Fat Loss Mistake Number 1: Being afraid to build muscle!

One thing I love is lifting weights! And one thing I hear over and over when a new client steps into the gym is ‘I don’t want to get bulky I just want to lose weight so I only want to do light weights.’

Let's just break this down…

The reality is, the goal is not to lose weight but to lose fat. One kilo of fat will look very different to one kilo of muscle, so a far better gauge than the number on the scale is the number of your dress size. If your clothes are feeling looser but the number on the scales remains the same (or goes up!) trust that you are heading in the right direction.

In a nutshell, the purpose of weight training is to break down muscle forcing it to rebuild stronger than before to avoid being damaged again – the power of evolution! If you are lifting a weight that does not place enough load on the body you won’t stimulate the growth of new muscle tissue and as a result your body will see little to no change.

Before you say ‘but I don’t want to build muscle!’ let me explain a few reasons why building muscle is a must if your goal is fat loss…

Building muscle increases your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) causing you to expend more calories throughout the day even when you are not exercising.
Muscle is active body tissue. It consumes calories simply by existing. This means the calories you take in are more likely to fuel your muscles, which require a lot more energy than body fat does.
Muscle is smaller tissue than body fat so its likely to reduce your size and body shape, for example a 63kg female with 15% BF will look significantly different to a 63kg with 25% body fat.

So now I have your attention, I'll get back to my point…to build muscle you must first stop lifting light weights! 15-20 reps on an isolated body part (s bicep curl at 2 - 3kg for example) is not going to get you results quickly.

You will see far quicker and better results working in the rep range of 8-10 reps x 4 sets on compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, chin ups and bench press. These exercises are your big bang for buck lifts meaning they use multiple muscles at one time, far more efficient and guaranteed to get the heart rate firing!

The key is to use enough load where you are close to failure on the 8 - 10th rep to really stimulate muscle growth. You can superset (meaning do two exercises back to back) an accessory exercise to get in as much work as you can during your session.

An example lower body workout would be:

4 Sets of 8 - 10 Reps: