I had some thoughts while lifting today and I thought I'd share them with you!
Does this describe you?
You've been on several diets but none of them has produced a reduction in your body fat.
You've tried walking but your exercise schedule has been inconsistent at best and your body composition has remained essentially the same.
You've read blog posts and watched Youtube videos about the benefits of weight training but you remain unconvinced that it can actually help you lose weight.
In fact, research has shown that weight training has many health and fitness benefits beyond building strong muscles, including reducing fat, increasing metabolic rate, decreasing lower back discomfort, relieving arthritic pain, preventing osteoporosis, enhancing gastrointestinal transit, lowering resting blood pressure, as well as boosting self-confidence and warding off depression. Every one of us, including people over 70, can benefit from stronger and larger muscles. Rather than being concerned about too much muscle, we should be concerned about too little muscle. Muscles are like an engine. Loss in muscle tissue is similar to dropping from an 8-cylinder engine to a 4-cylinder engine, while the weight of the automobile keeps getting heavier and heavier. Adding muscle is a double-solution because it increases both physical capacity (a larger engine) and metabolic rate (higher fuel-burning capacity). Unlike dieting, which decreases the number of calories eaten per day, weight training increases the number of calories used per day.
Friend, weight training is a tried-and-true means of both increasing lean weight and decreasing fat weight, even in older adults.
These are just a couple of things that came to mind today. Hope this helps! Y'all have a good day!
(A couple of pics from the gym today.)
