If your goal is to lose weight, weight training can be a very important sport. Like? Find all the answers in this article.

Losing weight is undoubtedly a big challenge. Losing calories may seem simple, but it's not always the case. Find out how bodybuilding can help you achieve that goal.

What is the basic principle for losing weight?

To lose weight, you must force the body to draw energy from its fat reserves. Like? Controlling your heart rate!

Heart rate can be worked with activities such as treadmill running, exercise bike, elliptical bike, but also with weight training exercises. When it is worked with bodybuilding exercises, the benefits double, because, in addition to accelerating weight loss, it also allows you to create favorable conditions for muscle development.

Lose weight with the help of heart rate?

In general, the heart rate at which the body will consume the maximum amount of fat corresponds on average to 70-80% of the maximum heart rate.

In theory, for a man, the training heart rate should correspond to the following formula: 70 to 80% of the calculation result of 220 minus age (for women, 226 minus age).

Note: when we talk about average, it means that the value can be below or above this range during training. In fact, your heart rate will adapt to the effort and won't lock up like a speedometer!

To what extent does bodybuilding allow weight loss?

Any activity like running or doing the elliptical bike is effective for losing weight, but if you also do muscle strengthening work, you can get better results. How to explain the process?

• The more developed your muscles are, the more calories you burn. Every 500 g of extra muscle corresponds to about 100 more kcal burned.

• Weight training allows you to eliminate fat instead of your precious muscle mass.

• The ideal type of weight training to lose weight is endurance weight training: 6 to 8 sets, 15 to 30 repetitions and short recoveries between sets (15 to 45 seconds). You must choose a challenging weight to perform the exercise, but that allows you to perform all sets of repetitions. This workout should last from 30 minutes to 1 hour.

• Exercises that allow you to burn more calories are functional exercises, which engage the larger muscles: legs, back, chest, buttocks = squats, lifts, push-ups.

How to lose weight thanks to muscle strengthening?

To start, do sequences with 75% cardio followed by 25% weight training. After several weeks, you can go 50/50. How to make? There are two options:

• The distribution over the period of exercise: for a 1-hour session, for example, opt for 45 minutes of cardio and 15 minutes of weight training.

• The breakdown by type of exercise: for example, 75% cardio exercises and 25% weight training exercises (training circuits).

Attention: results are obtained not only through sports activity, but also through food! Obviously, doing sport doesn't mean you can eat more, with more sugar or more fat. Physical activity does not legitimize overeating, so if you want to lose weight, you should focus on a healthy and balanced diet (protein, vegetables, starch, in the proportion of 1/3 for each of these elements), eat fruit to replenish your reserves of vitamins and avoid eating treats between meals. If you consume more calories than the body needs (on average 2000 calories a day for a woman, 2500 for a man), physical activity may not be enough to spend the superfluous calories.

Alexandre Ichim