Weight Training for Weight Loss – How Ironic!

It seems a little ironic that you can actually lose weight with weight training. Most people associate lifting weights with bulking up. This article will help you understand how to actually use weight training for weight loss.

I think the first thing we should clear up is the common myth that weight training is only for men. Women can also get great results by adding weight training to their program without fear of bulking up.

You see, contrary to popular belief it is very hard to build muscle mass and it happens very slowly over a period of time. You are in total control and if you ever feel you are becoming too muscular you can tone it down a little bit.

Another factor that will affect your results is your caloric intake. If you are eating for fat loss you are not going to become too muscular because your calories are restricted.

Now that we have that cleared up let’s get into some of the specifics. Weight training is awesome for blasting away fat because it increases your metabolic rate after you finish your workout. Weight training places extreme amounts of stress on your body so therefore it needs to recover.

And weight training also serves to maintain your lean muscle tissue while you are dieting. You have to remember that it is muscle that burn calories so you want to keep as much of it as you can. Gaining a few extra pounds of lean muscle wouldn’t hurt either.

You will then be able to burn more calories all day long. Even if you are watching television! I don’t know about you but those 2 reasons alone are enough to make me want to keep doing it.

So you might be asking which exercises are the best? It is best to choose compound (multi-joint) exercises that work the most muscle groups simultaneously. This will help you get more work done in less time and will serve to give your metabolism a further spike.

Let us use the squat for example. The squat is known to be one of the greatest exercises known to man. It is harder to find an exercise that will work more muscle groups at once. It also provides the greatest hormonal response which is beneficial to burning fat.

If you combine the squat along with other compound exercises like benches presses and deadlifts you will start to notice positive changes in your body composition. Full body workouts can be a great aid in losing fat.

I am sure you see all of those people pumping away mindlessly on isolation exercises. They won’t produce the same results you will get with heavy, basic exercises. Yes, I said heavy. Some think you should increase your reps when you are trying to lose fat.

That is also another myth. It takes a decent weight to build muscle so it will also take a decent weight to maintain it. You don’t need to go overboard but make sure you aren’t doing 15 reps and hardly feeling a burn.

Now that you know the basics for weight training for weight loss you can try incorporating some of those compound, free weight exercises into your program. I promise you will notice the difference!

Did you find this article helpful? You can learn much more about healthy weight loss exercise by grabbing a free copy of Healthy Weight Loss Revealed. It teaches 12 powerful metabolism boosting keys to permanent weight loss.