I know studies come and go regarding the best way to train for weight loss. Recently the concept that weight training raises your resting metabolism has gone out of vogue, if I’m correct.
However, I believe it’s a settled matter that you lose more fat if both endurance training and resistance training are regular parts of your regimen. (one good cite). I have a problem with this though, because eventually I progress to lifting such heavy weights that I get dizzy and can’t complete the workout.
So, I guess 2 questions:
For fat loss, does this resistance exercise need to be progressive, or can you get the same benefit from working the same plateau? I guess it depends whether the actual fat burning comes from the energy expended during the workout, or due to energy consumed in the recovery/anabolic phase.
For weight training in general… do people generally stick with the same total number of sets and reps in a workout even when they progress to very heavy weights? I have to think that when I’ve progressed to a point where my squat set weighs more than I used to do in an entire workout, something has to change, but how? I can’t think it would be good to cut down from 8 exercises to only 3, I’d get all lopsided.
There is exactly one cause of or weight gain and that is consuming more calories than you burn. There are no fat starving people. You don’t need to work out to lose weight. Eat less. Working out only increases the number of calories you burn. The body at rest burns approximately 1200 calories per day. If you consume 2000 calories per day, you will need a DAILY cardio program that burns 800 calories. Running 8-minute miles burns approximately 400 calories per hour. Given this scenario, you’d have to run 15 miles EVERYDAY just to break even.
Never look at how overweight you are. Always look at how strong/healthy you are. Get yourself strong lungs, strong heart, and strong legs. If you can play 40-minutes of basketball or soccer without keeling over, you are strong. Plus, if you’re strong your self-esteem sky-rockets. You won’t care about how you look on the outside. Your confidence will be noticed more than your body shape.
The metabolism theory is true. However, that may only raise resting calorie rate to 1500 per day.
Most of the metabolic advantage due to weight training comes from extra muscle mass and the need for energy to recover from lifting. None of that happens during exercise, and if you stick at a plateau, your need to recover and adapt will diminish.
Three sets of ten reps is a good protocol for beginners and rehab patients, but there’s almost always a better protocol for anyone else.
OK, somebody was bound to do it, I’m glad we went ahead and got that out of our system. Yes, the calorie balance has to be right. However, different approaches can make a difference in how fast you lose weight and how much you have to go hungry. Please peruse through these studies and feel free to join us once you’ve educated yourself on these.