Of all the exercises for losing weight you can choose from…

• Walking
• Jogging
• Cycling
• Swimming
• The Elliptical Machine
• Aerobics Class
• Spinning

…The one that can help you lose weight the fastest may surprise you. Are you ready? It’s…

WEIGHT TRAINING!

That’s right. A growing body of proof shows that weight training or strength training can help you ditch that belly fat faster than doing just cardio exercise alone or by dieting without exercise.

THE PROOF

In 1999 a group of researchers set out to explore the effects of resistance vs. aerobic training combined with an 800 calorie liquid diet on lean body mass and resting metabolic rate.

Two groups of ten individuals were placed on very low-calorie diets consisting of 800 calories per day. One group performed 1 hour of cardio exercise, 4 times a week by walking, biking or stair climbing. The other group performed 3 strength training workouts a week, consisting of 10 stations. During each workout they completed two sets of 8-15 repetitions, increasing to 4 sets of 8-15 by the end of 12 weeks.

In the end, the cardio group lost more weight than the strength training group. BUT…

The weight they lost consisted mostly of lean body weight, i.e. muscle. The group that performed strength training lost NO lean body weight, despite consuming a paltry 800 calories a day.

Another important discovery was how strength training actually increased resting metabolic rate or the number of calories the strength training group required at rest. The RMR of the cardio group dropped.

A second study, also done in 1999, by Kramer, Volek et al. set out to examine the physiological effects of a weight-loss diet with exercise as compared to one without exercise.

They took 35 overweight men and randomly assigned them to one of four groups:

1. Control group (C; N = 6).
2. A diet-only group (D; N = 8).
3. A diet group that performed aerobic exercise three times per week (DE; N = 11).
4. A diet group that performed both aerobic and strength training three times per week (DES; N = 10).

After 12 weeks, the diet group lost 21 pounds, the diet plus cardio group lost 20 pounds (1 less than diet alone!) and the group that performed both aerobic and strength training lost 22 pounds of body weight.

For those of you who hate exercise, this might look like a good thing, right? After all, doing cardio actually produced one pound less weight loss and adding weights to the cardio only bumped up weight loss by 1 pound over not doing anything. For all that effort, who needs it?

Before you burn that fitness bra or toss those runners in the garbage, take a look at this…

• The amount of FAT lost for the diet-only group was 69% of total weight lost or 14.5 pounds.
• The amount of FAT lost for the diet-plus-cardio group was 78% of total weight lost or 15.5 pounds.
• The amount of FAT lost for the diet, cardio and strength training group was 21.3 pounds!

That’s SIX more pounds of fat lost over twelve weeks. To put that in perspective, that’s like stripping six bricks of butter from your midsection…just by lifting some weights a few times a week.

This study, in particular, demonstrates the importance of NOT focusing just on how much body weight you lose, but on how much fat you’re losing. While accurately measuring your body fat can be difficult, you can use a body composition monitor to help you. No, they’re not 100% accurate, but they can help you track trends in your body fat levels.

Why Weight Training Works

A big reason for weight training’s success for burning fat is something called EPOC.

EPOC stands for Excess Post-workout Oxygen Consumption. The more oxygen your body requires after exercise, the more energy your body expends.

For light exercise, your metabolism may be elevated for just a few minutes after exercise, but for more intense activities, like weight training for instance, your metabolism may be elevated for up to 36 hours after your workout.

When you perform intense weight training, you’re burning additional calories for a much longer period of time than if you merely do cardio exercise.

Right now, you might hear that old familiar excuse creeping into your head…

“But I don’t have the time to do weights and cardio.”

Well, if you have to choose between one exercise to lose weight and another, the choice should be obvious…

Ditch the cardio.

It almost seems blasphemous to say it, but maybe strength training exercises for weight loss are the best type of exercises you can do…not cardio.

Now if you’re like many people I talk to, and are hesitant to begin lifting weights because you’re afraid of hurting your self or because you don’t know what you’re doing, I highly recommend hiring a personal trainer to get you going.

Spending a few hundred dollars to hire a professional to show you how to exercise is money well spent; a much better choice than buying some big, bulky piece of exercise equipment.

All you need to start is a simple set of dumbbells and maybe a weight bench, but you don’t even need that.

If hiring a personal trainer is out of the question, you can always check out my free online exercise videos to learn proper exercise form.

I would also recommend you read Beyond Brawn: The Insider’s Encyclopedia on How to Build Muscle and Mightby Stuart McRobert. This book served as my guide when I did personal training. It’s by far the most common sense, real life approach to lifting weights I’ve found. The information is valid for people of all ages and abilities. I would also recommend you take a look at The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess and New Rules of Lifting: Six Basic Moves for Maximum Muscle.

If you’re new here, please accept my gift to you…a FREE e-Book titled, “How To Achieve Maximum Fitness and Weight Loss Results In Minimum Time”. You can download these free fitness and fat loss tips here. Thanks for visiting! Come again soon…and don’t forget to tell your friends.