Maximising Your Fat Loss with Weight Training

Please note that information and research studies referred to in this blog were found from Jim Stoppani’s “Encyclopedia of Muscle & Strength, 2nd Edition.” Please note that in this blog we are not even touching upon nutrition, this is purely based on training.  

When you limit your reps to 6 reps in the set you boost your metabolic rate for 2 days after the workout, this is more than double that of using a weight for 12 reps. However your total calories burned for that individual workout is much higher when using a weight lifted for 12 reps rather than a heavier weight for 6 reps. So a combination of both heavy weight training and lighter weight training is the key to the best fat loss results.

The more sets you do the more calories you burn. Minimum of 20 sets per workout and maximum of 30 sets is a good number to aim for.

Research has shown that doing reps fast in an explosive manner can burn more calories both during the workout and after your workout while you rest. Burn 11% more calories when using a 1 count for the concentric phase (positive part) of the exercise and a 2 count for the eccentric phase (lowering part)

It is not a good idea to do ALL exercises in an explosive manner. Choose a few exercises to make explosive and leave some slower.

One of the most critical variables for maximising fat loss is your rest periods between sets. Generally speaking the less you rest, the more calories you burn.

Cutting rest from 3 minutes to just 30 seconds can more than double the calories you burn in that workout. Also leads to a bigger increase in metabolic rate boost that follows the workout.

Forced reps with help from a partner helps you go past failure rate and has shown to lead to a higher increase in growth hormone levels rather than just taking the set to failure.

Supersets enhance calorie burning and therefore fat loss. A study found that super setting opposing muscles such as chest and back lead to a 35% increase in calories burned compared to the same workout without supersets included.

How much you train impacts on how much fat you lose. The more you train, the more calories you burn therefore the more fat you lose. Another reason more frequent workouts leads to greater fat loss is that when you train muscle groups more frequently, you need to train more muscle groups per workout. This means that you have more muscle tissue that is recovering after the workout is over. After workouts your body is in a state known as oxygen debt. That means it needs more oxygen to burn more fuel (calories) to recover from the workout. With more muscle fibres needed to recover, the calorie burn stays higher for longer.

The way in which you design your training program can significantly affect fat loss. Incorporate compound free weight exercises, explosive and baliistic training exercises, use heavy and light weights, vary repetition ranges according to the weight used, keep rest periods short, use supersets and forced reps, train muscles more frequently.

You obviously can’t employ these in every workout so spread them out as best you can and swap techniques every 3-4 weeks.

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