When it comes to losing weight, the fitness industry has convinced us that it’s all about doing cardio – running, spinning, dancing, jumping, or even HIIT workouts, whatever kind of activity you can think of that elevates your heart rate and makes you sweat like you’re in the middle of the desert.
While it’s true that cardio combined with a calorie deficit will lead to you losing weight, it’s definitely not the only way for that to happen, and you might be shocked to hear, but weightlifting can also play a vital role in not only losing fat but also gaining muscle.
In this short article, written in collaboration with our friends from Warm Body Cold Mind, we’re going to be talking about the best strength training you can do for fat loss. Keep in mind that the authors of this blog are professional trainers and athletes in weightlifting and other strength sports, so they’re advice has already been tried and tested on multiple occasions.
Now that we got the introductions out of the way let’s get started.
What’s the Best Weight Training for Weight Loss?
When it comes to losing weight, the most important part of your routine is the eating habits that you maintain. If you’re in a calorie deficit, you will keep seeing the number on the scale decrease, even if you’re inactive. With that said, one way to increase the caloric amount you can eat, while still maintaining a deficit is to workout. Now, aside from the already mentioned popular forms of cardio, weight training should also be a vital part of your exercise regime. That’s because you will want to gain muscles, along with losing fat, in order to have a body that is strong and athletic instead of simply a thin frame.
Regarding strength training for people who want to lose weight, the most important thing is to do full-body workouts – ones that target all your main muscle groups and not just your glutes and your abs. It’s also crucial to incorporate compound exercises, as they help you build strength and athleticism, which is crucial for your further training after you’ve reached your goal weight.
Some of the recommended movements include:
- Back and front squats
- Hip thrust
- Assisted pull-up
- Bent-over-row
- Bench press
- Overhead press
- Deadlifts
- Planks
- Push-ups
These are what we call the basis of strength training, and by improving in each one, you will be able to develop muscle mass and strength, which in the end will help you feel and look better. The most important thing about having an effective strength training workout is spacing your breaks correctly – you want to make sure you use proper work-to-rest ratios so that you’re walking the fine line between gassing yourself out and pushing yourself. The general recommendation is to go for 4 sets of 10-12 reps of each movement you choose for the workout, with around 90 seconds of rest between each set. However, if your endurance level is higher, you can lower the rest time to 60 seconds.
Why Weight Training Works for Weight Loss
Weight training helps you build strength and muscle mass, which aids fat loss because muscle is more metabolically active than fat tissue. Essentially, that means the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic resting rate becomes, so you burn more calories doing everyday activities than you did before. Studies claim that you burn around 10 calories per pound of muscle mass, which is 4-5 calories more compared to fat. No, when you make the calculations and say you have 50 pounds of muscle in your body, that means it requires 500 calories to sustain them while needing only 250 (roughly) to sustain the fat.
In Conclusion
The key thought to keep in mind while on your weight loss journey is to be patient. Good, long-lasting results take time, and you can’t really rush to have the physique you dreamed of. What’s vital is to remain consistent and to constantly aim to improve while still giving yourself room to make lifestyle and diet changes when needed.
It’s important to monitor the way your body changes and adapts throughout the process – most often, you will find that exercises that were challenging a month ago are now completely easy and doable, so you have to either make them more challenging (by adding weight or doing a different variation) or you have to swap them for a new movement that’s going to require your body to adapt.
Along with exercise, other lifestyle factors such as your diet, hydration, and sleep play a vital role in helping you achieve your set goals. That’s why you have to ensure you’re eating a high-protein, healthy diet, drinking 2 or more liters of water per day, and getting adequate sleep, which is typically around 7 to 9 hours for adults.