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Weight Lifting and Fat Loss

When fat loss and weight loss are mentioned, the first thing that comes on people’s mind is probably cardio exercise. And while cardio does burn fat, people often seem to neglect, maybe the single most important factor for fat loss – muscle mass.

When trying to lose fat, regular Joes often start jogging, running, biking or any other form of cardio, without even thinking about weight lifting. And yes, while diet has a crucial role in fat loss, and cardio contributes greatly – weightlifting is the third part that has a huge role, but is often neglected for some reason.

Weight loss should be a combination of all three : weight lifting, cardio and diet. Skip one of them and fat loss will slow down or possibly even stop.

You see, your metabolism plays a great role in the way you lose fat. It is defined as the rate at which your body burns calories when you are at rest, just to maintain the regular functions of your body. Typically, people burn around 60% of their daily consumed calories at their resting metabolic rate and can burn more calories if they participate in exercise or other physical activities.

The muscle tissue is where the most of the calories are burned. This means that the more muscle you carry around, the more calories you will be burning just to maintain this muscle tissue. And this is where weight lifting has its role. By lifting heavy weights you increase your muscle size and automatically speed up your metabolism.

Of course you can lose weight just with diet or cardio, but (note that I said WEIGHT) a great part of that weight will be muscle and your metabolism will slow down after a certain point. And guess what will happen when you start eating more calories again – you’ll gain fat, because your metabolism is now slower and there is less muscle to maintain.

So if you want to lose fat, don’t neglect weight training. Three to four short and intense lifting sessions is what you basically need.

– Lift heavy and use compound movements like squats, deadlifts, overhead press, bench press, pull ups and rows.

– Increase the weights you lift as you become stronger

– Change your workout routine every 7-8 weeks

– Give yourself a week off when you feel really tired.

 


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