Strength training can help you lose weight. Muscle training can help you lose weight fast. Not only do you lose weight when you are actually doing the strength training, you continue to lose weight for every pound of muscle you build. That’s right, each pound of muscle you put on will burn 50 calories a day without you doing any additional work!
Here are some strategies to lose weight – muscle style:
· Limit fatty and sugary foods. Processed, sweet, and fat dense foods all pack on fat pounds. Instead, consume whole grains, fruit and vegetables.
· Do things around the house. Much of our house work is assigned out to maids, gardeners, and other service people. But doing the physical activity of keeping the house running can actually help you to lose weight and put on muscle.
· Take at least 10,000 steps a day. While this might seem daunting as the average American only gets 3000 to 4000 steps in a day, there are strategies to help you get more. The foundation is to get a good 45 minute walk every day. Add to that steps taken by walking up stairs rather than riding the elevator and by parking far from the front door, and you will soon reach your 10,000 steps.
· Get aerobic exercise at least 3-4 times a week. This can be running on a treadmill, bicycling, or dancing.
· And at the core of lose weight – muscle style is developing a strength training regime.
Often, we think of strength training as using free weights or elliptical machines. But there are things you can do in your own home without any equipment to lose weight. Muscle strength training can be accomplished with the following exercises:
· Sit ups
· Crunches
· Leg Lifts
· Jack Knife Sit ups (raise knees to torso and allow face and knees to meet)
· V-ups (raise legs and torso simultaneously keeping legs straight)
· Side stretches (raise body off floror supporting yourself with your elbow)
· Lunge chop (using a medicine ball)
· Chair exercise (stand on a chair gripping the arm rests. . Press your back against the rear of the chair, tensing your abdominal muscles in order to raise your legs, lifting your knees towards your chest and keeping your back straight.
· Vertical Leg Crunch
· Long Arm Crunch
· Reverse Crunch
· Vertical Sit Up Crunch
· Bench crunch
· Leg Tuck
· Upright Sit Up
· Scissor cuts
If you want to lose weight, muscle strength training is where you should start. Not only will you expend calories exercising, you will also be building fat-burning muscle that will keep you losing weight all of the time, even when you are not exercising.
Losing weight is something you work on over the long haul. However, there are ways to jump start your weight loss. Using the weight loss – muscle strengthening plan I’ve outlined in this article, you should start to see results in as little as one month.