When it comes to shedding fat, most of us picture hours on the treadmill. However, this cardio-first approach overlooks several key principles of weight loss.
Board-certified internist and medical director of Your Laser Skin Care, Dr Eleonora Fedonenko, is adamant cardio is not the full picture.
She told GB News: “I get it, and spent years watching patients run themselves into a plateau before I started pushing resistance training instead.”
Strength training is what she now considers “the single most ignored fat loss tool” available.
The body burns more calories maintaining skeletal muscle at rest
|
GETTY
The reason lifting weights beats running for burning fat comes down to how metabolically demanding muscle tissue actually is.
“The truth is skeletal muscle is metabolically expensive, meaning that your body burns more calories maintaining your skeletal muscle even at rest,” Dr Fedonenko explained.
Research suggests muscle burns roughly four to six calories per pound daily, while fat tissue only uses about two calories per pound.
While this difference might sound small, it adds up quickly over time. As Dr Fedonenko put it: “Muscle permanently increases the floor on how much your body burns daily.”
She also points out for anyone who has ever lost weight only to gain it back, it is not about lacking willpower.
“Aggressive caloric restriction signals a threat to your body, and thus your metabolic rate decreases, and your body becomes more efficient at running on less fuel,” Dr Fedonenko explained.
When you diet hard, leptin – the hormone that tells humans they are full – plummets. Meanwhile, ghrelin, which triggers hunger, shoots up.
In other words, hormones end up working against people as the body is essentially fighting to return you to your previous weight.
Aggressive caloric restriction causes the metabolic rate to plummet
|
GETTY
As a smarter approach, Dr Fedonenko recommends gradual weight loss while keeping muscle intact, which gives your hormones time to adjust to a new normal rather than constantly fighting against you.
Dr Fedonenko has observed repeated cycles of restriction and re-feeding can accelerate oxidative stress and damage collagen integrity – something she sees reflected in the physical appearance of patients at her clinic.
In her decades of practice, the patients who kept weight off long-term were almost always those who made strength training part of their routine.
