I’ve got a friend who decided to lose some weight and started “working out.” After about 2 weeks, I asked him how it was going. “Not good,” he said. He went on to tell me that he had been going to the gym several times a week but that he just wasn’t seeing any weight loss. I asked what kind of workout he was doing and he said, “You know, the usual, lifting weights and stuff.”

Many people think that weight training — either with free weights or on weight machines — is going to help them lose weight. In fact, when you go into a typical gym, that’s all you see people doing. Weight training is great for toning muscle and for building strength but it’s not the best routine for weight loss.

To lose weight, you need a cardio routine, something that gets your heart up to around 60-70% of it’s maximum rate for at least 15 minutes. Keeping your rate at this level assures that the majority of calories that you burn will be from fat, not from muscle.

It’s counter intuitive but it’s true. Choosing a low impact cardio exercise like taking a brisk walk will actually burn more fat calories than trying to bench press your body weight.

Hiram

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