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 By: Brigitte Brodski
You live a fit lifestyle year round but sometimes we realize the occasional junk food has begun to show its effects. Being the educated fitness diva you know it's time to start dieting and cater your workout to achieve your goal. But for some reason when us women decide it's time to lose fat, the first thing we tend to do is jump onto cardio, and weight training is not prioritized. Whether it's because the calorie burning advantages aren't recognized, we think weight training is to build muscle and not burn fat, we think we can't focus on lifting and losing fat at the same time, we don't know how to do an efficient weight training program, or whatever the reason, somehow we tend to put the weights back on the rack when we want to focus on losing fat.
  Click Image To Enlarge.Weight Training Burns Fat. Although there are many benefits of cardio for fat loss, this article covers the advantages of using various weight training programs to lose fat.
First off, I'll repeat what you've probably heard many times: "Muscle burns fat". But what does that mean? Well, muscle doesn't exactly burn fat but more accurately muscle raises your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). Adipose tissue (i.e. fat) takes no energy to sit on your body, that's why once it's there it will stay there 'till you exert enough energy to start using it as your energy source. Skeletal muscle tissue is called "active tissue" because it requires energy to maintain itself. To just sit on your body, each pound of muscle on your body uses about 30-60 calories per day.
With the right diet and workout, every female is capable of putting on 5 pounds of muscle in a year. If we estimate that your metabolism would use 50 calories per day to sustain that muscle, this means you will burn 250 more calories every day (50 calories/day x 5 pounds). With a pound of fat requiring you to burn 3,500 calories, you will lose 26 pounds in a year without spending an extra minute on cardio. ([250 calories/day x 365 days/yr]/3,500 calories/pound of fat). Now as a lady sometimes we brush off this advise because we don't want to get "big" or "bulky". Our society is very familiar with how much 5 pounds of fat is. We see how our bodies change when we gain or lose 5 pounds of fat. What is unfamiliar to us is what 5 pounds of muscle is. Muscle is much denser than fat.
At most gyms the trainers have a replica of 5 pounds of fat and 5 pounds of muscle. I encourage you to ask a trainer that works there or the front desk person if you could take a look it. You'll be surprised in the volume difference and you will see there is no need to worry about adding 5 pounds of muscle.
That hour of cardio was great to burn that stored energy, but when you're done on the cardio machine you're done burning calories. Weight training, on the other hand, keeps your metabolism at an elevated energy use rate for about an hour after you're done. Another bonus to weight training! Exercise science calls this afterburn effect Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC)1[. This means that] after weight training the body continues to need oxygen at a higher rate.2 But that's a topic for an article in itself.
Many dieters lighten up on their weight because they feel heavy is needed only during a bulking phase, and women dieters especially don't want to lift heavy for fear of getting bigger rather than smaller. These are myths to say the least. Women should not shy away from heavier weights because we do not have enough testosterone to get the physique of a bodybuilder.
 Click Image To Enlarge.Women Should Not Shy Away From Heavier Weights.
This workout uses mostly free weights because machines are designed to target individual muscle groups. This reduces the total amount of muscle involved in moving the weight. The exercises will be mostly compound to recruit more muscle fibers to work and release muscle-building and fat-burning hormones. Also, stay on your feet rather than sitting or lying down for as many exercises as possible. Overview:
Monday: Chest/Back Chest - 3 sets of 10 reps Back - 3 sets of 10 reps
Abs - 3 sets of 30 reps
Biceps - 3 sets of 10 reps Triceps - 3 sets of 10 reps
Abs - 3 sets of 30 reps
Calves - 3 sets of 15 reps
Also, the increased lactate from high rep training supports growth hormone (GH) output which is also a key hormone for losing fat. Slow twitch fibers also recover faster between sets than fast twitch fibers. This will make it possible for adherence to using shorter rest intervals, and keep the heart rate up throughout the workout; hence burning more fat. Recovery Articles: The same concept of using mostly free weights and compound exercises as the heavy weight workout also applies to the lower-weight, high-rep workout above. Therefore, the same exercises can be applied but the weight needs to be adjusted to allow for more sets and reps. Overview:
Monday: Chest/Back Chest - 4 sets of 15 reps Back - 4 sets of 15 reps
Abs - 3 sets of 50 reps
Biceps - 3 sets of 15 reps Triceps - 3 sets of 15 reps
Abs - 3 sets of 50 reps
Calves - 3 sets of 30 reps
In your daily circuit you will do one set on a machine, then move to do a set on your the machine, and on like that 'till you complete the circuit, jump on a cardio machine for 10 minutes, and return to your first machine, with no rest in between. Anaerobic and aerobic exercise each provide their own unique physiological benefits. A unique advantage that circuit training has is it combines both. Fast twitch muscles are used primarily in anaerobic explosive exercises, while show twitch muscles are used primarily in aerobic endurance exercises.3
Overview:
Monday: Chest/Hams - 3 circuits, 15 reps per station
Overview:
Monday: Shoulders/Back/Calves
There are several reasons why supersets are more effective than doing the regular one station at a time with rests in between each set. First, supersets increase Lactic Acid production[...]4. Also, supersetting is time efficient. By doing sets back to back you reduce your total workout time while still doing the same amount of work.
Overview:
Monday: Chest/Back- Repeat each superset 3 times, 12 reps
As you can see, there are many ways to use weight-training workouts as your primary fat-burning workout. Because all of these are an excellent routine, it's best to do all of these in a rotation. Maybe do 4 weeks using one work out, then move to the next one for 4 weeks, and so on. Not only will you be doing a fat blasting workout, by switching things around you'll keep your body from acclimating and will experience the advantages of each workout. With these great weight training programs, and a fat trimming diet, you'll see the results you're looking for! References:
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