Weight training increases muscle mass while fat is lost and improves flexibility and metabolic conditioning while promoting joint strength. You want to keep your muscle while you lose fat because the more muscle you have on your body the higher your metabolism will be. As we get older we experience sarcopenia; the natural loss of muscle tissue due to the aging process. This explains why it is harder for the majority of the population to lose the weight as we get older. Our metabolism slows down due to muscle loss. The best way to combat this muscle loss and escalating fat gain is to work out with heavy weights while dieting. The erroneous notion that “cardio” or long steady state activities will burn calories is a waste of your time. The amount of activity and the intensity of the activity to burn one ounce of fat is not worth the time put in. Not even from strength training alone. The best way to reduce fat is through diet. It is much more efficient to create an environment that forces the body to access it’s fat stores when it requires energy.
Heavyweight training in good form while dieting and giving your body the necessary time to recover will build a strong and efficient engine underneath the fat stores. This engine will assist in using and depleting the fat stores while you are at rest. In addition, your joints will remain stronger and your body will experience much less wear and tear. Steady-state activities induce excessive, continuous and constant overuse of the joints, tendons, and bones; not to mention they evoke increased appetites which in turn result in overeating.
This article attached is evidence that overtraining through aerobics and “cardio” is an inefficient way to get cardiovascular benefits. You can get much better results even with simple weight training. Imagine the improvements that can be stimulated if you are strength training with a very high level of intensity, in good form, with short rest intervals in between exercises.
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