Weight lifting helps women win the battle with overweight

Overweight women can arm themselves not only with sneakers but also with weights, a new study suggests. According to researchers, weightlifting burns calories for at least another hour after a workout. Aerobic exercise, jogging burns more calories during the workout itself, but the metabolism speeds up less than an hour after the workout. “For maximum benefit, women should combine cardiovascular workouts and resistance workouts,” says Carol A. Binzen, an exercise physiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The study included 12 women between the ages of 24 and 34 who weighed regularly but were not “sports enthusiasts”. One day, the women performed a 45-minute weight-lifting exercise, during which they exercised the main muscle groups - chest, shoulder, leg, back muscles, biceps, and triceps. The next day, the women didn’t do any resistance training, just watched the movie. A comparison of calorie burns revealed that, on average, women burned 155 calories in two hours after a weight-lifting workout, and 50 calories when watching a movie. “The results of this study suggest that typical resistance workouts accelerate fat burning even for low-trained young women,” the authors conclude. Binzen and colleagues argue that an even greater impact may be felt by women who have previously had a sedentary lifestyle and who have started weight-lifting workouts. However, all women should consult a doctor before starting a workout program. Resistance training not only speeds up metabolism, but also strengthens bones and muscles, and thus protects against osteoporosis, a disease that thins the bone.