Fitness

Pump Up, Slim Down: How Weightlifting Ignites Fat Loss

Published

2 years ago

April 15, 2024

Pump Up, Slim Down: How Weightlifting Ignites Fat Loss

If you’re trying to change your physique, you know that modifying your diet and a diligent exercise regimen are two keys to making it happen. What type of workout should you do? It depends on your precise goals: When you understand the impacts each type of workout has on the body, you can reach your goals more easily and quickly.

Strength training is one workout that helps your body burn fat, not just during your workout, but long after the workout. Putting on muscle affects your body composition and your metabolism in significant ways. We spoke to some experts to help explain how this phenomenon works.

Strength training can help you burn more fat.

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Cardio vs. strength training

There’s a constant back-and-forth argument about which is more efficient in reaching your ideal physique: cardio or strength training. According to New York City-based personal trainer Oscar Colon IV, cardio is ideal for burning more calories during a workout session — and it’s key to keeping your heart strong — but strength training affects your body differently. “Strength training has a two-pronged effect because you burn calories during the workout and during the recovery and restoration of muscle groups you worked,” he explains. As a result, you get more results for your effort.

It’s still a good idea to incorporate both cardio and strength training into a well-balanced fitness plan, so you can reap all the benefits. How much you do of one or the other may also depend on your current goals. If you’re training for your first marathon, cardio is going to be your main focus as you build endurance, whereas strength training is going to be a priority when you’re trying to get stronger or build muscle.

Putting on muscle helps you burn calories even at rest.

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How muscles affect your ability to burn fat

As mentioned, strength training can help you burn more calories during and after your workout. This is thanks to the lean muscle you gain as a result of strength training. If your goal is to lose weight, having more lean muscle can help the process.

This also means that the more lean muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate will be. Your resting metabolic rate, or RMR, refers to the total number of calories your body burns when it’s at rest. Biologically speaking, resting metabolism aids your organ functions, neurological functions, breathing and blood circulation. Rachel MacPherson, an American Council of Exercise-certified personal trainer, performance specialist and Garage Gym Reviews expert, explains that muscle is metabolically active, meaning it burns calories even at rest, and although the effect is small, it’s significant and does add up over time. “This also helps to counteract the decline of metabolism and muscle mass as you age, which can contribute to middle-age weight gain,” she says.

Strength training also has fat-burning benefits when you’re fresh off a workout. “Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption is the process of your body regulating itself back to homeostasis after a strenuous workout,” explains Colon. In other words, you’re still burning calories as you recover, since your body stays warm for a while as it cools down.

Studies have shown that beginners tend to put on muscle faster than those experienced with strength training.

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How long it takes to put on muscle

Now that you know that lean muscle is the key component in fat burning, you’re probably wondering how long it takes to build muscle. This will vary from person to person, since genetics, hormones, gender, diet and other factors play a role in how much muscle you put on and how quickly. Colon says, “If you consistently train three to four times a week for 30 minutes each session, you should realistically start to see results in three to four weeks.”

MacPherson says you can put on muscle mass each week, and doing a 12 to 16-week hypertrophy training program is ideal for seeing a significant amount of muscle gain. “You can expect upwards of five to 10 pounds of muscle gain during this time,” explains MacPherson, adding, “As you become more advanced you will need to work harder for less gain, but you will still see results.”

That’s another interesting aspect of strength training: if you’re a beginner, you tend to have an advantage over someone more experienced when building muscle. This is what some people refer to as “newbie gains,” which refers to your body’s muscle-building response to lifting weights since it’s not used to this kind of stimulus. Research has shown that untrained individuals (those with minimal to no strength training experience) can put on muscle faster than someone who’s already experienced with strength training.

Generally speaking, men and women also have different results when building muscle mass. “Men can build muscle mass much easier and faster than women due to testosterone, while women can still build substantial amounts of muscle, but will never look as large or full as men unless they use anabolic steroids,” elaborates MacPherson. She adds, “It’s vital that women lift enough volume and weight while also eating enough to support muscle gain.” This means letting go of the old-school mentality of dieting and shrinking yourself, otherwise it’ll inhibit your ability to build muscle.

Besides a well-regimented workout plan, a diet that supports muscle-building is key too. MacPherson says, “In order to build muscle, you need to eat in a calorie surplus with plenty of protein.” She explains that eating in a surplus will lead you to gain some body fat, which is normal and necessary to gain muscle. “You can lose it afterward and it will be easier since your body has become better at burning calories due to increased muscle mass,” she adds.

Strength training has excellent health benefits.

