[Doug]

Although any type of execise is beneficial to losing body fat, lifting weight (resistance training) is by far the most important factor for changing body shape. Not only does it help to tone your muscles, (which other forms of exercise doesn't) but plays an integral role in promoting fat loss. The reason for this is that the metabolic properties of muscle tissue. Muscle is the most metabolically active (burns calories) tissue in the body. For each pound of muscle you carrry, you burn an additional 50 calories per day, and you burn these calories on a continual basis even whilst lying on the settee watching the TV.

So if you put on an extra five pounds of lean muscle tissue you would burn an additional 1750 calories per week, regardless of activity level. Assuming that the food intake remained constant, those extra 5lb's of muscle would result in a fat loss of approx 23 lb in one year..!

Also resistance training promotes a significant higher level of calories burnt after training, this is called excess postexercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). Even greater than cardio training, with effects lasting for more than 30 hours. So although you may not expend as much energy during exercise performance, weight training allows you to burn a greater amount of body fat in total.