To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. That’s easy enough to understand. But how you go about burning those calories is where many people are still in the dark. Most people think that cardio is the best (or only) way to burn enough calories to start shedding pounds and losing inches…but it’s not. Lifting weights is a great way to lose weight because it’s effective and less time-consuming.
Cardio is defined as exercise that raises your heart rate and maintains the elevated rate for a sustained period of time (usually 30 minutes). This type of exercise will burn calories…a lot, in fact, but only while you’re actually exercising. The minute you step off the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike, your heart rate begins to slow down, and there your increased calorie burn ends.
Long story short: for cardio to work for weight loss, you need to do it a lot—at least 30 minutes five times per week. Unfortunately, many people do not have that kind of time.
If your lifestyle or schedule is not cardio-friendly, you can still create an effective weight loss program—weightlifting! Weightlifting burns calories while you’re working out, but it also allows you to burn calories when you’re not, too!
Weightlifting builds muscle. Muscle tissue requires more energy to maintain than adipose (fat) tissue. So, when you have more muscle mass, your base metabolic rate increases, which means you burn more calories when you’re not doing anything!
Weightlifting does provide a great alternative to time-consuming cardio for weight loss. However, you need to make sure you do it right to prevent injury. That’s where ICWA comes in. We offer individual weightlifting instruction and group classes to ensure you use the right technique and don’t try to lift too much too quickly. Classes and weightlifting groups also provide the peer support you need to stay motivated.