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Other benefits to lifting weights

Besides helping you metabolize and get stronger, strength training has other benefits. Colon says it’s also important for bone development and density. “Weight-bearing exercises put temporary stress on your bones, sending a message to bone-building cells to take action and rebuild bones stronger,” he explains.

Another benefit tied to strength training is reducing your risk of injury by improving the strength, range of motion and mobility of your muscles, ligaments and tendons. “This can reinforce strength around major joints like your knees, hips, and ankles to provide additional protection against injury,” he adds.

Another plus is for your heart — strength training is shown to help decrease blood pressure. You can also reduce the chances of type 2 diabetes, improve blood circulation and lower LDL (bad) cholesterol. Exercise has been shown to even have a positive effect on your mental health, and resistance training has been found to ease anxiety as well.

Bottom line

It’s helpful to know the unique effects strength training has on your body as you establish a consistent exercise routine. Not only will you naturally burn more fat by having more muscle, but you’ll maintain strength as you age and improve other functions of your life as well. If you don’t have access to a gym, you can start your exercise regimen at home and still get the same results, as long as you have the proper equipment.

Even if your goal isn’t weight loss or body recomposition, strength training provides many benefits that make it worth adding to your lifestyle, and it’ll only improve your well-being in the long run.

Fitness

From Lifespan to ‘Health-span’: Use the New Year to Focus on Both Health and Fitness

Published

12 hours ago

December 24, 2025

Press Room

From Lifespan to ‘Health-span’: Use the New Year to Focus on Both Health and Fitness

Fitness encompasses cardiovascular endurance, strength training, and mobility/flexibility. These are non-negotiables for continuing to live throughout your later years with your independence and ability to move and socialize still intact.

Instead of thinking simply about living longer, let’s use the start of a new year to focus on getting healthier, so we live better. More than any other time each year, the New Year is a popular time to focus on a “fresh start.” Temporal landmarks like New Year’s Day, Mondays, birthdays and the change of seasons are standard starting lines for many of us when we have a goal to work toward and bad habits to break.

Science Says Fitness Matters (Even More than Weight)

A recent study published in the British Journal of Medicine, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, BMI, and Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, shows that, regardless of body weight (obese, overweight or normal), fitness matters more for all-cause mortality. They measured the weight, BMI and fitness of six groups: normal weight-fit; normal weight-unfit; overweight-fit; overweight-unfit; obese-fit; and obese-unfit.

The analyses revealed that individuals classified as fit, regardless of their BMI, did not have a statistically significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease or all-cause mortality compared to normal weight-fit people. At the same time, all unfit groups across different BMI categories exhibited a two- to threefold higher risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality compared to their regular weight-fit counterparts.

About Body Mass Index (BMI)

Now, you may be saying, “But BMI is flawed!” Sure. BMI is not the best indicator for distinguishing normal weight, overweight and obesity because it is simply a height-to-weight ratio that does not account for differences in body fat/muscle composition, age, sex or other factors. Before you discredit this entire study because of the BMI issue, remember that it measured fitness levels among people of different sizes. Some had more muscle and were considered fit in the overweight/obese group, while others were deemed unfit in the normal weight group. Still, BMI helps place people of differing sizes (height and weight groups) and focuses on measuring each group’s fitness. In the end, fitness matters more than BMI, so the goal is to exercise, get in shape, build muscle and lose fat.

Set Your Training Goals to Be Long-Term

It is fine to have short-term, specific training goals, such as strength gains and endurance times, or weight gain or weight loss. However, start this year with a 10-year fitness focus, as what you do in your 40s-50s will determine how you live in your 60s-70s. Always think 10 years ahead, no matter what your age, because what you gain today and maintain tomorrow is needed to continue to live independently for a few more generations in your family’s lineage. You can focus on longevity and optimal performance for your fitness and health goals at the same time by maintaining a consistent activity level and healthful nutrition, sleep and recovery.

Try This Goal: Make Annual Physical and Blood Screening Appointments

If you have not been to a doctor in a while, set an appointment in January, and get into the habit of annual health and wellness screenings. Treat annual physicals with the doctor as opportunities to PR (personal record) common blood work results, such as cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, body weight and blood pressure. These are just the basics to help you assess how to adjust your sleep, nutrition, physical activity and stress management. These meetings are also quite satisfying when you achieve solid results that show health and wellness.

Don’t Give Up

While a large portion of us (nearly half of Americans) will create a New Year’s resolution, only about 9%-10% will achieve their goals. After a stressful holiday season, we are typically burned out in January. This may not be the best time to start a lifestyle change, complete with quitting bad habits (over-eating, smoking, drinking) and starting new healthy habits (gym membership, diet, etc.).

