There is a huge misconception that you shouldn’t lift weights when going through a weight loss phase. Not only is it believed to stunt your results, but it’s actually thought to be counterproductive. This couldn’t be further from the truth. And here’s why: Fat loss.
Strength training, or weightlifting, builds up lean muscle, increases your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), and increases the speed of your metabolism. While cardiovascular exercise is a better candidate for general caloric expenditure during the workout – keyword ‘during’, strength training is more effective at burning total calories and fat overall.
By increasing muscle mass, you increase your BMR, which also means that you would burn more calories at rest throughout the day, and therefore increasing your overall caloric deficit, which is necessary for weight loss. This is also known as excess post—exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC.
With an aerobic, or cardiovascular, workout, you would be losing weight. But you would also be losing a proportionate amount of muscle. Additionally, it can also slow your metabolism rather than speeding it up, which is a detriment if you’re trying to lose weight.
The optimal weight/fat loss plan involves high intensity exercises paired with weight-bearing strength training in conjunction with aerobic activity. And of course, your nutrition should not be ignored because as love to say at Beasts Train Mean, “exercise dictates how strong you look while your nutrition dictates how lean you look.”
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to show some love to those weights!