Most people understand that exercise can help you lose weight. The mechanics behind that, and what makes an exercise better or worse for weight lost, are less widely understood. Deadlifts, for example, are a power lift — a form of resistance exercise that focuses mostly on building muscles. However, even these exercises can contribute to your progress toward weight-loss goals.
Deadlift
The deadlift is a leg lift that also engages the muscles of the lower back, and — to a lesser extent — the arms and shoulders. To perform a deadlift, set a weighted barbell on the ground. Squat down to grip it, then stand upright. Finish the repetition by slowly lowering the weight back to the ground.
Losing Weight
Exercise helps you lose weight by burning calories. When you burn more calories through activity like exercise than you take in by eating, your body gets the excess energy needed by accessing calories it stored earlier as fat. When it uses those calories, it burns up the fat and you lose weight. The extent to which deadlifts will help you lose weight is directly related to the number of calories you can burn in a session of doing deadlifts.
Calories Burned
According to weight loss resource website NutriStrategy, a 155-lb. person can burn about 400 calories in a 60-minute session of vigorous bodybuilding like deadlifts. This is comparable to the calories you would burn in moderately paced bicycling or group aerobics. However, it's unreasonably difficult to do deadlifts for a full hour at a time. Most sessions of deadlifts last for less than 10 minutes and burn fewer than 100 calories.
Metabolic Boost
Powerlifting can contribute to weight loss by improving your body's metabolism. Dr. Walter Willett, author of "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy," reports that bodies with more muscle mass burn more calories in all activities — including working out, sleeping and watching television. Powerlifts like dead lift are effective exercises for improving your muscle mass, and can thus increase your personal metabolism.
Bottom Line
Between the calorie burn and the metabolic boost, doing deadlifts can contribute meaningfully to your weight-loss efforts. However, the contribution is small and can easily be outweighed by other lifestyle and diet decisions. Deadlifts are best considered as part of an overall weight loss plan, rather than the entire effort.
References
- "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy"; Dr. Walter Willett; 2004
- NutriStrategy: Calories Burned during Exercise
- "Brawn"; Stuart McRobert; 2006
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