How To Use Strength Training To Lose Weight Effectively

Recently, many individuals, particularly women, are hitting the dumbbells to get into shape. However, for every woman who hits the weights, there is an equal number who avoid them due to stereotypes and inadequate information that leads them to believe that weightlifting will result in them becoming bulky or too masculine, or won’t help them to lose weight. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Strength training can help anyone lose weight and is a critical part of how you can shape your body into the lean machine you’ve always dreamed of! So pick up the weights and discover how strength training can not only help you lose weightbut become a healthier you!

The Science Behind Strength Training

For starters, strength training can most certainly help any man or woman lose weight in their pursuit of becoming a fitness guru. For instance, the fact is the more muscle you have, the more fat you burn, as research indicates the body expends energy, known as calories, just to maintain muscle, and the more muscle density you have, the more energy the body needs to support it. Just having muscle burns calories, and even if you believe you will not be using a significant amount of energy for a significant caloric loss by just building muscle alone, it is enough for you and others to start noticing the difference. A recent study concluded individuals who participated in strength training from eight to fifty-two weeks showed an increase of 2.2 to 4.5 pounds of muscle mass, and this increase in muscle mass increases the resting metabolic rate by fifty kilocalories per day.

The Science Behind Strength Training Continued

Well, this small change does help to reduce the energy gap between energy intake and expenditure, which means the more muscle mass built, the higher demand for energy, since the muscle gained will need to maintain itself during both rest and physical exercise. To put it simply, building muscle can help you raise your resting metabolism, which in the long-run will help you lose weight and keep it off. For fitness novices who are new to strength training, or even enthusiasts who want to learn more, one fact remains that shouldn’t frighten you: strength training may actually make you gain weight. This is because fat cells are large, light, and fluffy, while muscle fibers are small and very dense, but when comparing the two, there is no competition. Muscle might weigh the same as fat, but it is much leaner and occupies less space within the body.