Want to lose body fat? Stop looking for the quick fix or short cut. Strength training and the right nutrition is by far the most effective way. Here’s why…
Unlike traditional cardio, strength training’s fat loss effects don’t end once your workout does. That’s because muscle is nearly 4 times more metabolically active than fat tissue. While cardio and strength training will both burn calories during your workout, cardio’s calorie burning effects end shortly after you stop exercising.
Strength training, on the other hand, builds muscle. This muscle will continue to call on fat stores at all hours of the day and night in order to maintain its mass. Building just a single kilogram of muscle has the potential to burn over a hundred thousand extra calories over your lifetime.
Strength Training Boosts Fat Loss Hormones
Testosterone, growth hormone, thyroid, and neurotransmitters like dopamine and epinephrine are all positively affected by strength training. These hormones all act in harmony with one another to create a favorable metabolic environment for fat loss.
When hormones such as growth hormone are elevated, fatty acids are more readily mobilized and used for fuel. Strength training creates the necessary fat loss environment so that when you create a calorie deficit with your diet you get a potent fat loss combo.
Strength Training Increases Your Metabolism
Strength training is a highly effective way to boost your metabolism.
Strength training boosts your basal metabolic rate (BMR). This is the amount of energy you use at rest. As was mentioned earlier, strength training builds muscle, which burns approximately 12 calories per kg per day. 4kg of muscle will burn an extra 50 calories per day at rest. That equates to over 2.5kg a year from an increased metabolism.
Strength Training Improves Your Proportion of Fat Loss
If you attempt fat loss without strength training, you have a recipe for muscle loss, this is how you accomplish it. When in a hypocaloric environment (calorie deficit), muscle tissue is one of the first things to be broken down and used for energy if there is no stimulus placed on it.
Eating less and neglecting strength training will still result in weight loss, but weight and fat are not always the same. Your body is going to look completely different if you lose 10kg of fat as compared to 5kg of fat and 5kg of muscle. Both equal 10kg on the scale, but the prior will give you a much better aesthetic appearance.
Strength Training Boosts Self-Confidence
There’s something to be said for the intangibles of weight loss. Not everything is about the way you look. The way you feel is just as important, if not more. If you feel good about yourself you’ll be more likely to stick to your fitness lifestyle.
The good news is that strength training enhances self-confidence. This simple fact alone can provide you with a steady flow of motivation throughout your entire weight loss program. Getting your mind right is integral to your success.
Strength Training Creates an Afterburn Effect
The afterburn effect, formally known as EPOC, is a prolonged period of elevated calorie burn after exercise. This period can last anywhere from hours to days after completing your workout. Strength training, when done with intensity, helps to create the greatest EPOC effect.
Strength training makes weight loss easier in just about every sense of the word. Don’t confuse strength training with weight lifting, however. Weight lifting is a form of strength training, but it is not the only form.
Bodyweight training or anything that adds sufficient resistance to your muscles can be considered a form of strength training. Find exercise you enjoy and then find a way to add resistance and make it difficult.
No fat loss pill can give you the benefits strength training can.
Yes, strength training really is the miracle weight loss aid we’ve been searching for!
Stay Strong and Happy.
Ryan
