Weight training is a component of weight loss plans that people often overlook. It's common knowledge that you need regular aerobic exercise to burn calories, as well as a healthy diet, if you want to reach your fitness goals. However, weight training can help you develop a lean body in ways that neither diet nor aerobic exercise can because it directly changes your body's muscle-to-fat ratio. Combine nutritious meals with aerobics and weight training for the best results.
Calories
Weight training is considered intense physical activity as long as you put vigorous effort into it. An hour of weightlifting will burn about 440 calories, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although this isn't as many calories as you would burn running or participating in an aerobics class, it's just as many as you would burn playing competitive basketball. World-class weightlifters must eat thousands of calories a day to replace the energy they burn lifting weights, according to The Diet Channel.
Metabolism
As you age, your body loses muscle mass. If you do nothing to replace this mass, your percentage of body fat will increase, according to MayoClinic.com. Weight training increases your body's overall muscle mass. Since muscle burns more calories than fat, weight training can increase your body's resting metabolism--the amount of calories your body burns to keep your heart beating and maintain such metabolic functions as breathing. Adding muscle mass helps you burn more calories even when you're not working out, which is a benefit you can't get from aerobic exercise.
Body Fat Percentage
Body mass index, or BMI, is a common method for determining whether a person is overweight. Your BMI is a two-digit number based on the proportion of your weight to your height, sometimes adjusted for your body frame. However, this method ignores the effects of weight training. For instance, an accomplished bodybuilder with huge muscles might be classified as obese using BMI, even though his body fat percentage is lower than that of people classified as healthy. By increasing your muscle mass, weight training lowers your body fat percentage even if your body weight stays the same--or even increases slightly--to accommodate your new muscle mass.
Regimen
Train with weights two or three times a week for at least 20 to 30 minutes, advises MayoClinic.com. Train with several different exercises, and use a weight that you can lift for eight to 12 repetitions using a smooth lifting motion. When you can lift a given weight for 12 reps, add weight during your next workout. Rest at least one full day between workouts to give your body time to rebuild your muscles.
Misconceptions
Two damaging myths surround weight training. One myth is that you'll bulk up and become huge if you lift weights--this misconception often discourages women from weight training. In fact, you would need a very specific training regimen and just the right genes to look like the bodybuilders featured in magazines. Another myth is that you can localize fat loss by targeting a particular area of the body--lose weight around the midsection by doing weighted sit-ups, for example. If you want to lose stomach fat, you must lose weight throughout your body. This myth encourages weightlifters to quit when their results fail to match their expectations. The truth is your body determines where you lose weight first, no matter what type of weight training exercise you perform.
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