Marcio Ribeiro

Strength training isn’t just for muscle men. It is the best way to help your body turn into a weight loss machine. That may not initially make much sense to you as muscle is very heavy (it is heavier than fat.) But each extra pound of muscle on your body will another 50 calories per day, even when you’re doing absolutely nothing. Imagine yourself with 10 extra pounds of muscle. That muscle will burn an extra 500 calories a day which will certainly turn your body into a fat burning machine. Think about how much easier it will be to burn off extra calories when your using so many more calories a day?

I recommend this strength training strategy not just to men but also to women. Too many women think that strength training is just for men. And even when women do lift weights they usually do it in a “girlie” way. Instead of lifting heavy weights for muscle they lift a small amount of weight a lot of times for this mythological thing people call “toning.”

“Toning” does not actually exist. It’s a myth. Muscle can only get bigger or smaller. It cannot get “toned.” That doesn’t actually mean anything. The top way to grow your muscle (which is the purpose of strength training) is to lift heavy weights. Why? Because the body responds to these heavy weights by growing more muscle. Lifting light weights many times is actually an awful way to go about strength training.

Yes ladies, I’m telling you that you should train like a real man. You should lift heavy weights for a small amount of reps. In fact I recommend only doing one set of about 8 reps for each muscle area. How much weight should you lift? As much as you can lift without injuring yourself! The more weight you lift the more it will stress your body and the more likely your body will respond by growing new muscle.

That new muscle is the key to your fat burning power, particularly in the long run. Most diets fail because they do nothing to speed up your metabolism. In fact most diets actually slow down your metabolism with restricted calorie intake. But by adding new muscle to your body you are actually speeding up your metabolism in a way that will make it easier to burn off fat and to keep it off! You know how everyone says that it is so difficult to maintain fat loss? That’s because most people who lose weight starve it off but don’t do anything to really change their bodies at an intrinsic level. When you add muscle to your body you are becoming fit in a much more permanent way then you are by starving fat off your body.

What about that common fear among women that they will become “too muscular.” This is a mostly nonsensical fear. It takes a lot of weight lifting to get to the stage of being muscular in a manly way for a woman. And if you do see yourself beginning to develop more muscles than you would like (as unlikely as that is) you can always begin to slow down or stop your strength training. If you get to that point then you are likely set with your muscle needs anyway. But again, these circumstances are unlikely to develop anyway. Do not let this irrational fear stop you from doing what you need to do to improve your health.

It is recommended that you choose an online diet program that includes a free strength training program. Probably the best example of that is The Day Off Diet which is includes an excellent strength training program (free of charge) with it’s diet program (which is also very effective.)

Marvin J Markus
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/weight-loss-with-strength-training-710452.html