seconded. of course, ideally you should do all three as best you can.

the way i always think about it is that humans are among the most efficient runners in the entire animal kingdom; some tribes in Africa still practice persistence hunting. so by extension, cardio is going to be the worst choice for weight loss - but the other benefits still make it worth it.

The lifting heavy weights just ensures you retain muscle during weight loss, doesn't it?

While weight loss is mostly diet, if you did want to use exercise to burn additional calories, cardio would do more than weight training. I burn up to 1000 calories in an hour of very strenuous cycling (from normal weight), which I doubt I could ever do lifting dumbbells and barbells.

I've always used weight training during weight loss to try and tell my body to retain muscle and target fat primarily.

No, lifting weights burns calories. In fact you continue burning calories during recovery, which is something you don't get with cardio.

The muscle you add from weight training does burn extra Calories, but it's not very much, around 6-10 Calories/pound. https://www.builtlean.com/muscle-burn-calories

In order to retain lean muscle mass while losing weight you also have to maintain a high protein intake, something like 2 grams per kilogram of lean body weight. This can be challenging while eating at a calorie deficit: after you consume the necessary protein you might not have much room in your diet for other macronutrients.

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