Working out can be viewed in many different forms in people's eyes. There are so many different forms of working out for instance, body building, weight lifting, cardio, high interval training, yoga and so much more. Of course with all of that you have to put into consideration that everyone's body takes differently to different workouts and exercises. Also on top of that everyone has different goals that they are trying to reach and accomplish. For instance some people are trying to get to a certain physic to compete in a bikini competition or something along those lines, or maybe build muscle mass and become stronger to compete in a lifting competition or there are cases where people just workout because they enjoy it and enjoy living a healthy lifestyle and keeping their body fit. I am going to discuss a couple key factors having to do with lifting weights and the way people view that type of information and the knowledge that people have and what they think things do. I would like to first talk about why people should add weight lifting into their workout routines in order to burn more calories and enhance fat loss faster rather than just doing constant cardio. Then I'm going discuss how specifically women seem to have this belief that if they start to lift weights they are going to become "big and bulky". Lastly I want to inform people of the difference between fat loss and weight loss and how they are two very different things. 

So many people now-a-days seem to believe that in order to lose fat, you need to jump on a treadmill for hours and just run. With lots of research that has been done and is always still being done that is not the case at all. When you run you burn calories at that moment, but once you are done running there isn't much more calorie burning going on after the fact. Bodybuilding.com has done some research towards this and found that "Studies have demonstrated that after a weight training workout, the metabolism can be boosted for up to 36 hours post-workout, meaning rather than burning say 60 calories an hour while sitting and watching TV, you're burning 70" (Shannon Clark). Thinking about this in terms of trying to lose weight, I think this already gives you a great view on how to look at losing weight and how much that will end up adding up in the end. Livestrong.com also has a great informative article about weights versus cardio. They give a great example of how to look at weight lifting and how to visualize what it does for you and how it helps you. "Think of it like this: Muscles are "thirsty" from a metabolic perspective. The more muscle you have, the more fuel you are constantly burning" (Mike Robertson) They way this is worded and the visual picture they draw for you is great using the descriptive words to really help you expand and see further into the situation. I came across a website called nerdfitness.com and I honestly thought this would be a joke of a website and really not help me out at all. I decided to give it a chance though and look further into it and I read the whole article and I actually loved everything he had to say and how he presented his information. Always with another website for you to further look into the subject he was informing you on at the time. He mentions certain exercises specifically that are great for promoting weight loss with weight training. "Exercises that recruit the largest number of muscles (squats, lunges, kettlebell swings, squat thrusts, burpees, inverted rows, pull ups, and push ups)" (Steve). All of these exercises are going to be great to help boost your metabolism which will allow you to help increase calorie burn resulting in weight loss. Lastly to finish up from a website called caloriesecrets.net they tend to lean a little more towards cardiovascular exercise that is going to help you lose weight faster. Here is one thing they do say though that is very important when it comes to weight lifting that people don't realize and then they step on the scale. "Muscle also weighs more than fat, so if you are doing resistance training, you may not notice any difference on the scales" (Naomi Tupper). This is crucial when it comes to people worrying about weight loss. Yes, you may be lifting weights now and gaining muscle but the number on the scale isn't necessarily going to go down. This is because muscle weighs more than fat which may make you think you are gaining weight but you're really gaining muscle and I can almost guarantee you that your figure will most likely be enhancing to a physic that you have been trying to reach towards. I myself have been weight lifting for a little under a year now and I hate cardio it's like my enemy, but I have decided to add cardio into my workouts to help burn a little extra calories at the end of my workouts. But the twist I put on my cardio is first, I always do my running after my lifting, this is because if you run before you lift you use all your energy while you run so when you go to lift, you don't have all your energy so your body ends up taking the energy from your muscles resulting in you losing muscle mass which you don't want of course. 

