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

Losing weight is, without a doubt, a great challenge. Losing calories may seem simple, but it is not always the case. Find out how weight training can help you achieve this goal.

What is the basic principle for losing weight?

To lose weight you must force the body to get energy from its fat reserves. How? By controlling your heart rate!

Your heart rate can be worked with activities like treadmill running, stationary cycling, and elliptical cycling, but also with weight training exercises. When it is worked with weight training exercises, the benefits are doubled, because not only does it accelerate weight loss, but it also creates favorable conditions for muscle development.

Can I lose weight with the help of my heart rate?

Generally speaking, 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: 70-80% of the result of the calculation of 220 minus age (in the case of women, 226 minus age).

Note: when we say 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 will not lock up just like a speedometer!

To what extent does weight training allow weight loss?

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

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

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

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

• The exercises that allow you to burn the most calories are the functional exercises, which ask for the biggest muscles: legs, back, chest, buttocks = squats, deadlifts, 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 switch to 50/50. How to do it? There are two options:

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

• Dividing it up by type of exercise: for example, 75% cardio exercises and 25% weight-training exercises (circuit training).

Attention: results are obtained not only through sports activity, but also through diet! Of course, doing sports does not mean you can eat more, with more sugar or more fat. Physical activity does not legitimize food excesses, so if you want to lose weight, you should favor a healthy and balanced diet (proteins, vegetables, starches, in the proportion of 1/3 for each of these elements), eat fruit to replenish your vitamin reserves, and avoid eating snacks between meals. If you consume more calories than your body needs (on average 2000 calories per day for a woman, 2500 for a man), physical activity may not be enough to burn off the superfluous calories.

Alexandre Ichim