When most people think of trying to lose weight, the first exercise they think of is cardio/aerobic training. Without a doubt, aerobic training is very effective at promoting weight loss. However, if your goal is to end up looking good and not just weighing less than you should add weight lifting to your fat loss program.
When you eat less in order to lose weight, your body will adjust over time by slowing down your metabolism to need fewer calories. Weight lifting can help prevent this. Weight lifting causes your body to produce hormones necessary to build muscle and these hormones cause your body to burn more calories throughout the day. In addition, as you build extra muscle, your body must burn more calories to maintain that muscle. Weight lifting will alter your body composition so that you will have a much easier time maintaining your weight loss over time.
Here are a few tips to help maximize that effect.
1 – Concentrate on lifting heavy weights in order to build muscle more efficiently.
Heavy is a relative term, of course. If you are out of shape, lifting heavy weights doesn’t mean you should be lifting hundreds of pounds from the beginning. The key is that you should design your program so that you are doing less total volume while consistently increasing the weight that you are using. Your body will build more muscle in order to be able to handle heavier weights.
2 – Concentrate on fewer exercises to produce a total body workout
Don’t waste your calories on doing exercises for your smaller muscles. Use the exercises such as deadlifts and squats where you can lift heavier weights and use more muscles at the same time. This is going to produce the greatest muscle gain in the shortest time.
3 – Limit your cardio exercise while trying to build muscle.
You can still do some easy walking but don’t spend hours doing intensive cardio exercise. While trying to build muscle, your body will need the extra calories to do that. If you burn those calories running, it will slow down your muscle growth. If you want, you can alternate cycles of cardio work and weight lifting.
4 – Make sure you recover completely between workouts in order to build muscle.
Your body builds muscle as an adaptation to the exercise. While you are working out you are damaging your muscles. Your body reacts by building more muscle to better prepare it for what you are putting it through. If you don’t recover completely, you will slow down the muscle growth. The time between workouts will vary from one person to another. Some people may only need a day between workouts while others may require as much as a week. Most people will fall in between those two extremes.
5 – Be sure to eat enough to build muscle.
You do need to eat fewer calories in order to burn fat, but try to make sure that you get the nutrients you need to build muscle. Cutting sugar and starchy carbohydrates out of your diet is a good first step toward doing that.
If you are in good enough physical shape to lift weights, incorporating weight lifting into your fat loss program can make a huge improvement in your results.
Hi I am ben, a physiotherapist working with a private clinic in Melbourne. I occasionally writes resourceful articles on health and fitness. I regularly went to gym when I was in Bondi NSW at The Athletic Club gym and i am yet to find a good gym here in Melbourne..