Being a girl you always have people say things to you about the fact that you lift weights and if you do your going to become "big and bulky", this is NOT the case at all. In the womenshealthmag.com they discuss the best way for women to weight lift. "Those two sessions a week can reduce overall body fat by about 3 percentage points in just 10 weeks, even if you don't cut a single calorie" ( Lauren Aaronson). If that doesn't sound intriguing to you then I don't know what does. This helps to show that one your know going to become a huge macho women if you lift weight, it actually helps reduce your body fat, so it's helping you lose the weight you are trying to burn off. In another article from womenshealthmag.com they give you 12 reasons why you should start lifting weights. "Muscle loss mass may drop your scale weight, but it doesn't improve your reflection in the mirror and it makes you more likely to gain back the flab you lost" (Adam Campbell). This is great that they say this because it really puts everything into perspective, because it helps you visually be able to see that you may be losing weight, but that doesn't mean it is fat, it could very easily be muscle which is the complete opposite thing you would want to be losing. Now that there is some reasons as to why you should add weight lifting to your workout schedule, here is some information about the best way to gain lean muscle mass. "Train like a man, look like a lady. Do not be afraid of bigger weights! If you lift like the boys, your body produces testosterone in order to adapt to the big stress that you place on it, and this helps build muscle" (Jay Cardiello). This is great for ladies to remember, women don't have nearly as much testosterone as men do. With that being said that is what keeps women from becoming "big and bulky". If you can lift the weight lift it, don't go light just because you think you are going to gain too much muscle. Your body produces the testosterone to help you get to where you want to be. On lifehack.org they give you 6 reasons why women should lift weights. "The less lean muscle you have on your body, the more fat your body will store, and the harder it will be to lose weight, or even maintain a weight you're happy with" (Alon Shabo). Basically this helps you see that the more muscle you have on your body, gives less room for fat. You are not necessarily going to be dropping weight, but you will most likely be dropping pants sizes, and seeing a different figure in the mirror, a more toned, lean, stronger and confident person. They also had a study done and "In one study on over 700 females, lifting weights for just 25 minutes three times per week led to the gain of nearly two pounds of muscle, and the loss of four pounds of fat" (Shabo). This is another great visual to see that females lifting weights were able to shed off pounds of fat, not even having cardio in their routine. Which that also ties in with my first point that weight lifting helps enhance fat loss faster than just doing cardio every day for hours a day. All of these web sites really help you see different reasons why women should start adding weight lifting into their routines. The last point that I want to address is the difference between fat loss and weight loss. This is something that a lot of people probably don't know the difference between or don't even realize there is a difference. This is something that is really going to change people's views on weight lifting and why they should start adding it into their routines. In general the difference between fat loss and weight loss is one obviously fat loss is clearly fat that you have lost off of your body. Now when you think about weight loss you think of the number that pops up on the scale when you get on it. Obviously people think automatically that if the number goes up you have gained weight and if your number has gone down you have lost weight. This is not the case at all though. Your number could easily go up and it can be an increase in muscle rather than fat, which is a good thing. Or the number could go down on the scale and that may also not mean you have lost fat completely. In a video they discuss the difference between weight loss and fat loss and how you can correctly measure whether or not you have lost fat or not. He explains how you use certain tools and machines to measure your body fat and which ones measure certain parts of your body. He also explains how a scale is not going to show you any type of fat loss at all so he really tried to express how much that he does not like the scale and feels that you shouldn't get on it every day because it will mentally get into your head even if you think it won't you still will put that in the back of your head. On the website tonygentilcore.com he discusses the difference between weight loss and fat loss and this is also a discussion with a client that he works with. "Far too often  --  at least in my experience, and this may or may not pertain to you  --  women get overly caught up on what the scale tells them. Weight loss can be completely subjective, and the truth of matter is the scale really doesn't tell you anything" (Tony Gentilcore). This is his first response to his client so he really makes sure he gets his point across that the scale means absolutely nothing for the fact of the matter of actually losing fat. He then goes on to explain to her the difference between muscle and fat in your body. "One pound of muscle weighs the EXACT same as one pound of fat  --  well, DUH!!  --  the difference, however, is that muscle is more dense than fat and takes up less space" (Tony Gentilcore). This is great how he explains this because he really helps you visually see that they may weigh the same but the amount of space they take up is completely different, which then also changes the figure of your body. These are only a few of the great points that Tony Gentilcore provides for his client about the difference between fat loss and weight loss. 

Doing more and more research on this topic is crazy because you seem to always find something new. First with workouts and which one is going to help you burn the most calories and help promote fat loss the fastest. Weight lifting all together is just going to enhance your chance of fat loss. It allows you to burn calories during and even hours after which is something you are not able to get just from doing cardio. Now I'm not bashing cardio all together because I do believe you should have a couple days with cardio in it at the end of your workouts to really help boost your metabolism but would always recommend doing cardio after your workouts. I personally do cardio three days week they are every other day and the first and third days are 10 minutes of interval running and the second day is just a full cardio day of 45 mins of interval running which really helps get your heart rate going up and down giving you that extra metabolism boost. Along with all of this I truly do believe that women need to start adding weights into their workouts more often. Even if it is just two or three days a week at a low weight, it is better than nothing at all. It is really going to help you get that extra burn and really help shed off those last extra pounds of fat that are being stubborn and not wanting to come off as easily as the rest. Than wrapping everything up with explaining the difference between fat loss and weight loss is huge now-a-days I think. A lot of people don't have as much knowledge about that information so I think that is something important people really should be informed on. Especially considering a lot of people think that the second they see the scale go up or down they think they are gaining fat or losing it when that may not be the care at all. Weight lifting and cardio, women and weight lifting, and fat loss versus weight loss are all big topics to discuss but they can also connect to each other in many different ways. If everyone starts to become more aware of how all of these things intertwine and affect their body in a positive way I think more people will one start to care more about their body, health and lifestyle and two I think it will also help people be more open to other options of working out rather than just always doing one type of workout training every day.

