If you want to slow down your metabolism, get weaker, have less energy, lower your libido, destroy your hormones, and look “skinny fat”, then do not lift weights.

If you want to have more energy, improve your hormone and metabolic profiles, increase your sex drive, look tight and toned, strengthen your bones and connective tissue, perform physical activities with better capability, burn more calories at rest, lose fat and KEEP it off, then you should need to incorporate some form of resistance training.

A colleague of mine recently shared with me a research paper turned in by one of her students about fat loss…or at least that may have been what it was about?

In her paper, she mentioned that aerobic exercise…cardio…was the key to weight loss because of the increased heart rate and increased perspiration.

This idea, that cardio is the key to fat loss, is shared by A LOT of people.  Unfortunately, it’s based mostly on perception instead of reality.

Now, don’t get me wrong, you can lose weight with cardio, but if that’s all you do then you’ll lose more than just fat.  You’ll eat away much-needed lean mass, and all those wonderful things mentioned in the first sentence…

Have you seen those plastic molds that represent 5lbs of muscle and 5lbs of fat? If you haven’t, it’s a simple representation of the volume of the two different substances. For the same 5lbs, the fat mold is more than 3x bigger, in volume.

So unless you live like a bodybuilder, enhance your hormones, and purposefully eat with the intent of getting bigger, the notion that muscle makes you “bulky” is pure myth.

Muscle is natures fat burner! The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn…at rest.

Strength training IS fat loss training.  Cardio and other conditioning activities are healthy and just fine to do, but doing that alone will not produce physique changes, improve metabolic health, and allow your body to sustain the new lower body fat percentage.

Here’s a great example of what weight training can do for you.

Client, Neil, recently lost 15lbs in about 11 weeks. His routine consisted of a flexible macro-based nutrition plan, strength training, and a mild cardio routine.

Neil had a DEXA body composition scan done at the start of his program and again after 3 months. This confirmed the 15lbs lost on the scale, but also revealed exactly what he lost…

Over 20lbs of fat!  Which means…his lean mass increased by over 5lbs. He feels incredible, has increased his strength, his metabolic power, and can now eat more calories…allowing him even more flexibility with his nutrition.

Another client, let’s call her Melissa, had an impressive change in just 30 days. Her starting weight was 150lbs with a body fat percentage of 24.5%. Her lean mass weight (muscle) was 113.2lbs.

By day 30, her weight was down to 140lbs and her body fat percentage was down to 19%. Her lean mass weight was 113.4lbs.  This meant that she maintained her muscle mass, and even gained a little, while losing over 10lbs of fat.

If she had only incorporated a healthy nutrition plan she would have lost a significant amount of metabolism-boosting muscle. Cardio would add to that loss.

The scale potentially could have shown a bigger decrease, but it would have resulted in a weaker metabolism, weaker strength, and inability to eat much food and stay lean.

Strength training is vital to your health and wellbeing.  If it’s not already a part of your exercise regimen, then start today.

If you’re not sure where to start you can give this sample routine I created, for FREE.

Download HERE

If you’d like a plan tailor-made for you, then check out my concierge coaching program.

Remember, our prices increase in 2018, so don’t procrastinate until the new year!