Does Weight Lifting Help with Weight Loss?

Weight Lifting and Weight Loss

Many people underestimate the value of resistance training (weight lifting) for weight loss. While people tend to understand that combining exercise with dieting increases weight loss success, they tend to minimize the importance of resistance exercise (aka resistance training or weight training).
While any form of exercise is helpful for weight loss, since it helps burn calories,  resistance exercise (aka resistance training or weight training) is extremely effective in promoting weight loss because you not only burn calories while exercising, but resistance exercise (aka resistance training or weight training) helps develop lean muscle mass. The more lean muscle mass you have the higher your resting metabolic rate. A higher resting metabolic rate results in more energy expenditure every minute of the day. In other words, someone with more lean muscle burns more calories throughout the day, even when sleeping, than someone with less lean muscle.

Incorporating resistance exercise (aka resistance training or weight training) not only strengthens bones, improves balance as we age, but resistance exercise (aka resistance training or weight training) also helps prevent muscle loss (catabolism) as we age (or diet). Loss of muscle (catabolism) results in a slower metabolism, less calories burned and is a serious contributor to fat gain as we age. So, resistance exercise (aka resistance training or weight training) not only helps you lose weight and lose weight quicker, but weight training can increase your endurance, increase your strength, improve bone density, prevent muscle wasting, increase your mobility, increase your energy levels, and reduce your risk to many serious diseases and conditions.

Weight Lifting and Weight Gain

When people start a weight training routine as a part of weight loss efforts, they might see an initial weight gain. This is not something to be worried about if you are eating properly and not increasing your calories,  since muscle weighs more than fat. If the weight gain worries you, the best thing you can do is have your measurements taken, because if you are dieting well and incorporating more exercise into your daily routine you should see a weight distribution. Your waist should be getting smaller. can take your measurements with a tape measure and you will see that you are actually getting skinnier if you are sticking to your weight loss plan.
In addition to diet and weight training, for best results you should also include some cardio or aerobics in order to help build up your heart and lungs and burn even more calories. It is best to incorporate some cardio after your weight training, for a couple of important reasons. First you want to be strong when you lift weights to get the most out of your weight lifting (resistance training) workout. By doing cardio after weight training it also is more effective at burning fat, and as an added bonus it will help loosen up your muscles after resistance training (weight lifting) .   If you are short on time you can alternate weight lifting days with cardio days so that your training doesn’t take too long each day.

Do Not Forget Your Healthy Eating Plan

Because you are weight lifting that does not mean you can start eating garbage or start adding too many extra calories. To lose weight effectively you must burn more calories than you are consuming, so keep that in mind when you construct your diet. Make sure that in addition to your exercise efforts you are also eating healthy. You want to make sure to include plenty of fruits and vegetables as well as foods from all four food groups in your diet.

Bottom Line on Weight Training and Weight Loss

Weight lifting (resistance training) can really make a big difference in your weight loss efforts, especially when combined healthy eating and regular aerobic exercise like walking, jogging or hiking. Although there are some that fear that by adding weight training (resistance training) to their weight loss program that they will gain weight or look to big, that is primarily a fallacy. If you are incorporating weight training with aerobic training and you maintain a proper diet weight training (resistance training) will help you lose weight and lose fat quicker than if you had not incorporated weight training (resistance training) into your weight loss strategy.