Exercise and Weight Loss

Everyone knows you need to do cardiovascular exercise to burn fat and calories, but to keep your body burning fat 24/7, you must add muscle to it.  It is true that the calorie burn increase is slight, just a few extra calories per pound of muscle compared to what a pound of fat will burn around the clock, but really, isn’t a little better than nothing? And the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you burn.  It does add up.  If you have found you can’t lose weight, then adding resistance training to your program will make all the difference.

The other advantages of adding muscle to your frame are pretty major—muscle takes up less space.  So, you lose inches in all the right places, and you drop dress sizes.  And for most of us, that is important!  Of course, it also drops your Body Mass Index (BMI), which is proven to lower your chances of heart disease and other life threatening conditions.  You will look better and you will be healthier, what is not to like?

These are actual weight loss solutions—not quickie diet fads or crazy infomercial promises.  Incorporating resistance training is a lifestyle change.  If you already workout, doing cardio daily, adding weight training is your next step.  You can use the free weights at your gym, the circuit training machines (like Nautilus), or purchase dumbbells and/or barbells for your home.  Just make sure you purchase the weights you will need down the road, too, not just the amount you can lift today.

The idea behind weight training is to progress.  If you can lift ten pounds twelve times, you need to increase to, say, a twelve pound weight the next time you do that exercise.  And this should continue to happen. Once you have mastered a weight, keep increasing.  Muscles will get used to the weight after a while, and your results will become static—you plateau.  You must keep challenging your body to get the results you want…and to keep increasing that muscle mass and metabolism.

If you decide to lift at home, the best weight loss DVDs to purchase, that feature resistance training should be ones that challenge you, not the ones you can do easily. Cathe Friedrich (cathe.com) has many choices that will challenge even the advanced lifter (men or women)—because you can use the weight that will work your muscles hardest, not just the one she is using.  There are resistance DVD programs for lower body, upper, or total body.  The newest addition to her website is the STS Series—Shock the System. This three month series offers you a different DVD for every workout, changing up your workout on an almost daily basis.  This is essential when building muscle.  You never want to get too used to your program.  If STS is too expensive or too intense for you, you will find single DVDs on her website that work you hard and give you the results you are looking for. 

Check them out, and happy lifting!