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Why Weight Training Helps You Burn Fat and Lose Weight
by Maia Appleby
Adding weight training to a cardiovascular routine
practically guarantees slimming results. Here's why:
 First,
it speeds up your metabolism of fat. By this, I indirectly
mean that your body becomes more efficient at burning calories. Picture
two cars in a race. Car A is small in frame, but it has a huge engine.
Car B is very large and heavy and has a very small engine. Which one
do you think will go ten miles in the shortest amount of time? Your
muscle mass is your engine, and the larger it is in proportion to
your frame, the more efficient a machine you become.
When you build muscle mass, your muscles actually gobble up
calories from your food in order to maintain themselves.
This leaves fewer excess calories lying around, turning into fat.
In fact, if you lower your calorie intake just a little bit, your
new muscle mass will eat up some of your body fat. There's a delicate
balance that you need to strike here, though, because if you cut your
caloric intake too dramatically, your muscles will shrink and your
body might feel threatened by starvation and begin to store extra
fat, as a precaution.
Weight training increases your heart rate.
Yes, it is basically an anaerobic exercise, not designed for fat-burning
the way cardiovascular exercises are, but between sets, your heart
rate remains up, and you actually are getting a bit of the aerobic
effect throughout your circuit.
The best way to take advantage of this is to use a light to medium
amount of weight and do a lot of repetitions (for example, three sets
of fifteen). You should feel your muscles burning, though, and the
last three or four reps should be difficult to do. If you breeze through
it, you may get the aerobic effect, but you won't increase your muscle
mass sufficiently. If you warm up and cool down, you'll have an increased
heart rate for an entire hour or longer.
If you're not comfortable with dumbbells or machines
with heavy weight plates, resistance
tubing and bands are very effective for toning and increasing
strength. If you can find a machine or method that motivates you,
you're much more likely to stick with your workout routine.
People who lift weights generally sleep more
restfully than people who don't. A correlation has been shown
between insomnia and weight gain, with many possible explanations.
The most logical is probably that the body repairs and restores itself
during restful periods. When it is deprived of these sojourns, its
fat-metabolizing mechanisms must work in a less-than-optimal state.
Well-rested organs are better equipped to take care of business. If
you don't sleep well, the best way to change that is to begin weight
training.
Building strength makes it possible for a person to increase
physical ability. This is why athletes spend so much time
in the gym. If a tennis player trained by simply doing drills and
playing the game, she might improve her agility, but she wouldn't
add much oomph to her serve without strengthening her shoulders, arms,
legs and torso muscles. With that extra muscle power, she can hit
the ball harder and play more explosively, ultimately burning more
calories while she plays. She is also less likely to sustain an injury
which would put her on the sofa for two weeks. See the connection?
Women are often hesitant about weight training, especially when their
goal is to lose weight. "Why add bulk to bulk?" they wonder. Contrary
to what many assume, a heavy woman will not become bigger if she lifts
weights. As a matter of fact, as the muscles become denser, containing
less marbleized fat, she appears smaller.
Women also do not become masculine-looking when they build muscle
mass. If anything, they develop a more symmetrical, feminine shape.
Women don't have the hormonal make-up that men have and therefore
aren't able to build as much muscle mass. Only with steroids and fanatically
intense training can a woman develop a manly body.
When you begin weight training, stay off the scale for a while, but
get out the tape measure. Measure your waist and hips every two weeks
and keep a log. Your weight may stay the same for a month or two (or
longer), but you will almost certainly lose some girth within that
time frame. And isn't that what you really want?
While you're at it, you may want to get out the J Crew catalogs, because
you'll need some new clothes soon!
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