Health benefits of resistance exercise
Proper exercise not only helps weight management, but also with blood sugar, mental health and more.
“You are probably aware that approximately 70 percent of American adults are overweight or obese. However, you may not know that almost 70 percent of our adult population are presently attempting to lose weight through dieting. It would therefore appear that dieting alone is not an effective weight loss strategy, and research clearly supports this observation by concluding that dieters who maintain weight loss are rare exceptions.
Weight Management
The problem with dieting is that it results in both fat loss, which is desirable, and muscle loss, which is undesirable. Muscles are the engines of the body, so muscle loss is always accompanied by metabolic rate reduction, which invariably leads to fat regain. So what is the solution? Strength training. Dieters who do 20 minutes of resistance exercise (weights, pushups, pull-ups, etc.) twice a week concurrently lose fat and gain muscle. Our weight loss studies have demonstrated that dieters who perform basic resistance exercises lose about 8 pounds of fat and add about 2 pounds of muscle over a 10-week training period. Therefore, people who want to attain and maintain a desirable body weight should follow a sensible diet plan and perform regular strength training.”