One form of exercise, weight or resistance training, proves to be most effective for long-term weight loss
Weight lifting, also known as resistance training, helps us build strength, and also improves muscle size and can help counteract age-related muscle loss.
Recently weight lifting has become popular among those looking to lose weight.
Endurance exercises such as running and walking are indeed effective for reducing body fat. However, these exercises can simultaneously decrease muscle size, leading to weaker muscles and greater perceived weight loss, as muscle is more dense than fat.
But unlike endurance exercises, evidence shows resistance training not only has beneficial effects on reducing body fat, but it also increases muscle size and strength.
THE “AFTER-BURN EFFECT”
When you exercise, your muscles need more energy than they do when resting. This energy comes from your muscles’ ability to break down fat and carbohydrate (stored within the muscle, liver, and fat tissue) with the help of oxygen. So during exercise, you breathe faster and our heart works harder to pump more oxygen, fat, and carbohydrates to your exercising muscles.
Resistance training exercises should engage the largest muscle groups, use whole body exercises performed standing, and should involve two or more joints. All of these make the bodywork harder, thereby increasing the amount of muscle and therefore RMR. An effective resistance training program should combine intensity, volume (number of exercises and sets), and progression (increasing both as you get stronger). The intensity should be high enough that you feel challenged during your workout.
The most effective way of doing this is by using the repetition maximum method. For the purpose of fat loss, this should be performing between six and ten repetitions of an exercise with a resistance that results in fatigue, so that you cannot comfortably do another full repetition after the last one. Three to four sets, two or three times a week for each muscle group is recommended.
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