subject: Is it true that lifting weights to lose weight is better than doing cardio? [print this page] Is it true that lifting weights to lose weight is better than doing cardio?
Is it true that lifting weights to lose weight is better than doing cardio? That is the question this article is set out to answer.
By far, the most common suggestion to lose weight is "do lots of cardio." They tell you to do exercises such as running, elliptical gliding, biking, etc. at a moderate intensity level. Do this for an hour or so, about 5-6 days a week and you'll have the body you yearn for. This type of traditional cardio has been so prevalent that many of us just took it as "truth." I'm here to tell you that if you want that nice, lean, shapely body, you can say good-bye to long boring cardio.
But, before you start regarding traditional cardio as totally useless (and to be impartial), it is true that it does have health benefits, such as improving blood pressure and lipid levels. But, it's not the best for losing fat and giving you that sexy look.
With that said, the answer to the above question is "yes, there is no question that lifting weights to lose weight (or some other type of resistance exercise) is the BEST route to take if you want to lose weight and get a new shapely body."
So, should you do any traditional cardio? The short answer is "no, if you know how to do it more effectively" (but that's another subject). In fact, there are "extreme" individuals that are fitness experts and bodybuilders (Vince Gironda comes to mind) that are totally anti-cardio, yet still have that ripped look we all dream of.
In terms of losing weight, just think of cardio as a way to trim the fat while the weight training destroys chunks of fat.
What's So Good About Resistance Training When It Comes To Losing Fat?
Here's some of the things you've been missing if you haven't trained with weights/resistance.
Let's say you put in 45 minutes of some moderate cardio. You'll burn X amount of calories during and a little bit after. Well, you still have 23 hours and 15 minutes in your day. Do you want to keep exercising throughout the day to burn more calories? Maybe, but I highly doubt it. There's not a lot of people that enjoy exercising that much and would rather just take in less food given the choice. Is there anything else you can do to keep burning calories?
You bet, and this is where resistance training rules!
If you're eating and weight training right, you'll build muscle. The more muscle your build the better because...every pound of muscle you have will burn more than 3 times as much calories than if that was fat, and this is when you are resting (lounging on the couch watching a movie, reading a book, and even sleeping)! How many calories you'll burn depends on which study you read. If you want numbers then a good ballpark figure would be about 15 calories for muscle and only 4 calories for fat. The important thing to know is that muscle will burn calories more than 3 x faster than fat.
And get this. When you USE that pound of muscle (like you're going to do anyway when you exercise) you will be burning about 50 calories! Pack on 10 pounds of muscle and do the math...yep, you'll burn about 500 calories!
Want another way to destroy fat? Just increase the testosterone and human growth hormone levels in your body. How? Well, if you do weight training, you'll get that as a bonus! And most people will also increase the thyroid output levels. This is yet another hormone that aids in the fat burning process.
And on top of all this, weight training has the most significant effect on decreasing insulin resistance, which as you might know is one of the leading contributors to obesity, heart disease, and type-2 diabetes. In other words, your body responds better to insulin (the blood glucose regulator) the more muscles you have. And becasue your body will use insulin very efficiently, not much is needed when blood glucose levels get out of balance. And this is a good thing becasue insulin has an adverse effect in fat burning.
OK, once you start losing the fat, all you need is muscles to give you that toned look. And lucky for you, you've been building it all this time. All the cardio in the world cannot accomplish a tone look.
Do You Need Weights To Get The Benefits Of Resistance Training?
Although weights are an excellent way to provide unlimited resistance throughout your lifetime, it is NOT necessary to invest in a gym or gym membership to get the benefits of weight training.
In fact, there was a study done by "Optimum Training Systems" to find out which exercises stimulated the most muscle fibers and the nervous system, which is vital to build muscles. And lucky for you, it was exercises where your torso move through space. How is that good for you? Well, you can do all of these exercises in your home!
Some examples of these type of exercises: push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and dips. Notice how your torso is moving through space in all these exercises?
You can get an awesome workout right in the privacy of your own home from just using your body weight. In fact, your body weight provides so much resistance that many people cannot do even one pull-up, for example (in this case you could assist yourself by using a lower bar so you can assist yourself using your legs).
Remember: if you've never exercised before, get a clearance from your doctor before starting an exercise program
How To Burn More Calories AFTER Your Workout
Another reason why lifting weights to lose weight is your ticket to weight loss is because when you engage in intense workouts, you will burn more more calories AFTER completing the workout. This is commonly referred to as the "after burn." So, take all that anger of being overweight (or whatever makes you angry) and use it to your advantage by raising the intensity of your workout. Nothing like burning more calories without doing anything!
Quick Recap
As with any successful weight loss program, eating sensibly is a given and you can find eating instructions with any complete weight loss program.
But getting back to the gist of this article, if you were wondering if lifting weights to lose weight is a sound approach, considering the benefits you get for the work you do, the answer is ABSOLUTELY!
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