After the age of 35, people lose as much as 5% to 7% of their muscle mass every decade. For people who live a sedentary life, with little physical activity, their muscle mass loss is even greater. That means by 50 many people have 10-15% less muscle mass. During that time, they probably have added 10-15 pounds in body fat. To reverse that trend, you need to start adding muscle to your body. Lifting weights is one great way to help you do that.
Lifting weights does burn a small amount of calories directly (approximately 400 calories per hour) which does help you burn some body fat. However, the main way that weightlifting helps reduce your overall body fat levels is that it increases your muscle mass. A pound of muscle burns around six calories per day while a pound of fat burns just two calories per day. This means muscles cells are three times more effective at burning calories than fat cells and by increasing your muscle mass through weightlifting, you can give your fat loss efforts a significant boost over time.
4 Simple Steps for Incorporating Weightlifting into Your Lifestyle
Now that you know how lifting weights supports your fat loss efforts, you need to make sure that you’re lifting weights regularly as part of your lifestyle. The good news is this isn’t a difficult task and by following the four simple steps below you’ll be well on your way to blasting away the fat with weights:
1) Get Access to Some Weights: Before you can start weightlifting, you need to ensure you have access to some weights. The easiest way to do this is by joining a gym which will have all shapes and sizes of barbells, benches, dumbbells, kettle bells and weight machines available for you to use. However, if you’re not a fan of gyms and you have enough space in your home, buying a bench and some basic free weights or an at-home multi-gym are two other viable options.
2) Create A Weightlifting Schedule: Once you have access to the weights, you then need to create a realistic weightlifting schedule that you can stick to. This schedule needs to include exercises that target the following seven areas of your body across the week; chest, triceps, upper back, biceps, shoulders, core and legs. The exact schedule will depend on your lifestyle and the time you have available but most people aim for between two and four weightlifting sessions each week and keep each session between 30 minutes and an hour in length.
3) Track Your Progress: After you’ve got access to some weights and put together a weightlifting schedule that works for you, the next step is to track your progress by writing down the amount of weight you’re lifting and the number of sets and reps you’re completing each week. You can either do this using a pen and pad or if you want a more portable solution, you can download a smartphone app that allows you to track your progress and stores the results digitally.
4) Review Your Progress & Improve: The final stage of successfully incorporating weightlifting into your lifestyle is to review your progress and use this as a platform to improve. Ideally, you should be aiming to increase the amount of weight you’re lifting or the number of reps you complete for each exercise every week. By doing this you’ll constantly get stronger, increase your muscle mass and burn more fat as a result.
Summary
If you’re not currently lifting weights as part of your fat loss regime, I hope this post has convinced you to do so. Not only will lifting weights help burn body fat but it will also enhance your strength, core stability and more. So if you’re currently doing only cardio, re-work your fitness regime today, incorporate some weightlifting and give your fat loss efforts a boost.