You are frustrated because you are going to the gym and not seeing the results that you want. You may feel a little better and have some more energy but you are so focused on the scale and you don’t see it moving.
The next logical step would be to do more cardio right?
Wrong! That is not the answer!
The other day a client was talking about trying to lose some more weight and they thought they should do more cardio. It makes sense that you would think that because that is what we hear all the time. I remember back in high school hearing “cardio for weight loss and lift weights to get big”. The only problem is the science of weight loss is not that simple and you can not make bold statements like that.
Today I want to outline exactly why lifting weights is the best way for you to lose weight.
Before I get started I want to be clear that in order to see true weight loss your nutrition must be dialed in. For the purpose of this blog, we are going to imagine someone has their nutrition dialed in and now they are focusing on exercising.
To lose weight we must be in a caloric deficit, meaning we must burn more calories than we take in. Now there a ton of different factors that go into that equation and it is nearly impossible to know exactly how many calories you are consuming or burning.
One of the factors that go into the equation of how many calories we burn is something called our Resting Metabolic Rate or RMR, essentially that means how many calories we are burning at rest.
Our RMR accounts for about 60-75 percent of our total calories burned each day, you don’t need to remember that number but just know it is a big part.
If we want to burn more calories during the day wouldn’t it be pretty convenient to have our bodies burn more calories while simply laying there?
Certain tissues require more energy to stay alive and active, those tissues include our muscles, bones, and other lean body mass.
The best way to increase our lean body mass is through strength training, we will increase our muscle mass, improve our body density and many other great benefits. If we are able to increase our lean body mass essentially we will burn more calories even when at rest.
One thing we constantly hear is that as we age our metabolism slows down and it becomes much harder to lose weight. While that is true it is still possible and your metabolism slows down much less than you would expect.
On average we generally lose about 2-4% of our RMR every decade, for example, let’s say at 50 years old our RMR is 1500, at 60 it might drop to about 1400.
There is nothing magical that happens every decade on your birthday though, it seems that this drop in RMR comes from lack of inactivity, loss of lean body mass, and lifestyle choices.
While we can’t stop the aging process completely we sure can slow it down and control it as best we can.
If you are looking to turn your body into a fat burning machine ditch the cardio and lift some weights.
With all of this being said I don’t want it to sound like I am bashing cardio, if you enjoy cardio and have time go for it, just make sure you are prioritizing strength training first.
What it also comes down to, just like everything else we talk about, is consistency. You won’t see a big benefit from lifting weights a few times here and there over the course of a few months.
Our rockstar client Nancy said it perfect “You will become a lot better guitar player practicing every day, than if you practice a few times a year.”
The same applies to all of your fitness and nutrition goals, consistency is KEY!
If you are unsure where to start in regards to strength training don’t worry that is what we are here for. We help superstars 50 and better feel comfortable in the gym, stay safe, and slow down the aging process all while having some fun along the way. If you are interested in learning more about how we can help send an email to
info@coreprinciples-sc.com
or give us a text/call @ 203-914-6396 and we would be happy to chat.
-Coach Pat
