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Cardio VS. Resistance Training…

Cardio Vs. Resistance Training

Do you seriously want to know how to lose fat fast? It involves adding some resistance training to your exercise routine, at least twice a week. If you are willing to put in the extra effort you can lose considerably more weight a lot faster by adding resistance training to your weight loss program. There are several reasons for this. Lifting weights will help to burn body fat quicker than aerobic exercise which is something that a lot of people don’t understand. Now I am not saying you should not do cardio or aerobic exercise, just that you should not do them exclusively. Letís take a look at why resistance training helps you lose weight and fat fast.

Aerobic exercise for an hour or so will burn more calories than lifting weights for the same hour however weightlifting gives additional benefits after that hour that aerobic exercise doesn’t. The reasons for this are simple and effective. After resistance training your muscles are damaged and need to rebuild or repair themselves. This process begins within 24 hours after the exercise that damaged the muscles and continues for approximately 3-4 days (depending on a variety of personal factors). During this rebuilding or repair process your muscles continue to burn even more calories so you are getting the benefit of the calories that are expended during the exercise itself, combined with the calories that are expended as the muscles are rebuilding and repairing themselves. This 4-5 day cycle cannot be rushed, and exercising the same muscle groups with the same exercises every other day (as many people do) actually retards your ability to rebuild your muscle and burn calories. This is one of the major factors in people hitting a weight loss plateau. It is also the theory behind the famous ìmuscle confusionî principle used in the P90X programs that are all the rage right now.

It is extremely important during this rebuilding process that you continue to feed your body the essential nutrients it needs to rebuild these muscles. That is why almost every world class athlete will take supplements during their training and why it is a good idea for you to consider them in some form for your training as well. The best diet progam that I use and recommend helps you by providing menus, meal plans, recipes and shopping lists for your use in making sure your body gets the nutrients it needs to burn fat and support your weight loss goals.  You can check it out by clicking here.

There is also another benefit that is obtained by weightlifting and resistance exercise and that is the fact that you will be building up muscle mass. Now donít get concerned thinking you are going to look like a female version of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not only is this unlikely, without the use of steroids it is impossible particularly for a woman. Muscle is the most efficient means of burning fat and by building up your muscle mass you are creating a fat-burning machine that will help to use up any excess calories and body fat throughout the day. This is why people who supplement their weight loss programs with suitable resistance training will reduce fat and get considerably better results in less time.

You also get the additional benefits of becoming more fit, improving your heart health and your bones strength (particularly important as we age as women) and it also has a positive effect on your mental attitude. To some people just feeling better about themselves can be a huge key in solving why they overeat in the first place. You don’t have to lift excessive weights for this to work either. Even light resistance training will be an added benefit to your weight-loss program. Using your own body weight, you can start in your own home with some beginner exercises that will help you tremendously as you start your journey to lose weight fast and loose fat forever!

  1. August 18th, 2009 at 04:37 | #1

    Over-training can drastically decrease the levels of antibodies and lymphocytes in your body, making you much more susceptible to illness. Simply put, this means that if you are in a state of over-training, you are much more likely to get sick. Since you will have to skip workouts while you are sick, your muscle building progress will slow considerably

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