When it comes to fat loss most people assume that cardio is the cure whereas weights are only going to make you get bigger.
Falling for this common misconception is one of the biggest mistakes you could make and will not only hinder your progress, but will leave you not quite looking as you hoped.
Here’s 3 reasons why WEIGHT TRAINING IS YOUR FRIEND!
1. WEIGHT TRAINING INCREASES METABOLIC RATE IN PERIOD FOLLOWING TRAINING.
Studies have demonstrated that after a weight training workout, the METABOLISM can be boosted for up to 36 hours post-workout, meaning rather than burning say 60 calories an hour while sitting and watching TV, you’re burning 70. While you may think, ‘Big deal – 10 extra calories’, when you multiply this by 36 hours, ythats a big difference.
When you figure out that on a monthly rate, it becomes even clearer how regular participation in a weight lifting session will really increase your calorie burning and thus fat burning capacity.
With cardio training, you might get an extra 40-80 calories burned after a moderate paced session, and this will depend upon the exact intensity and duration of the workout.
2. LONG TERM METABOLIC INCREASES
While it’s great to be burning more calories for 36 hours after the workout, that’s not going to help you two weeks from now unless you are consistent with your workout program.What weight training will enable you to do is build up a larger degree of lean muscle mass, which then basically serves as your calorie burning powerhouse in the body.
This will make a difference to your basal metabolic rate, which is how many calories you would burn if you lied in bed all day and did absolutely nothing except breath, one of the factors that goes into this is your total body weight. The most accurate equations will also take into account lean body mass, which represents your muscles, bones, and organs.Therefore, the more muscle you have on your body, the higher this rate will be and the better the calorie burning results you will obtain 24/7.
3.RESHAPING YOUR BODY.
Moving on, another big benefit that weight training has over cardio is that it will completely allow you to reshape your body. Cardio training generally will help you lose weight, however typically this weight loss is going to be a bit of a combination between fat and muscle; therefore what you’re left with is a smaller version of your current self. When you are performing resistance training instead while following a clean diet, then you stand a better chance of losing strictly body fat, while helping to enhance the natural curves of your body.
This lends for a much more attractive physique, which will give you a much better overall transformation than if you just lost weight doing cardio. If you’ve ever noticed someone who has lost a considerable amount of weight but still looks somewhat ‘soft’, that’s usually why. They have lost some fat, but at the same rate, their muscles aren’t overly toned, hence they don’t give off the same type of appearance.
One thing that should be mentioned at this point is that many women will shy away from lifting weights, particularly going heavier with them (more than 5-10 pounds) simply because they believe that doing so causes them to develop rippling muscles that give off too masculine of a look. This is an unfortunate misperception because the fact of the matter is that females do not have enough testosterone in their body to develop this degree of musculature naturally, plus in order to build that type of muscle even with testosterone present, a great deal of food must be provided (which is another thing that most women are not doing).What lifting heavy weights will do though is raise their metabolic rate, promote greater fat burning, and help give them more definition when they do lose the body fat off. As you can see, what most women fear is actually what they should be doing.