did 2-3 workouts a week, using alternating workout complexes.

All groups (except control) experienced some body fat loss, with the Resistance Training Only group showing the least and the Resistance Training Plus Diet showing the most. The Diet Only group cut out about 500 calories a day, while the Resistance Training Plus Diet group hit a daily calorie deficit of about 630 calories, largely owing to their additional activity.
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However, the Resistance Training Plus Diet group added more than a pound of muscle for every 2 pounds of fat loss. That’s huge. Also, the dieting didn’t affect the participant’s resting metabolic rate in 16 weeks.
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How to Use This Info: If you’re one of the legions of women who are trying to cardio your fat away, stop. At best, you’re losing a little bit of fat and probably a lot more muscle. Besides, aerobic exercise in general is an ineffective way to lose fat. The calorie expenditure is just too little to make that much of a difference. It’s much more effective to diet, and it’s much better still to combine diet with lifting. The combo of the two seems to almost defy physics – you gain weight, the right kind of weight (muscle), while simultaneously losing the right kind of weight (fat). See program in comments.