If you asked someone a good way to lose fat, I can almost guarantee that “lifting weights” will NOT be the answer you get. But, could you actually be doing yourself a disservice by not putting enough focus into resistance training?
Amongst those on a weight loss journey, the vast majority will agree they want to lose fat. Fat loss is commonly associated with burning calories and thus is also commonly assumed to lose fat you must burn burn burn ALL the calories!!
It seems to be all about calories, burn as many as you can, as quickly as you can, and make sure you’re eating less than you’re burning and you will lose weight (which also translates into “lose fat” for most people). But is this really what works? Does it matter how those calories are burned?
Your body is an incredible machine that will do anything to maintain homeostasis, or keep you where you're at. It can do crazy things including shutting down cellular functions in an effort to conserve energy when too much energy is being expended and not enough energy is coming in to replace it. You can read more about this here. In this article we go over a study done that actually shows caloric burn taper off during periods of extended activity which demonstrates the body’s incredible ability to protect itself!
This, on it’s own, demonstrates that you don’t need long grueling high intensity training sessions for purely fat or weight loss, it isn’t very effective anyway! More isn’t always better!!
There’s this fancy term you’ve likely heard tossed around known as BMR or basal metabolic rate. This number tells you how many calories you burn at rest, so if all you did was merely exist and breathe for a day, you’d burn this many calories. The more muscle mass you have, the higher your BMR will be. Why is this? Muscle tissue is metabolically more active.
Okay.. BMR.. why are we discussing this? Your BMR is responsible for a whopping 60-75% of your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE (another fancy term you may have heard of). In comparison, your EAT or exercise activity thermogenesis is a measly 5%.. Whomp whomp!!
So, you can't change this, you can't keep working out harder and longer and even harder and even longer, and you can't eat less and less and less.. so what can you do?
Set your body up to work FOR you.. if your BMR accounts for the highest percentage of energy expenditure, and muscle mass will increase this more than fat mass....
Increase your muscle mass!!!
PSSSST... You see that percentage above that says NEAT? That's your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. That's right! Your fidgeting, and standing vs sitting and taking the stairs vs elevator and parking 5 extra spots further from the entrance... this stuff accounts for MORE of your TDEE than your intentional exercise!! Check out this article for more on NEAT!
Alright so more muscle.. Lifting weights shouldn't be looked at as intimidating or daunting! Just as you don’t need to do hours and hours of cardio if your primary goal is fat loss (as opposed to sports specific conditioning) you don’t need to lift super heavy and crush yourself in the gym (as opposed to, of course, sports specific training.) If you typically spend more time in the cardio section at the gym, begin to venture over and start adding in a little more resistance training to your routine and see what happens!
In addition to fat loss, resistance training can also positively impact many other health factors.
References
Winett, Richard A., and Ralph N. Carpinelli. “Potential Health-Related Benefits of Resistance Training.” Preventive Medicine, Academic Press, 25 May 2002, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743501909090.
*The resources and links listed are only suggested as sources for further exploration. They do not necessarily imply endorsement.
**Photos may be taken from Google.
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