Lifting weights is good for losing fat

Until now, resistance training was ‘pigeonhole’ like muscle buildingAnd for good reason: lifting weights or working against your bodyweight while doing push-ups and squats dramatically increases the size and strength of your muscles. But a growing number of studies suggest that the Bodybuilding it also transforms the metabolism and reduces the waistline.

At the University of Kentucky School of Medicine, for example, they found that resistance exercise had powerful fat loss benefits, in addition to shaping the body and speeding up metabolism. How does he do it?

The study, which involved mice and people, found that after exercising with weights, muscles create and release tiny bubbles of genetic material that can flow into fat cells, initiating processes related to their combustion.

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Researchers knew that when weights are lifted, muscle cells release genetic material that scientists previously thought were simply wastebut in their experiment, they found that the white fat cells actually pick up this released material, and when they do, it triggers the process of lipolysis or fat burning.

“It is suggested that muscle and fat communicate with each other through exosomes or vesicles released by cells and coordinate energy production,” said John McCarthy, study co-author and associate professor. in the Department of Physiology of the Faculty of Sciences of the University. of Kentucky Medicine.

“The study contributes to an emerging appreciation of skeletal muscle. Its main function is to generate strength and move the body, but maintaining the muscular mass this is important for overall metabolic health: by building muscle mass, you have a favorable impact on body composition. »And if you want a lean body? “Make sure you do this exercise before any other,” say the experts.

Part of the effect occurs because the muscle is metabolically active and burns caloriesTherefore, adding muscle mass through lifting should increase energy expenditure and resting metabolic rates. After six months of heavy lifting, for example, your muscles will burn more calories just because they are bigger. But that doesn’t fully explain the effect, as adding muscle mass requires time and repetition, while some of the metabolic effects of weight training on fat stores appear to occur immediately after exercise.

Another study published in the June issue of PLOS Medicine found that people who exercised with weights several times a week had a “20-30%” lower risk of becoming obese later in life. The study notes that the link between weight lifting and obesity was “consistent across several subgroups,” including both genders and participants of all ages.

Over the past decade, the idea that cells and tissues communicate across the expanse of our body has become an accepted theory, although the complexity of the interactions continues to be studied.