Lifting weights to lose weight?  This might not make sense to a lot of people, but it is true.  Losing weight is a combination of eating right (improving the quality of your food choices) and exercise.  More specifically in regards to the exercise, it is more than doing cardiovascular or aerobic workouts to burn the calories.  Common belief was that weight lifting or strength training was something only done by athletes or by those rehabbing an injury.

Recently the benefits of strenth training have been discussed in detail with the general public.   Some of these benefits include preventing Osteoporosis, decreasing the pain associated with Arthritis, making daily activities easier (climbing stairs or carrying groceries), and improving ones balance and co-ordination.

So how does strength training figure into weight loss?  To begin with, you would burn between 200 - 300 calories with a moderate intensity, 40 - 60 minute weight lifting session.  As you become stronger, you increase what is known as your fat free mass.  That is the part of you that is muscle, water, body organs etc.

More specifically we are increasing the muscle mass which in turn boosts your metabolism.  By boosting your metabolism you burn more calories each day than you would before adding the muscle mass.  So by burning more daily calories, you are taking a proactive step to losing weight.