lifting weights to burn fat

If you are going to do only one form of exercise to burn fat it should be lifting weights . Weight lifting not only can burn more calories then cardio via post exercise metabolic debt ( what happens after you stop working out ) but it ensures the weight you lose is fat and not muscle. In an American college of nutrition study in 99 , they took 2 groups of people . One group did 3 days of weight lifting a week and one group did 4 hours of aerobic cardio a week . The both were under the same very strict diet . Both groups lost the same amount of weight ( 15% of their body weight so about 27 lbs for a 1800 lbs person) but the weightlifting group lost no muscle and had a raised metabolism . Where as part of the aerobic groups weight loss was muscle, so the weight lifting group lost more fat and saved muscle.
Now that you see the importance of this whole crazy resistance training thing i'll leave some tips

- use full body movements over single joint movements , a squat with a press will have a much larger effect on your body then a arm curl will . In general the more muscle you use at once the bigger difference it will make.

- If your goal is fat loss , keep your rest periods short

- Balance , if you do a 5 sets of pushing exercises you should do at least 5 sets of pulling exercises


If you want to learn more about setting up your work outs to spur fat loss
feel free to drop me an email and we can set up a free work out
richard
fitnessparamount@hotmail.com

part 1 dieting for fat loss

I am by no means a RD (registered dietician)but as a trainer I know half the battle of fat loss is diet . Today I could say eat your veggies, fruits and lean meats but you already know that. I know , you already know how to eat right and most likely you try but feel like you just don't have the time to. This is the number one thing I hear from my clients and sometimes how i feel myself. So I want to offer you the best piece of diet advice I know, Preparation is paramount. If the night before you knew what you would eat at each meal , I bet you would eat 10 times better then if you went through the day winging it. Honestly right now think to your self, what you will eat tomorrow (assuming you care about how you look this summer ) ......Ok so at any point did you say I think I will have a double whooper tomorrow , not so much .
If the night before you take 5 mins and prep your food for tomorrow or plan out when and what you will eat , you'll be eating better then 95% of America.

The Secret of looking good naked

i am going to write a series of blog posts covering what needs to be done to go from feeling like you don't want to go to the beach this summer to feeling great in your bathing suit .

This first post will cover the pieces to the puzzle and we'll put them together with each post after . First off i want to say there are many ways to get to the goal of looking lean for the summer , I write about the methods I use because they have worked the best for me and my clients .

There are just 4 pieces to the puzzle of looking lean ; diet , lifting weights , cardio and hard work.
i'll just go a little bit into each today.

Diet - you can't out train a bad diet , even if your work out burned a ridiculous amount of calories , one trip to micky d's for a burger , fry and large cola would wash that work out right down the drain . You need healthy calories to maintain that engine that is your body and fuel the fire that is our metabolism.

lifting weights - many people looking to burn fat seem to want to skip this step, I think its because most people don't realize what happens in our bodies after we work out with weights. When doing anaerobic exercise (weight training , sprinting and other things too hard to do for 10 mins straight with out resting) our bodies metabolism increase for hours later , one study shows after weight training your metabolism will stay elevated for 36 hours. Think about that one work out with weights increase your resting metabolism for a day in a half , you'll be burning more fat while you sleep !

Cardio-I think everyone reading this realizes movement burns calories , making us lose fat but i do want to mention that as someone who works out in a regular gym and sees others work out , too many people are just going through the motions.

Hard work - i am starting off this section where i ended with the cardio section , theres a saying "if you do what you have always done you will get what you alway got"
If over 3 months you do the same work out and see no improvement , then why continue to work like that . For most people , its the fact they are not willing to push themselves .
A good example i saw yesterday was someone on their cell phone well doing a weight training exercise , if you can carry on a cell conversation with one hand well you work out , odds are you are not working out hard enough

if you have any questions feel free to email me at fitnessparamount@hotmail.com
my next post will dive more into my feelings on dieting to get in shape for summer

get ready for summer now !

You most likely think i am nuts for saying that but as a trainer it's my job , and the fact is we have about 4 months until summer. In 4 months you could safely lose 32 lbs .
take a second and think about how much better you would feel this summer if you were 32 lbs (or whatever your goal is ) this summer .
i started my fat burning work outs and dieting
have you ?
get to to work people !
-Richard