Weight Lifting and Weight Loss

My clients will sometimes ask, "Why do I have to lift weights if I want to lose weight?"

This is a common question, epsecially since people often associate lifting weights with "getting bigger", while the goal of weight loss is to "get smaller." Just about everyone knows the benefits of burning calories through aerobic exercise, but it sometimes takes clients a little while to warm up to the idea of strength training.

Strength training should be an important part of anyone's weight management program. By strength training (a.k.a. lifting weights) you'll be building muscle. Muscle is "metabolically active", meaning it burns calories even when you're not exercising. By improving your body composition (by losing fat and gaining muscle) you actually speed up your metabolism, turning your body into a more efficeint fat burning machine!