Fat Loss Using Weightlifting
If you’re looking to lose weight, then you should absolutely consider taking up weightlifting.
Weightlifting is an activity that’s more often associated with building muscle than it is with burning fat but ask yourself: how many bodybuilders do you see who are overweight?
The truth is that weightlifting is actually one of the very best forms of exercise when it comes to losing weight and in many ways it’s actually better than running or even HIIT.
Why Weightlifting is Perfect for Losing Weight
In terms of the number of calories you’ll burn in a single workout, weightlifting is unfortunately inferior to running or other exercise. You can expect an hour of lifting weights to burn around 600 calories as opposed to about 1,000 calories for an hour of running.
But where weightlifting has the edge is in the way it encourages your body to burn fat continuously for the rest of the day. That’s because weightlifting breaks down muscle tissue which in turn requires repairing. This leads to the body releasing a number of anabolic hormones which are associated with building muscle and burning fat; things like testosterone, growth hormone and IGF1.
This process all requires energy and as a result, you’ll be burning more fat for a longer time after your session has ended.
What’s more, is that you’ll also burn much more fat while you’re sleeping once you’ve built up the muscle. This is because muscle also requires energy simply to maintain. The more muscular you are, the more you’ll be able to eat without gaining weight in the form of fat.
Better yet, building muscle will give you the kind of toned shape that you most likely are interested in getting. If you’re trying to get rid of cellulite for instance, then building muscle is going to be more effective at this than just dieting.
How to Get Started
But to burn the maximum amount of fat with your weight training, you’ll need to use it in the correct way.
The best way to do this is to use a whole body routine that will involve the maximum muscle fibre in each session. Likewise, you should aim to use the maximum amount of muscle fibre in each exercise.
This means that you should try to avoid those exercises that isolate a specific muscle group – such as bicep curls – and to instead aim for those that use lots of muscles in unison and mimic ‘real world’ movements. The best examples are the squat, the deadlift and the bench press.
Combine this with heavy weights and you’ll flood your body with anabolic hormones leading to heighted fat burning and toning. Of course you can also combine this training regime with additional CV to increase your short-term fat burning.
If you train using full body routines twice a week for example, that will leave you two days for running or other aerobic exercise. This is the perfect combination for all round body composition.
