Weight Lifting for Weight Loss

Many people rely only on diet and aerobic exercise to lose weight, but what about weight lifting for weight loss?

Weight lifting (also known as weight training or strength training) is usually not associated with weight loss, but weight lifting plays a key role in losing weight.

Weight lifting builds and maintains lean muscle mass, which is metabolically active tissue. This means that the more lean muscle mass you have the higher your metabolism will be. The higher your metabolism, the more calories your body burns to maintain itself.

If you rely only on diet and aerobic exercise to lose weight, you'll lose lean muscle mass in addition to losing body fat. This loss of lean muscle mass will cause your metabolism to decrease, so you'll burn less calories.

If weight lifting is a part of your weight loss program you won't lose lean muscle mass, so your metabolism will stay high and you'll burn more calories.

Diet, aerobic exercise and weight lifting are all equally important when it comes to losing weight. Each one complements and enhances the others, resulting in exponentially faster weight loss than if only one or two of them is used.

Now that you know why weight lifting needs be a part of your weight loss program, let me address three of the most common questions that many people have regarding weight lifting for weight loss.

Isn't it better to lose weight first before starting to lift weights?

It's a common misconception that you should lose weight first with diet and aerobic exercise before starting to lift weights. But as you've just learned, the most effective way to lose weight is to incorporate diet, aerobic exercise and weight lifting together. This will result in maximum fat loss without muscle loss and without a decrease in metabolism.

Won't lifting weights give me big, bulky muscles?

Building big, bulky muscles is a long and difficult process for most men, while women don't have enough of the hormone testosterone (a key hormone for building muscle) to develop big, bulky muscles. So don't worry that you're going to develop big, bulky muscles if weight lifting is a part of your weight loss program.

Is performing high reps with light weight best for weight loss?

The primary calorie burning effect from weight lifting comes after the workout. Remember, weight lifting builds and maintains lean muscle mass, and the more lean muscle mass you have the higher your metabolism will be. The higher your metabolism, the more calories your body burns to maintain itself.

When lifting weights, you want to use the rep range that builds the most lean muscle mass, which is 8-12 reps per set. Therefore, the weight you use each set has to be heavy enough so that you can't perform more than 12 reps in good form.

In conclusion, if weight lifting is not a part of your weight loss program, it should be. No weight loss program is complete without it.