We published a blog post last week about how weight lifting helps women lose weight. (You can read it here.)

While some of the same benefits of weight lifting for weight loss apply to men as well, there are a few things that make weight lifting even more beneficial for men’s weight loss journeys. We’ll show you what’s the same for women and men, and what differences there are.

Weight Lifting Benefits Everyone

These same benefits apply to men as well as women:

• Losing muscle mass is one of the reasons you gain weight as you age
• While losing weight, weight lifting helps you lose fat instead of muscle and bone
• Muscle mass supports increased and long-lasting weight loss
• Weight lifting helps you slim down as you trade fat for lean muscle

You can read more about why and how each of these benefits work in our previous post.

Three additional ways weight loss benefits men

Although lifting weights helps everyone lose weight and keep it off, there are a few benefits that especially help men.

1) Men have an advantage by starting with more muscle mass

Strength training builds muscle mass, and muscle burns more calories even while your body is at rest. So when you have more muscle, you burn more calories throughout the day, even when you’re at your desk, watching tv, or sleeping. This benefit applies to everyone.

The advantage for men is that they normally have more muscle mass to start with (about 36 percent more), and their bodies are also designed to respond more quickly to weight lifting exercise. This makes it easier for men to add more muscle and lose weight more quickly.

2) Men benefit more from an increased metabolism rate you get from weight lifting

A recent study measured participant’s resting metabolism rates during 24 weeks of weight training.

The men had a nine percent increase in resting metabolism from weight lifting. The effect on women was smaller, showing an increase of almost four percent. This may not sound like much of a difference, but this increased metabolism allows men to burn about 140 more calories per day during rest, compared to about 50 calories each day for women.

These daily calories burned add up over time. In fact, for men, two sessions of heavy lifting each week can result in three percent less body fat overall.

3) Weight lifting helps men burn fat in the area they tend to carry weight

While women tend to be pear-shaped and carry extra weight in their hips and thighs, most men are apple-shaped and carry weight in their midsections. Unfortunately for men, this is where fat is more dangerous. Extra weight around the waist raises the risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular issues like heart attacks and strokes. When you carry weight around your midsection, it has worse health consequences than carrying it where women usually do.

The good news is that men also see the biggest difference in their waistline when they start to lose weight, especially when they’re losing by adding weight lifting to their routine.

While you can’t spot reduce, studies have shown that people who lift weights lose more belly fat than those who just do cardio alone.

Outlaw FitCamp by Jesse James can show you the best way to use weight lifting for weight loss

At Outlaw FitCamp by Jesse James, we will show you the correct way to lift weights and will design a program specifically for you and your goals. It’s important to use the right sequences and exercises to get the results you want. Teaching you the correct form for lifting, varying the muscles worked in rotations, and promoting safety to avoid injury are critically important.

Add weight lifting to your weight loss routine for better, quicker, and longer-lasting results

Lifting weights leads to muscle gain, which boosts metabolism, and stimulates weight loss all day long. Although both men and women benefit from weight lifting and will see improved weight loss with weights, men have a few additional benefits that make this exercise even more effective for them. Let Outlaw FitCamp by Jesse James help you develop a routine specifically for your body, ability, and goals. Call us today and we’ll help you begin!