Growing up in an athletic family who loves sports and just always being active I have always had some type of drive and passion for always bettering myself. Over the past year or two I have really grown to love and have a passion for working out and lifting especially. I have basically been experimenting with my own body to see how it reacts and adjust to different styles of workouts as well as just individual workouts such as doing lower body twice a week upper body twice a week and then a day of cardio and a day of high intensity interval training (HIIT). The strong passion and desire for working out has grown for me tremendously over the past two years, just from watching my own body transform, and accept certain workouts that work for my body. Being able to inspire and motivate others to become closer with themselves, their body and learn how it react to certain things is awesome. I never would have imagined myself growing to love something as strenuous and frustrating as this. Going to the gym some days with a mindset that you are going to do a certain about of reps with so much weight and then your body just won't let it happen is one of the most frustrating things ever. Since I'm not playing softball anymore in school, this has become my next love, and happy place, where I go to release my stress and once I walk out the door I'm already ready for it to be tomorrow so I can be back there once again. Anyone could say they could research this information and write a paper about it, but the difference with me is that I have personally experimented through this topic, personally grown a love and passion for this sport on my own, not with anyone telling me to try it out or push me to do it. I think that is something that will really help me out in this paper to be able to get my point across. No one tells you to go to the gym and workout or eat right, all of that is your own choice, there is no one telling me what to do, I research questions and experiment all on my own to find out what works best for me and my body. Another factor to add to this is that I also want to become a nutritionist and work in a gym and work with clients to help better themselves. I am very excited to be writing about this and I feel that since this is a topic I have a strong desire for I think I really will be able to make a good argument and strong impact in my paper. 

In the first article I found "Does Lifting Weights Burn Fat Faster Than Cardio" by Naomi Tupper, she provides us with possible ways to burn fat faster. Tupper list benefits of weight training, resistance training and cardiovascular training to give a perspective at every angle. I have an interest in this article because like I have mentioned, I have basically been experimenting on my own body to see what works best for me. Just like mine, everyone's body works, adjust and reacts differently and I think this article is good for that because it shows all different outlooks on working out which I like a lot. Tupper says "A combination of cardio and resistance training gives a multitude of health benefits and will not only result in fat loss, but also tone, and strengthen your body." This is great and easily relatable at the time for me because this is basically what I am currently doing in the gym. Throughout the article Tupper mentions studies that have been done which gives her that extra bit of credibility to show that she has also done her research just like the rest of us. 

In this second article "What Burns more Calories: Cardio, Intervals, or Weight Training?" by Steve, just like the last article they also have given information on all types of working out, weight lifting, cardio, and high interval training. Now the author explained each type in depth as to how they work and also gave at least one source to do further research on that specific topic. I was very interested in this one as well because I wanted to see what Steve had to say about which workout allows you to burn the most calories which ultimately leads to fat loss. Steve mentions a very important factor that a lot of people don't want to take into consideration. "Your diet is responsible for 80-90% of your successes or failures." Now like the author said, it's mainly all in the kitchen with losing weight so just because you're working out does not necessarily mean you are going to lose weight. If you are eating more calories in a day then you are burning off, that fat will not be shedding off unfortunately it will probably be pounding on. That really caught my attention because again so many people don't realize the little things that have to do with weight loss, and watching what you eat is one of the biggest factors out there. This as well is a very credible source being that Steve had all those segments of information from people as well as links you could go to, to continue looking further into something which I felt was very helpful for people who aren't as knowledgeable on a subject. 

This last article "12 Reasons You Should Start Lifting Weights Today" by Adam Campbell, was aimed a little more towards women. At this point though it is not a bad thing in this case because it is entirely true that women don't want to lift weights just because they think are going to get "too bulky" even though that is completely false in every aspect. This article talks about how weight lifting will improve your overall health, stress, sleep and how you even burning more calories during and after your workout. Campbell explains some research that was done before and says "In fact, researchers found that when people did a total-body workout with just three big-muscle moves, their metabolisms were raised for 39 hours afterward." I really like how the he explains that and lets you know that even after your workout, if you were weight lifting you will still be burning calories when you are finished with your workout, which I would assume is what everyone would love to hear especially 39 hours after your workout! That's almost time for your workout the next day! The difference is that when you're doing cardio you're only burning those calories while on the treadmill, bike or track, and doing the same motion the whole time not working any extra muscles. When you are lifting weights you are using so many muscles in your body even ones you don't think are particularly getting targeted for the certain workout which allows your body to continuously burn extra calories during and after your workout. This source also has research and experiments that were done that they talk about to prove their points as to why weight lifting is good for you. 

I feel that this research question is a very good one to look into. So many people think the only way to burn off fat is to just get on a treadmill and run, but that is not the answer at all. From my experience as well as research I have done there is so much information and proven experiments to show you that lifting weights helps burn off fat during and after your workouts. I don't really have any disagreements with any of these sources when it comes to them supporting cardio or HIIT because I do believe you need some type of cardio at least once a week in your workout plan. They really did a great job explaining all of their information and giving points along with reasons as to why and how certain workouts burn the most calories and when they are being burned. The different perspectives were something I knew I was going to run into at some point. Especially with a topic that now a days I would say is in high demand for more and more information. Of course thought there are always going to be those people who think they just need to run and run to lose weight and if that's what they like and works for them then hey all the power to them. Everyone's body is different, accepts workouts differently or maybe is only capable of doing certain workouts. So when taking this research into consideration I had to have an open mind to what I was going to come across and how I would approach other people's views on information. This research just opened me up to more ideas options and maybe even some more things I can try out and experiment on myself one day, and hopefully be able to help other people find out what works best for them as well. 

