One of the things a lot of my clients come to me and say is, “I don’t want to lift because I don’t want to get bulky” or “I want to lose weight, so I need a good cardio plan”. At Elite Nutrition and Performance we work with a lot of clients that want to lose weight. We frequently encourage lifting weights to help people achieve this goal, however, many clients incorrectly assume weight lifting is only good for bodybuilding. In this article I hope to correct this notion, and educate on all of the positive aspects of lifting weights in regards to losing weight.
For years, the standard of practice for achieving weight loss was cardio, cardio, and more cardio. It is true that cardio workouts can help you burn fat and calories, but effective strength training can burn just as much, if not more. I have always believed in the mantra “Train smarter, not harder”. I have taken it to heart, and not only do I use it with my clients, but for my personal workouts as well. Strength programs utilizing high repetitions can elevate your metabolism after your workouts, allowing you to burn calories even after you are done working out! This is known as EPOC: Excess Post-Oxygen Consumption. Strength training utilizes this pathway, whereas cardio does not. A weight loss regimen that focuses solely on cardio can achieve significant weight loss, but you will also lose important lean muscle mass.
Our goal is to educate our clients about fitness and nutrition so they can learn about living a healthier lifestyle, and help them maintain that lifestyle for the rest of their lives. A key topic we educate clients on is the importance of lean muscle mass. It’s not all about the number on the scale! Everyone has their own unique metabolic rate, which is the number of calories you burn in a day while doing absolutely nothing. Here is where the true value of lean muscle mass can be found. The more lean muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolic rate is, allowing you to burn more calories.
A strong weight loss program will achieve decreases in body inches and body fat percentage, and increases in lean muscle mass. It’s important to have a balance between reducing body fat and building lean muscle mass. If not, you can be left with the same amount of body fat you started with, and more lean muscle mass giving you that, “bulky” look you didn’t want. The best way to make all of these things happen is to have a balanced strength training and cardio program, and a dedicated custom nutrition plan tailored to your needs.
Do you have anymore questions about lifting for weight loss? Schedule a FREE NO OBLIGATION CONSULTATION with us today at Elite Nutrition and Performance.
