Why
Weight Training Helps You Burn Fat and Lose
Weight
by Maia Appleby
Adding weight training to a cardiovascular
routine practically guarantees slimming results.
Here's why:
First,
it speeds up your metabolism of fat. By this,
I indirectly mean that your body becomes more
efficient at burning calories. Picture two cars
in a race. Car A is small in frame, but it has
a huge engine. Car B is very large and heavy
and has a very small engine. Which one do you
think will go ten miles in the shortest amount
of time? Your muscle mass is your engine, and
the larger it is in proportion to your frame,
the more efficient a machine you become.
When you build muscle mass, your muscles actually
gobble up calories from your food in order to
maintain themselves. This leaves fewer excess
calories lying around, turning into fat. In
fact, if you lower your calorie intake just
a little bit, your new muscle mass will eat
up some of your body fat. There's a delicate
balance that you need to strike here, though,
because if you cut your caloric intake too dramatically,
your muscles will shrink and your body might
feel threatened by starvation and begin to store
extra fat, as a precaution.
Weight
training increases your heart rate. Yes, it
is basically an anaerobic exercise, not designed
for fat-burning the way cardiovascular exercises
are, but between sets, your heart rate remains
up, and you actually are getting a bit of the
aerobic effect throughout your circuit.
The best way to take advantage of this is to
use a light to medium amount of weight and do
a lot of repetitions (for example, three sets
of fifteen). You should feel your muscles burning,
though, and the last three or four reps should
be difficult to do. If you breeze through it,
you may get the aerobic effect, but you won't
increase your muscle mass sufficiently. If you
warm up and cool down, you'll have an increased
heart rate for an entire hour or longer.
If you're not
comfortable with dumbbells or machines with heavy weight plates,
there are some great products out there that use your own body
weight as resistance. Many of my website visitors have reported
that the Total
Gym
(now marked way down) is a terrific machine. One woman wrote
to me saying that it was easy to use the first time she used
it and she started seeing results very quickly. If you can find
a machine or method that motivates you, you're much more likely
to stick with your workout routine.
People
who lift weights generally sleep more restfully
than people who don't. A correlation has been
shown between insomnia and weight gain, with
many possible explanations. The most logical
is probably that the body repairs and restores
itself during restful periods. When it is deprived
of these sojourns, its fat-metabolizing mechanisms
must work in a less-than-optimal state. Well-rested
organs are better equipped to take care of business.
If you don't sleep well, the best way to change
that is to begin weight training.
Building strength makes it possible for a person
to increase physical ability. This is why athletes
spend so much time in the gym. If a tennis player
trained by simply doing drills and playing the
game, she might improve her agility, but she
wouldn't add much oomph to her serve without
strengthening her shoulders, arms, legs and
torso muscles. With that extra muscle power,
she can hit the ball harder and play more explosively,
ultimately burning more calories while she plays.
She is also less likely to sustain an injury
which would put her on the sofa for two weeks.
See the connection?
Women are often hesitant about weight training,
especially when their goal is to lose weight.
"Why add bulk to bulk?" they wonder. Contrary
to what many assume, a heavy woman will not
become bigger if she lifts weights. As a matter
of fact, as the muscles become denser, containing
less marbleized fat, she appears smaller.
Women also do not become masculine-looking when
they build muscle mass. If anything, they develop
a more symmetrical, feminine shape. Women don't
have the hormonal make-up that men have and
therefore aren't able to build as much muscle
mass. Only with steroids and fanatically intense
training can a woman develop a manly body.
When you begin weight training, stay off the
scale for a while, but get out the tape measure.
Measure your waist and hips every two weeks
and keep a log. Your weight may stay the same
for a month or two (or longer), but you will
almost certainly lose some girth within that
time frame. And isn't that what you really want?
While you're at it, you may want to get out
the J Crew catalogs, too, because you'll need
some new clothes soon!
Did you like this article? Download
Maia's complete WEIGHT
LOSS WORKOUT GUIDE for more specific
information on losing weight with weight
training!
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