![]() ![]() But burning calories is not the best way to think about exercise or health, for a few reasons. For one, those calories-burned estimates are just that-estimates. And they might not look anything like what a particular individual is actually burning. What’s more is that research suggests that after a certain point, energy expenditure (calories burned) plateaus-it turns out that piling on activity isn’t necessarily piling onto the caloric burn. Beyond that, exercise only accounts for a small percentage of our bodies’ daily energy usage. Add to that the fact that exercise is now understood to either hinder-or at the very least not impact-weight loss efforts, and it starts to become clear that calorie burn probably isn’t the best way to look at whether a workout is effective, pretty much no matter what your goal is.įor another reason, if you’re comparing activities, while there is evidence that lifting weights burns fewer calories than most types of cardio, remember that more muscle mass helps increase your resting metabolic rate a bit, which means that at rest you’ll burn a few more calories than you would with less muscle mass (note: the increased burn is not wildly high). So many factors impact metabolism and weight loss that it’s not worthwhile to evaluate an activity based on caloric burn alone. Exercise is really good for your health, period. And after lifting, you have built actual muscles and strength to use in your daily life, a benefit that cannot be underestimated. But since you’re concerned specifically about fat burn, let me add one more point in the strength-training-is-great-for-all-goals column: The more muscle you have, the harder and longer you’ll be able to work out, which is great for your goal of burning fat. When talking about your lifting routine, I’m not sure what you mean by “at my normal weight, not what they suggested.” But if it means that you are not adding weight to your lifts as the programs suggest, at least weekly if not every session, but you are also completing all your sets with flying colors and never feeling taxed, you should add weight. Any beginner lifting program will instruct you to add weight to your lifts consistently, and if you are eating and resting enough to support your lifting program-barring injuries or limiting factors like mobility problems-you should be able to. Starting-strength “linear progression” type lifting programs, whether Stronglifts or GZCLP or something else, are not really designed for performing the same weights over and over for a relatively unskilled lifter. They are designed specifically for building strength, keeping the reps low and intensity high so that your muscles get the right amount of damage to rebuild on your rest days, and then you come to the next session stronger than before. “Linear progression” means, literally, getting consistently stronger by adding the same amount of weight at the same time interval, and this should be doable for at least a few months. It is possible you have just started at weights that are relatively easy for you, but the nice thing about linear programs is that they get tougher relatively quickly. ![]()
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