The importance of resistance training during weight loss

Most of us know that strength training is important, particularly as we get older, but why is it SO important during weight loss?

Read on to find out the many benefits of strength training, and the serious downside of weight loss without it

Weight training has many physical benefits

Strength training (also sometimes called weight or resistance training) has many physical benefits.  First and foremost the more muscle fibres you have and the stronger those fibres are, the easier every single daily task in life becomes.  Think carrying heavy shopping, lifting your over-packed cabin bag into the overhead luggage compartment, pulling your heavy wheelie bin up the drive… Anything that involves moving your body will be easier the stronger you are.

But the strength gains aren’t limited to your muscles.  Bones, joints, tendons and ligaments all get stronger through resistance training, reducing your risk of osteoporosis, falls and injury and improving your joint function and mobility.

Strength training also improves heart health; lowering blood pressure over time, reducing LDL cholesterol and increasing cardiovascular endurance when paired with aerobic training 

And what about the mental health benefits?  For many people these are just as important, if not even more so than the physical benefits.  Reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety, increased confidence and an immediate mood boost are common.  Lifting weights is empowering and just makes you feel good!  

Turning back to the physical benefits, and here’s a major one that is perhaps the biggest benefit of all, especially when we’re talking about weight loss.

Lean muscle is a metabolically active tissue, this means it burns calories just by existing, even when you are resting, even when you are sleeping in fact!  So the more muscle you have, the more you increase your BMR (basal metabolic rate) which inevitably falls as you lose weight.  

Increasing your muscle mass helps regulate blood glucose.  Muscle is the main store in the body for glycogen (the stored form of glucose).  The more muscle, the bigger the warehouse and the easier it is for the glucose to be removed from the bloodstream.  This increases insulin sensitivity and reduces the risk of pre and type 2 diabetes.

So those are the major benefits of strength training and increasing your muscle mass, but why is this so important when losing weight??

To answer this question, there’s an important detail to consider…

When we speak about weight loss, or someone says they want to lose weight, what we really mean is we want to lose FAT

It's important to measure changes in body fat% and muscle mass, as well as weight loss overall

Weight and BMI isn't the only measure of health; body fat% and muscle mass % are perhaps better indicators of longevity.

From the age of around 30, if we don’t proactively do something to stop it we lose muscle at the rate of around 3-5% per year (so all those benefits of being strong we just talked about? decreasing every year…)

To lose weight, we have to be in an energy deficit - there’s no other way!  So when we eat less calories than we are using the body starts to turn to stored energy to use instead. This can come from both muscle tissue and fat tissue, but ideally we just want to use the fat and not the muscle.

If only we could choose…

Well, you kind of can!  You choose by doing

Strength training.  Regularly stimulating the muscle by lifting weights, and eating an adequate amount of protein (see my other blog post on protein needs 

When we lose weight without strength training we risk developing  a ‘skinny fat’ body composition.  This term refers to a person with a low BMI but relatively high body fat and low muscle mass.  Not only does this not look great, this body composition is associated with health conditions like type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, as well as issues associated with low muscle mass like low strength and bone density and increased risk of injury.

So what should you do?

I’d recommend aiming for at least 2 resistance training sessions per week.  Incorporate compound movements (movements that use multiple joints and muscle groups) like squats, deadlifts, presses and rows.  These give you the most efficient and effective workout.  But they are technical movements, and if you’re a beginner then I’d highly recommend hiring a personal trainer.  This  would be a great way to build your confidence and ensure you’re lifting with great technique and the right weight for you