Can Weight Lifting Help Me Lose Weight?
One often-overlooked weight loss method is that of weight lifting. There are a number of reasons why weight lifting can help in weight loss. Dieting without exercise results in weight loss, but around sixty-five percent (the figures vary a bit) of this loss is fat.
The result is that some of the remaining thirty-five loss will be made up of bone, muscle and water. Bone mass and muscle is something we don’t want to lose, but weight training is an excellent way to prevent this.
It is for this reason why weight training is so great in preventing osteoporosis in menopausal women.
How weight lifting can help You lose Weight
- Helps burn fat while maintaining muscle mass
- Raises metabolic rate so that the body burns calories even faster
- Prevent bone loss
- Increases body strength and endurance
When you start using weight lifting in your weight loss program you may notice that the scale shows a weight gain. Do not worry overly much about that, the scale is not the best indicator of weight loss with this method. Reason? While you are losing fat, you are also building muscle which weigh more than fat. The best way to gauge how much fat you are losing is to use a tape measure which will show how many inches you have actually lost.
Aerobics helps the most in weight loss
Although you will be using weight lifting as part of your weight loss program for the best result you should also do aerobics for the cardio workout, that is, to build stronger lungs and heart. Weight lifting for this purpose can be doe just three times per week unless you also want to build muscles.
Following a healthy diet that includes food from the five main food groups is also a necessary part of losing weight using weight lifting.
So, to lose weight and add muscle no other exercise routine packs quite the punch as weight lifting combined with a cardio workout such as walking or cycling. One fear that females especially have about weight lifting is building muscles that are too big. However, you need only build the size muscles you want.
Another great advantage of including weight lifting on your exercise routine is its ability to help tone the body, as such there is little need to fear the excess flabbiness that can occur from dieting alone.
