Muscle and Fitness
The Muscle and Fitness Connection to Weight Loss
There is a direct connection between muscle and fitness, and weight loss. If you wish to lose weight then you simply need to burn more calories than you’re consuming.
In addition, to keep weight off and to increase the speed in which your body burns fat, you can participate in strength building exercises like weight lifting.
It’s simple: more muscle mass equals faster burning of fat and thus, quicker and more stable weight loss. Bone density, muscle mass and metabolism are all affected as humans age.
While we can’t have complete control over the aging process, there are certainly things we can do to slow the consequences down and to reduce (and sometimes eliminate) their consequences.
Building lean muscle and undergoing regular weight training is one of the best ways to do this, regardless of your age. To top it off, you will lose weight faster if you are building muscle – that’s a given. It is simply the way the human body works.
Examples of Muscle Building Activities
You don’t have to be a bodybuilder to undertake an exercise program that involves muscle building.
It’s all about toning and building lean muscle mass, not building yourself up into an Olympic weight lifter (although you can do that too if you wish!). Some ways you can achieve this with muscle and fitness workouts include:
- Dumbbell lifting (upper body)
- Squats (back and lower body – use dumbbells or a barbell for extra effect but be aware of correct form and only use light weights to begin with).
- Gym equipment: all of the exercise machines at your gym provide some muscle building facility, mostly cable assisted rather than free weights. This is excellent if you are more comfortable using weight machines, or simply want an all round workout for every part of your body.
All of these exercises will help you to lose weight faster as you’re building muscle, in addition to the other health benefits mentioned.
Getting fit requires physical exertion, and physical exertion means you are burning calories. Therefore, fitness leads to weight loss.
The best type of fitness activities are those which get your heart beating faster than normal for a continuous period of time – whether that be ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes or more, depending on your fitness level.
Muscle and fitness are the two key words of weight loss – concentrate on them both simultaneously and you’re guaranteed to see results.
