Why your weight loss goals are easiest with resistance training

Resistance training has to be combined with appropriate nutrition for the best results

Weight training (or resistance training) is for everyone, and has myriad benefits. (Photo: Pixabay)

The gym is understandably an intimidating image, at least to us, two 5-foot-nothing girls conditioned to believe that strength training excluded people like us. Thankfully, we’ve seen a demographic shift in weight training’s proponents, and with good reason. Weight training (or resistance training) is for everyone, and has myriad benefits: one of which is fat loss.

We’ve seen this play out multiple times: someone weighing over 90 kg (a dangerously unhealthy weight for his height) and a poor lipid profile (elevated heart disease risk) begins an exercise programme in which he resistance trains three times a week, walks 30-45 minutes twice a week, and rests on other days.

Progress is initially slow: exercise is laboured, and rarely performed with full range of motion. The muscle soreness would rather be forgotten. But with time, patience, consistency and a calorie-appropriate nutrition plan that prioritises protein, fibre and good fats, things change. A year later, this person was 20 kg down (a loss rate of 1.6kg/month) and had lost about 7 inches on the waist. His lipid profile was nearly normal. Importantly, despite some occasional fluctuations, the weight stayed off.

Resistance training (combined with appropriate nutrition) is a powerful sustainable fat loss tool, because it enables a calorie deficit, (i.e. burning more calories than those consumed), without this, fat loss cannot be achieved. Here’s how resistance training drives a calorie deficit:

1) Raises RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate): RMR is the number of calories the body needs to function at rest. When muscle is built and strengthened through resistance training, the RMR rises, increasing fat burned over time. Resistance training is more effective than other forms of exercise at raising RMR.

2) Increases “after burn”: “After burn” or EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) is an increase in the body’s oxygen use (i.e. calorie burn) as it recovers after exercise. This process burns calories using both carbohydrates and fats and is elevated after resistance training.

3) Regulates appetite: Several studies have suggested that resistance training, and exercise in general, helps improve satiety, enabling one to eat less over time.

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Having said this, fat loss is rarely linear, and can be complicated by health conditions, lifestyles, dietary preferences and relationships to food and exercise. If you’re new to resistance training, and aren’t sure where to start, here are some suggestions:

· Join a gym and train 1-3 times per week to understand the appropriate movements and forms. Aim for 2-3 days of resistance training, a couple of days of cardio-vascular training (walking, running, spinning), and 1-2 days of rest.

· Manage nutrition and calories, prioritizing protein. Work with a nutritionist or apps that help track calories.

· Rest. This is critical to muscle recovery and rebuilding and avoiding workout fatigue, so you can progressively lift heavier weights, get stronger and burn more calories.

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· Avoid an “all or nothing” mindset. If you’re not feeling up to a workout, rest or scale it back. Scale up progressively.

· Be patient! It’s a slow process, but trust it. Notice how you’re changing through it: perhaps your knees hurt less, or you can lift more. Perhaps that old pair of jeans fits better. Sustainable fat loss rarely appears as a big drop on the scale, because the muscle built from strength training is heavier than the fat you lose – but other indicators such as inch loss will prove that you’re making progress.

Meghna Motwani, PhD, leads clinical research at a nutraceutical company, Avanti Maluste is a nutrition coach and manages a bespoke strength training studio in Mumbai