How Resistance Training Increases Fat Burning and Prevents Lean Muscle Loss When Dieting

 

Several different studies have shown that resistance training can increase fat burning substantially.    An August 2021 study from the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences found that resistance exercise regulate fat cell metabolism at the molecular level.

In response to mechanical loading muscle cells release “extracellular vesicles” (particles) that give fat cells instructions to go into fat burning mode.

John McCarthy, Ph.D., study author and associate professor in the UK Department of Physiology stated:

“To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of how weight training initiates metabolic adaptations in fat tissue, which is crucial for determining whole-body metabolic outcomes,” McCarthy said. “The ability of resistance exercise-induced extracellular vesicles to improve fat metabolism has significant clinical implications.”

In addition to helping burn fat resistance training prevents the loss of lean muscle and reduction in resting calorie burn that occurs during any type of prolonged caloric deficit (aka dieting!).

In a study where woman were put on a very low calorie diet (only 800 calories per day and NOT recommended!) woman were put into one of three groups:

1.     One group did aerobic exercise only

2.     One group did resistance training.

3.     One group did no exercise

While all three groups lost substantial weight – only the resistance training group kept all their lean muscle (and actually gained a tiny bit) and their resting calorie burn (resting energy expenditure) only went down what would be expected from their significant weight loss.   The other two groups lost muscle and had severe drops in resting energy expenditure.

This is particular bad because it means that they are almost guaranteed to gain all the weight/fat back since they have a slower metabolism.