Weight Training Can Double Your Fat Loss

It seems every January I hear from a new client that they are afraid to lift weights because they think it will impede their weight loss and make them bigger.  Sadly this is truer from you ladies. Well, I am here to tell you that this belief couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact not doing resistance training (includes weights, resistance bands, body weight exercises, etc.) stagnates your fat loss results. So, whereas cardiovascular exercise is a great start, skipping resistance training is a detriment to your goal.

First let’s distinguish between weight loss and fat loss. When most people say they want to lose weight, they usually mean they want to look leaner, tighter, and less girthy. This doesn’t mean they want to lose bone density or muscle mass which are categorized as lean weight. Without healthy strong bones you would be brittle and probably couldn’t stand and muscle provides shape and tone to your body besides movement. What they want to lose is fat the stuff that makes you overly soft, rotund or pudgy.  So, when we diet or exercise it’s to lose fat. Fat loss is the goal.

At the University of New South Wales researchers conducted a meta-analysis from 58 previously registered papers to measure the outcome of strength training programs. All together the analytical information included over 3000 subjects. Their exercise participation averaged 2.7 sessions per week for 45-60 minutes in duration over 5 months’ time. They found that on average the resistance training yielded an average fat loss of 1.4% of total body fat. This number is virtually identical to the fat loss experienced from cardiovascular exercise alone. That means, in effect, that doing both cardio exercise as well as resistance training doubles the amount of fat loss experienced.  Combined that would be 2.8%.

Consider that good muscle tone with fat loss would result in a significant loss of inches even when the scale says otherwise. The increased muscle would also improve tightness, tone and shape. I always tell my clients that the real result is how you look and feel and to only use the scale as a guide to change.  Remember that muscle is 20% denser than fat and 2 ½ times more metabolically active. I try to do measurements of my clients every 6 weeks and consider this a more realistic gage of success.

Greater fat loss is really about diet. Fat loss is about 70% diet and 30% exercise. It is almost impossible to exercise away a bad diet. Even if you could consider the amount of effort required. For example a medium Cafe Latte is about 260 calories and would require 30 minutes of moderately paces cycling on average to burn off. For more on diet follow this link: How many calories should you eat in a day.

References:

Scienceaily.com  Strength training can burn fat too, myth busting study finds.