Weight Loss, Part 3: Lift the weight to avoid carrying the weight

If you’ve been following along at home, so far we’ve talked about getting the data and creating the initial plan for weight loss.  Now it’s time to talk about weight training.

Cardio exercise is fabulous for burning calories while we’re doing it.  It boosts our mood, improves our endurance, and helps our brains and bodies function better.  What it doesn’t do as much is change our body composition.  We talk about body composition mostly in terms of body fat percentage.  That number is way more important than straight body weight in terms of how fit and healthy we are.  If our body fat percentage is too low, we’re in trouble, but that’s not a problem that most of us have.  When it is too high, we put ourselves at risk for all kinds of nasty chronic diseases.

It is entirely possible for two people to have the exact same height and weight and be totally different sizes because of differences in body composition.  The person with the lower body fat percentage will appear thinner, will likely wear smaller clothes, and will probably appear more “toned.”  This is because muscle tissue is denser than fatty tissue—it is heavier in weight and smaller in volume than fat.  What I am saying here is that those of us who want to lose weight for aesthetic reasons should put a priority on muscle tissue as well as overall weight loss.  If we aren’t focusing on how we look, we still want to put a priority on weight training and muscle building for several reasons, including ensuring long-term bone density and amping up our metabolisms.

I like folks to build an exercise habit with cardio first because it provides a healthy base for weight training, but that doesn’t mean stopping with cardio.  Weight training makes a huge difference in how bodies work and feel and it will ensure continuing success in weight loss.