Want to burn fat? Build Muscle!

The days of thinking that if women lift weights they will develop huge muscles is a thing of the past.  Unless of course they want to and work super hard lifting some serious weights!  However, if you want to burn fat then building muscle is a great way to do so.
Muscles burn fat, therefore the more muscles you have in your body, the more calories you will burn in a day.   Even better, after strength training, your body continues to burn more calories than normal at rest for up to 39 hours! You do not need to lift huge heavy weights to build muscles, but you need to lift enough to feel it.

What exercises should you do?

That all depends on which parts of your body you want to work on.  Remember that you can't target fat in specific locations, building muscles will help burn fat but across the body but sadly we don't get to pick and chose the exact spot.  You can, however, target muscles so you can build, shape and tone an area.  There are lots of great exercises posted in this blog - look for the exercise of the day posts.

How heavy should you lift?

The weights you should lift depend on you as an individual and the exercise you are doing.  Too light and you will not get much benefit, too heavy and you could injury yourself.   Pick a weight that you can feel works your muscles and gets hard towards the end of your set or round of exercise.

What training plan should you follow?

Training plans should be built for the individual but here are a few tips to help you plan one.  Train your muscles in pairs or groups - triceps and biceps, quads and hamstrings etc.  It is advisable to give your muscles 48 hours rest between training sessions.  So you could plan a chest shoulders and back day on Monday, glutes, quads and calves on Tuesday, arms day on Wednesday, etc. 

Should you do weight training?

I am an advocate of mixing all sorts of training together to achieve weight loss.  I would recommended a mix of strength training, HIIT and normal cardio.  This also helps you create a varied training plan, which can be a lot more interesting.

What about diet?

As we know protein helps you build muscle and muscle helps you burn fat so its worth making sure you fuel those muscles.  It is recommended that you consume about 25g of protein within 30 mins of strength training.  There are lots of foods that contain protein - eggs, meat, yogurt, milk, nuts, etc.  If you are trying to burn fat it is important that you keep you fat intake down.  Stick to naturally low fat food, although make sure you include good fats like avocado.  Some people like to have a recovery drink after exercise but unless you are doing some serious hardcore training, a drink of milk or even some flavoured milk as long as the sugar and fat contents are not too high!

Enjoy pumping the iron!