Weight Training Revs Up The Body Metabolism

February 9, 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

When weight training there is an increase in the proportion of type II fibers. A recent study showed that when there was a boost in the numbers of type II fibers in mice, that they had higher metabolic rate. The interesting thing about the finding is that the metabolic rate was not just increased in the muscles used in the weight training, but in other tissues in the body. The metabolism of fat cells and the liver was revved up too, and insulin resistance was improved in obese mice that had become diabetic.

This finding suggests that weight training will be of great benefit for anyone trying to lose weight. One of the problems for people on a diet is that the metabolism slows down, and remains at a lower level for quite a long time even after the goal weight has been achieved. It is likely with a restricted food intake that the body goes into starvation/survival mode and lowers the metabolic rate to conserve energy. Adding regular weight training sessions may well be the way to boost the metabolism at least back to the pre-diet level, if not higher. Therefore, weight training should both help with weight loss, and then maintaining the weight loss.

So yesterday, I decided to start weight (resistance) training. Today my triceps and abs, in particular, are sore. It was pretty pathetic how little weight I could lift and how few reps of the abs exercises I managed to do. I wonder if I will be inspired to keep it up this time. The book I used for the exercises (from a previous burst of enthusiasm) was Strength Training for Women by Joan Pagano.

For more information about the study, Weight Training Reduces Fat and Improves Metabolism in Mice, see Science Daily.

Technorati Tags: muscle fiber, weight training, metabolism