Restoring My Complexion

A Few Reasons Your Weight Loss Plan Should Include Strength Training

20 April 2017 by Dylan Owens

When you are trying to lose weight, you know you need to exercise and watch what you eat. Exercises that increase your heart rate, such as aerobics, biking, and swimming, will definitely help the weight come off; however, you should also include strength training in your routine if you want to give your efforts a boost and keep the weight off. Here are just a few ways strength training is important.

Build Muscles

While cardio exercising will result in faster weight loss than strength training, you will be burning muscle tissue as well as fat tissue. When you add strength training to your routine, you will burn more fat tissue while building up muscle tissue. If you burn mostly muscle tissue, you will feel tired and not be able to continue with your cardio routine for long.

Toned Body

More muscle tissue results in a more toned, fit, and healthy body. Even though you have lost weight, your skin may still sag if there is no muscle tone under it. The added muscle will make you strong so you can keep up with your exercising. You will look and feel better, and your clothes will fit better when you add strength training to your routine.

Eat More

The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you can eat. Simply put, the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn, whether at rest or working out. This means that as your weight starts to come off, you can increase your food intake. If you do only cardio exercising, you may find you need to eat less as the weight comes off. Strength training will also increase your metabolism for a couple of days instead of just the few hours cardio increases it.

Reduce Joint Pain

As the muscles around your joints get stronger, they are better able to hold the joints in place. This will not only keep them secure and reduce the chance of damage to them when you do your cardio routine, but it will also reduce the amount of pain you feel after a workout.

To have a healthy, balanced weight loss program that you will be able to maintain, strength training should be included. It does not need to be done every day, and it can be done on the days you do not do any cardio. You can take it at a slower pace and consider it a bit of a rest from a fast-paced aerobics class. 

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