After some 20 years as a highly respected aerobic fitness instructor and health promoter--one who rarely uses the phrase "lose weight"--Kathy Smith is shifting her priorities. "I would never want to choose, but if I could only do one form of training from now on, I'd give up cardio and focus on weight training." A strong statement, indeed! The title of this, her fourth book, suggests Smith's goal is to help exercisers lose weight. But as readers work through the engrossing chapters on physiology, exercise basics, and making the shift from aerobics to weight lifting, Smith says they'll note that weight loss is simply a pleasant by-product of the true benefits generated by this straightforward, nonthreatening weight-lifting program. Smith believes in the power of consistent, progressive exercise with free weights and weight-lifting machines to counteract the muscle loss and slower metabolism that naturally come with age and typically cause the pounds to pile on. Her 12-week "mini commitment" eases newcomers into a comprehensive program of weight lifting and sensible eating, and includes weekly checklists for tracking workouts and meals. Large photos accompany clearly written descriptions of more than 60 stretches and exercises, nicely organized by muscle group (chest, back, abdominals, and so on). Just pick a gym or a room at home, and Smith will provide the routine. Advocates of her popular fitness videos (more than two dozen to date) will appreciate Smith's natural warmth, encouragement, and intelligence throughout this motivational book.
Weight Training for Weight Loss
Working out with weights when trying to lose body fat has numerous important benefits.
First an intense weight training session burns calories during the actual workout.
Second, an extremely important benefit is that intense weight training elevates your metabolism for up to 39 hours after your actual workout. In other words, because of the intense weight workout, your metabolism has been stimulated to burn more calories while you are doing nothing.
Carbohydrates power intense weight training sessions. The more intense the session, the more you deplete your carbohydrate stores and the more fat is burned during the recovery phase, i.e. after the workout.
In other words, as the intensity of the training increases, there is a proportionate increase in fat burning after the workout.
One study showed that 15 exercise sessions per month (50 minute sessions) could lead to an extra 2 plus pounds per month of fat loss, strictly from the elevated metabolism and extra calories burned – while doing nothing! That is an extra 26 pounds plus, of fat burned per year.
Another extremely important aspect of fat loss that occurs from training with weights is adding lean muscle to your body. Lean muscle is ‘metabolically active’, i.e. muscle burns calories even while doing nothing. So, the more lean muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolism and the more calories you burn every day while doing nothing.
Studies have estimated that for each pound of muscle that you add to your body, you burn another 35-50 calories per day while doing nothing. So, and extra 10 pounds of muscle will burn approximately 350-500 calories a day, or an extra pound of fat every 7-10 days, without making any other changes.
This is essential to taking off the fat and keeping it off. You see, when you add muscle to your body, you greatly increase the number of calories you burn each day. So, once you achieve your fat loss goals you can start eating more food without putting the fat back on, as long as you have built muscle!
On the flip side, if you don’t train with weights while dieting and losing weight, two very bad things might occur. First, a lot of the weight you lose might be muscle. And this causes number two, which is that your metabolism gets slower, causing progress to eventually grind to a halt leading to gaining all the weight back and more.
As you can see, training with weights is an extremely powerful and necessary component of any successful weight loss programme.
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