Why Do You Need Resistance Training To Increase Fat Loss?
Resistance training is important because of its role in building and maintaining muscle. Obviously muscle is important for the same reasons it is for women as it is for men.
We need strong, thick muscles to do everything from getting out of chair, to climbing a flight of stairs, to preventing falls, as well as to jog around the block.
Most importantly for anyone looking to lose weight, more muscle means more calories burned when you’re at rest. Every pound of muscle put on, the body burns an additional 25 to 50 calories per day.
With muscle, you truly will lose it if you don’t use it. Once your muscle is lost, do you weigh less? No. The five pounds of muscle we lose is typically replaced with five pounds of fat.
This fat makes us bigger all around because a pound of fat takes up 18 percent more room on our frame than a pound of muscle.
If aging progresses unchecked, we lose 10 percent of our muscle mass between the ages of 25 and 50, and 45 percent more between ages 50 and 80. And, to stave off muscle decline, you must do strength training exercise. There are also many other benefits to resistance training as part of your exercise regimen.
Not only does it make you look great but it keeps your bones strong, lowers your blood pressure, and may reduce the risk of stroke.
In addition, it burns more calories during activities of daily living than fat.
Maintaining and building muscle is good for your metabolism, makes you strong, prevents falling, prevents injury, and lifts your mood.
Resistance training has other benefits as well. It is an important part of weight management as we age.
It is associated with increased energy requirements for rest, which means that you simply use more energy just to live if you have more muscle.
How many more calories? Research in the Netherlands documented a nine percent greater calorie burn with resistance training.
Even without diet changes, this will translate into lost pounds. A big bonus of strength training is also more effective insulin sensitivity for people with diabetes.
The more muscle you have, the better your body responds to the insulin you take or make by lowering your blood sugar.
A true weekly weight program can decrease insulin levels by 25 percent after a high- carbohydrate meal.
So where do you start?
My personal trainer recommends a 5- to 15-minute warm-up of any kind of cardiovascular activity, to get the muscles prepared and increase the body’s core temperature.
After that, he recommends two to three sets of series of exercises, doing 10 to 20 reps on each exercise. And he said, generally, women should do resistance training two times a week, depending on their specific goals.
He said to focus on the larger muscle groups like the chest, the back and the legs, which have the most potential for muscle growth. The more muscle you can build, the more calories you will burn when you’re at rest.
Want to know more about resistance training? Then, post your question below.
Yours truly for great health, mind and body,
Michelle, natural health advocate
April 13 2010 10:27 pm | Fitness
April 13th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
[...] Why Do You Need Resistance Training To Increase Fat Loss? | Natural Health Solutions [...]
April 14th, 2010 at 2:25 am
[...] the rest here: Why Do You Need Resistance Training To Increase Fat Loss … Leave a [...]
April 14th, 2010 at 3:23 am
[...] Why Do You Need Resistance Training To Increase Fat Loss? | Natural Health Solutions [...]
April 17th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
[...] Why Do You Need Resistance Training To Increase Fat Loss? | Natural Health Solutions [...]