Why Should I Lift Weights When I Want To Lose Weight?

While you know exercise is good for you, you may not know the importance of building muscle through weight training. I hear on a daily basis people saying that if they don’t get the big cardio calorie burn they won’t lose weight .If your workouts only focus on aerobic exercise, you’re missing a key component of overall fitness and it will probably take you longer not only to get to your desired weight but also to maintain that weight afterwards. Gaining muscle mass offers plenty of benefits for everyone. Weight training increases lean muscle mass, which helps your body burn calories more efficiently

Weight Control

As far as metabolism goes, muscle mass is the “engine” of the calorie-burning machine. As you weight train and increase your muscle mass, you build a bigger, more efficient engine that burns more calories and helps you lose weight. In fact the leaner you are and the more toned that your muscles are the more calories you’ll burn when you rest. For every pound of muscle you gain, your body uses about 50 extra calories a day and this increased metabolism makes it easier to maintain your ideal weight.

Beat the aging process

People naturally lose about 10 percent of their muscle by age 50, this loss of muscle means a slowing down of your metabolism and a slowing down naturally of your calorie burning engine, most of us still eat the same at this age even though our bodies now can’t burn the calories off like we used to in our younger years and so the inevitable middle age spread creeps up on us. Suddenly our waists expand little by little as our fat stores increase. Weight training can turn back the clock on your metabolism, it is never too late to increase your lean muscle mass and rev up your engine again. Muscle strength

According to the American College of Sports Medicine by the time you reach your 60s

and 70s, your muscle strength will decrease by about 15 percent per decade — and about 30 percent thereafter. However, older adults who perform adequate strength and resistance training can increase their strength as much as threefold within two to three months. Increasing your strength will help you lead a more active lifestyle.

Bone Health

Weight training helps develop strong bones. By stressing your bones, weight training can increase bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

So what’s stopping you?