Health Tip #17 – You Must Weight Train

Weight training or strength training is essential for weight loss—especially for the trickier fat around the butt and thighs. Many women shy away from weight training because they assume they’ll turn into those big bulky body builders.

But this is not the case. Getting that bulky actually takes a lot of work and conscious effort to pack on mass. Regular weight training will not turn you into a gigantic body builder. What it will do is tone, shape, and firm all that flab and sag you are dealing with.

Weight or strength training works by accomplishing three things.

First, it burns calories. It doesn’t burn as many calories as cardio does but its long term calorie-burning effects are amazing. Weight training kick starts your metabolism. After a workout, your metabolism will stay elevated for 16 hours.

So if you do your weight training in the morning, you’ll burn more calories during the rest of the day.

Secondly, weight-training builds up muscle mass. No, it doesn’t bulk you up. It will only do that if you adopt a very rigorous diet and exercise regimen that is designed for bulking up.

But it will add just enough muscle to give you that shapely, firm figure you have been dreaming of.

Finally, that added muscle mass will help you lose even more weight!

This is because muscles are more “expensive” than fat. That is to say, they require more calories just to maintain them than fat does.

Fat can be stored without much effort but your body constantly uses up energy to deliver nutrients to your muscles and to make constant minor repairs and modifications.

So, you don’t have to focus exclusively on weight training, but do make sure it is a part of your workout plan. You can alternative between weight training and cardio, for example.

You can also combine both into a single workout session by spending the first half doing cardio and the second half doing weight training.