Instead, use the first few weeks of January to focus on stress mitigation and recovery. This should include building easy habits of walking every day, stretching, taking deep breaths and simply not overeating. This is a great way to move into a new fitness focus. Then, when feeling back to normal, focus a little harder, with more intensity, duration of training, and specificity to your fitness and health goals.

There are many ways to expand your “health-span.” Check out these options and get consistent with any or all of them:

Final Advice

If you want to get started on a focused health and wellness goal of being able to do physical activities, stay social and be independent, start with the basics of walking and stretching daily for a month. The following month, add calisthenics such as squats, lunges, push-ups and the plank pose. The following month, add weights such as dumbbells or kettlebells, or suspension trainers such as the TRX.

This steady progression helps you ease into fitness habits gently and adds a new component each month to keep it interesting. To achieve results with lifelong wellness goals, you need to keep endurance, strength and mobility/flexibility as primary focuses. Stability, durability, balance, speed and agility can also be developed once you have built the foundation. This is the beauty of long-term goals. Focus on doing something each day, being disciplined about eating and drinking healthfully, and learning stress-mitigation techniques such as breathing to take into your next decade on this planet.

There are dozens of these types of articles at the Military.com Fitness Section. Check them out for ideas on specific ways to train.

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Fitness

Exercise ‘snacks’ can keep your fitness on track when time is tight – try these 3 today

Published

1 day ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

Exercise ‘snacks’ can keep your fitness on track when time is tight – try these 3 today

December is great for many things – socialising, scoffing, falling out with relatives – but sticking to a training schedule is not one of them.

Heading out the door on Christmas morning for a two-hour long run is likely to put anyone on the naughty list, while it takes a dedicated runner indeed to spend part of the festive period running loops of the track.

What the mere mortal needs is exercise “snacks”. These can be enjoyed/endured alongside the carb-based variety and snuck in to even the busiest Christmas schedule.

A review in Sports Medicine and Health Research confirmed that regular, short bursts of physical activity throughout the day improved cardiovascular respiratory fitness, increased fat oxidation and polished off blood sugar levels after eating.

Vigorous intermittent exercises, such as sprints, were good for building muscle strength. Meanwhile, 10-minute resistance training sessions were found to be particularly beneficial to older people. The researchers concluded that exercise snacks could be a viable alternative to longer, less frequent sessions.

Cram in vigorous bouts of stair climbing for muscle strength, or one or two sub-10 minute morsels for muscle growth as an efficient alternative to meatier long sessions. Here’s some inspo below…

3 exercise snacks to gorge on

Try these simple workouts for results on the quick

For upper-body

Press-ups: 3 x 20 with a 30-sec rest between (b/w) reps

Bench dips: 3 x 15 with a 30-sec rest b/w reps

For lower-body

Bodyweight squats: 3 x 20 with 20-sec rest b/w reps

Wall sit: 2 x 90 secs with 1-min rest b/w reps

For cardio fitness

Burpees: 3 x 20 with 30-sec rest b/w reps

Skipping: 4mins consisting of 1min normal, 1min high knees, 1min normal, 1min high knees

Fitness

Study shows the antioxidants in this tea improve exercise recovery

Published

2 days ago

December 22, 2025

Press Room

Study shows the antioxidants in this tea improve exercise recovery

I love many different herbal teas just as much as I enjoy a good old-fashioned British cup of PG tips, Earl Grey, or Glengettie — a Welsh favorite from the rolling valleys where I was born. In an interesting study, researchers explored whether drinking green or matcha tea can improve sports performance and exercise recovery, and the results might have you reaching for a vibrant green drink. If you want to get straight to the results, the short answer is that drinking green and matcha tea can support hydration, body fat control, and exercise recovery. Still, it definitely won’t be a game-changer when it comes to your performance in the gym, on the court, or on the field.

Hydrating with tea

In a study published in Nutrition and Food Technology, researchers reviewed existing studies of athletes and active adults that focused solely on drinking tea — no pills or extracts. They revealed that green or matcha tea can help hydrate the body when consumed in normal amounts. Tea counts toward your daily water intake.

Antioxidants and recovery

The research highlighted how the widely-studied antioxidants in green and matcha tea can improve exercise recovery and help protect your cells from the stress associated with intense exercise. That said, the research shows that drinking tea won’t lead to faster or better strength gains, so it’s no silver bullet for helping you achieve your fitness goals. However, they also concluded that low-caffeine green tea could even improve sleep quality, which I would argue could potentially help you power through that workout if you’re getting better sleep the night before.

Linked to lower body fat

Interestingly, the study authors also concluded that drinking around two or three cups of green or matcha tea per day was associated with slightly lower body fat and improved body composition and fat burning. While the effects weren’t overly significant, they were noted in the research. Cup of tea, anyone?