How Weightlifting Changes Your Metabolism

A good metabolism is important for a number of reasons. Most people want a good metabolism to be able to lose weight and burn fat. So, what is metabolism? Metabolism refers to the process that the body uses to break down nutrients and convert them into usable energy. But, if your metabolism is slow, it can be hard to lose weight and burn fat. First of all, you can always out-eat your body’s ability to metabolize. However, through weightlifting you can actually start to change your metabolism for the better! This can at least make it a little easier for you to maintain a healthy weight. And, you can stop doing so much cardio all the time!

How Does Your Metabolism Work?

Your metabolism is the process by which your body converts food into energy. This process is essential for life, as it provides the energy needed to power all of your body’s functions.

There are two types of metabolism: catabolism and anabolism. Catabolism is the breaking down of molecules to release energy, while anabolism is the building up of molecules to store energy.

Your metabolism is constantly working to maintain a balance between these two processes. When you eat, your body breaks down the food into nutrients, which are then used for energy. If you consume more calories than you need, your body will store the excess as fat.

You can influence your metabolism by exercising, as this can help to increase the number of calories you burn. Additionally, certain foods can boost your metabolism, such as those that contain protein or caffeine. This is why fat burner pills will contain high amounts of caffeine. It is hoped that by providing a stimulant all of your body’s processes will speed up, including its metabolism.

When you perform cardio, you are essentially forcing your body to metabolize the calories it has available at the time to provide energy for the workout. This energy is derived primarily from carbohydrates or fat depending on the intensity of the workout. 

Weightlifting also burns calories during the workout but actually benefits you more after the workout. So let’s talk about that! 

How Does Weightlifting Change Your Metabolism?

Weightlifting works by training your muscles more than your heart. So cardio will typically burn more calories during your workout but weightlifting burns more calories after your workout by increasing your metabolic rate both immediately after the workout and while at rest.

When you weightlift, you are tearing down muscle fibers which then have to be rebuilt stronger. This could be one of the reasons for the increased metabolism following a workout because it requires anabolic processes. This is referred to as EPOC (excess postexercise oxygen consumption). Weight training causes wear and tear on the body and needs more oxygen and calories to help repair and recover. One study found that resting metabolic rate (RMR) stayed elevated for up to 38 hours following a weight training session! The amount of this afterburn effect is dependent on the intensity of the workout and types of training. Compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses will create a greater effect as they incorporate multiple large muscle groups at once.

Not only does weight training create an afterburn effect, it also increases your metabolism while at rest. Your body has a set resting metabolic rate based on your body composition. A larger person burns more than a smaller person for example. So your muscles also burn calories at rest and at a higher rate than fat. A pound of muscle burns about 6 calories per day which is 3 times what a pound of fat burns. So if you were to increase your muscle mass while reducing body fat through weight training, you could weigh the same but burn more calories throughout the day.

It is not a huge difference in the short term but they found that after 24 weeks of weight training, men increased their metabolic rate by 9% and women 4%. Even with men over the age of 50 they found they could increase RMR by 7.7% with 16 weeks of weightlifting. You may look at that and think that it isn’t a huge difference, but these studies also only represent about 4-6 months of strength training. Muscle takes months to build so it would make sense that if they only could gain a few pounds of muscle during that time that would be the result.

Weightlifting is a long term fat loss project unlike cardio. The longer you lift weights and eat right, the more muscle you will be building which just continues to increase your resting metabolic rate. It may take a few years for a lifter to put on 30 lbs. of muscle for example. So keep at it because what you’re aiming for is healthy long term body composition.

The Takeaway

I know some of you may be wanting to think that all you have to do is lift weights and build muscle and then you will be able to eat whatever you want. However, increased muscle mass may only burn a few hundred calories extra a day for most individuals. That can be destroyed with one big piece of bread for example. So you really have to be disciplined with your diet as well if you want to have good body composition. It is nearly impossible to outwork a bad diet.

Good health and low body fat requires a combination of a good diet, weightlifting, and some cardio as well. You really need to implement everything to achieve the best results though it is important to not neglect weightlifting. Many new people at the gym are afraid of it and just want to do cardio. However, you will maximize your results by capitalizing on both cardio’s ability to burn calories during a workout and weightlifting’s ability to burn calories while at rest.

So implement both and don’t consume way more calories than you need for your body and you will be doing great in no time!