Because Fitness is YOURS to Claim Whenever You Want

Resistance Training to Lose Body Fat

Weight Training Workouts and Diet Plan that Work

Weight Training Workouts and Diet Plan that Work

One great way to lose body fat is to weight train. Weight training (or resistance training), is the quickest way to lose weight, because it speeds up your resting metabolism, so you burn more calories at rest. Why is this important? A pound of fat burns only two calories at rest, a pound of muscles burns six. Only a four calorie difference you say? Yes, but you want your body working for you all the time, not just when you are exercising.

If you build, say, an extra ten pounds of muscle, you will burn an extra 40 calories an hour…so, an extra 960 calories a day, and an extra 6,720 calories a week. You need to burn 3,500 calories to lose a pound…so…if you are eating right and exercising, resistance training is going to be the best exercise to lose weight.

Which exercises in particular at the best for fast weight loss? Let us look at a variety of upper and lower body exercises and point out their benefits.

For the upper body, you need to hit all the major muscle groups. An unbalanced body will look odd and may result in pain in the underdeveloped muscles. For example, you must work chest and back, biceps and triceps. They are opposing muscle groups, and need to be worked evenly to promote balance. For chest, the granddaddy of all exercises is the bench press. Another really great chest exercise is the butterfly.

For the back, make sure to do a variety, as there are many muscles in your back, and the back is very important to your daily life. The back is part of the core, and as the term implies, it is the core of all movements. Rows, using a barbell or dumbbells are an essential back workout, as are dead lifts. Dead lifts work not only your lower back but also your hamstrings, quads, and abs.

Tricep and bicep work is probably self-explanatory. Bicep curls are something that everyone knows, but not everyone knows that the biceps work as helper muscles in triceps exercises. Tricep dips on a chair or bench are great for shaping the muscle, as are tricep kickbacks. Make sure to use a lower weight on kickbacks, as a heavier weight is unnecessary and will only compromise your form. To build tricep muscles, overhead presses and lying triceps extensions will do the trick.

Lower body exercises can be done two to three times a week, as the lower body contains the larger muscles. These muscles will burn more calories and get the heart rate up, so you will get a little cardio benefit as well when you work these muscles – another way to lose body fat. One of the best exercises to tone up in the lower half is the squat. Everyone has to do squats if they want to work the legs. Next in line are plie squats and lunges. Calf raises round out the lower half, and are great definers.

Put together, all these exercises will provide anyone with an excellent full body workout. Remember to alternate upper and lower body days, giving muscles groups at least one day of rest between workouts. Abdominals can be worked every day, or every other day, but no more than 15 to 20 minutes per day. Done correctly, these exercises will not only help you to burn excess body fat, but give you a toned, beautiful body as well.

August 3, 2010 | Filed Under Lose Weight, Muscle Building 

Tagged With , , , ,

comments

One Response to “Resistance Training to Lose Body Fat”

  1. John on August 17th, 2010

    An excellent way to help in fat loss while weight training is to super hydrate with ice cold water. This process will help burn fat in that drinking a gallon of water within a 14 hour period.

    Since it takes energy to bring the ice cold water to core temperature as it is consumed , calories will be burned off in this process. 1 gallon of ice water requires 123 calories of heat energy to warm it to core body temp.

    Also since the liver’s main function is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy, it could be very well minimized if the kidney function is hampered by dehydration calling on the liver to flush out the stored fat needed to metabolize into this energy.

Leave a Reply