If you want to drop a cloths size, you need more muscle!

Does it ever bother you how one of your friends is able to eat what ever they like? And it’s not because they exercise all day every day. It can seem quite frustrating and unfair, when you slog out at the gym doing cardio day after day, but often it is because of the type of exercise they do that makes you allowed to eat more, not how much. Because of the body they develop from doing exercise, assuming it’s the right exercise of course really can make major difference to burning fat.

But when I say exercise, I don’t mean any old exercise, I mean resistance exercise, such as weight training, using your bodyweight, kettlebell training, even some circuit training etc… the reason this sort of exercise is so beneficial, is because it helps build lean muscle. And this is one of the most important things you can do if you want to lose weight, well actually lose fat as your weigh may stay the same due to the muscle you put on.

If you are thinking, but I don’t want to be big and bulky, then don’t worry, because you don’t need to add on massive amounts of muscle so you look like a body builder although there is nothing wrong with that, if it’s what you desire

Just adding on a few pounds of muscle could make an enormous difference; you see 1lb of muscle burns 50 calories a day at rest, not while exercising, but when you are not actually doing anything. This means if you added 5lbs of muscle to your whole body, which isn’t exactly a lot, but it will make you look more toned and defined. You would be burning an extra 250 calories a day or 91,250 calories a year, that’s a lot of extra calories. And you will be burning all those calories while you are sitting on the sofa doing nothing. Sounds pretty good eh.

Just think about it, if you want to lose weight and look better, which is going to be more effective? Going on a calorie restrictive diet, where you cut back on 250 calories a day or gaining 5lbs of muscle, from 3 quick 45 minute workouts a week, allowing you to eat exactly the same amount and still lose weight?

I think the answer is very obvious, and gaining on muscle won’t only benefit your weightloss efforts, although I really shouldn’t say weightloss because although you might not actually lose weight on the scales, you will look a lot better and probably be jean size smaller. But the training you have to do for adding muscle will increase weightloss even more, because after a 45-60 minute high intensity weight training session, you can have an elevated metabolism for up to 48 hours, so you will be burning even more calories again.

As you might have noticed though, as I mentioned you might not actually lose that much weight, but you will change your body shape and the proportion of fat to muscle changes and you increase the amount of muscle you have and decease the amount of fat you have.

This means you look better, but the scales show you as being exactly the same weight.

Also putting the body under stress tension via resistance training also improves bone density and ligament strength; which if you are older will help prevent the risk of injuries and if you are playing sport it will help protect during that to.

So there you have it, if you want to burn off some serious body fat in a easy and relaxing way and drop a cloths size, while still eating just as much, (although if you re eating rubbish food, then no amount of muscle will have you looking good), becoming more toned and decreasing risk of injuries, then maybe its time to start hitting the gym and doing some weight training for a change.