Weight lifting is much more important in helping women lose weight than many people realize.

Although there are many benefits to weight lifting, in this article we’re going to focus on the benefits it gives women who are trying to lose weight. (We’ll focus on the men next week!)

We’ll explain why weight lifting is important for women’s physical wellbeing, why it’s so important as you age, how it helps you stay lean and healthy, and how it increases weight loss. We believe that weight lifting is a key component of every woman’s weight loss.

Losing muscle mass is one of the main reasons women gain weight as they age

Unless you do something to combat it, most women naturally gain weight as they age. Everyone loses muscle mass as they get older, beginning in their 30’s. Since muscle burns calories so efficiently, this loss of muscle slows down your metabolism. And because women start out with less muscle mass than men in the first place, this slowed down metabolism causes weight gain more readily. The average female gains around 20 to 25 pounds of fat between the ages of 20 and 50.

And unfortunately, it gets worse as you get older. After middle age, the average adult loses 3% of their muscle mass every year.

But there’s something you can do! The primary way to prevent the loss of muscle mass is exercise—particularly weight lifting and strength training. Young adulthood or middle age is the ideal time to start preserving muscle mass, but it’s always a good time to start.

While losing weight, weight lifting helps you lose fat instead of muscle and bone

When you’re losing weight, only about 60 to 75 percent of the weight you’re losing is fat. The rest of it is, unfortunately, muscle, bone, and water. But if you add weight lifting while losing weight, it increases the fat lost to up to 85 percent.

In other words, when cardio is the only part of your workout routine, you’re going to lose muscle. Adding weight lifting to your routine helps you gain muscle and lose more fat.

In one study at Tufts University, ten overweight women were put on the same diet. Half of them lifted heavy weights at the same time. At the end of the study, both groups had lost around 13 pounds. But while the diet-only group lost 9.2 pounds of fat, the group who added weight lifting lost 14.6 pounds of fat and gained 1.4 pounds of muscle. This same 13-pound weight loss resulted in a much trimmer body for the weight lifting group.

The beauty of weight lifting is that as you lose fat and gain muscle, you typically lose inches from your waistline even if you don’t see a change on the scale.

Muscle mass supports increased and long-lasting weight loss

Muscles are metabolically efficient and promote weight loss by burning more calories—even at rest. When you increase muscle, you increase your metabolism. The more muscle mass you have, the more fat-burning your body does. Even after your workout, your body continues to burn calories.

Weight lifting helps women slim down as they trade fat for lean muscle

Despite an old misconception, weight lifting will not bulk up women. Even though women will build muscle lifting weights, becoming bulky is difficult. Women have lower levels of muscle building hormones, called anabolic hormones. This makes it much more difficult for women to build muscle mass. Not only do you not need to worry about bulking up from weights, but women who participate in weight training actually become smaller and look leaner.

Outlaw FitCamp can teach you what you need to know about weight lifting for weight loss

At Outlaw FitCamp, we teach the correct way to lift weights and will design a program specifically for you and your goals. The quality of your workouts is more important than the quantity, and that’s where we can help. It’s important to use the right sequences and exercises to get the results you want. You’ll need to strengthen all your muscles, and women can especially benefit from the large muscle groups.

Your weight loss will be faster and more long-lasting by including weight lifting

Weight lifting is a critical part of losing weight for women. It will increase your metabolism, keep you burning more calories at all times, and give you a strong, lean body.

With our expertise, we can help you stay safe, learn proper form, and avoid injury when weight lifting. Give us a call at Outlaw FitCamp. Our certified personal trainers can tailor an individual weight-lifting workout just for you!