Lift your way to a leaner you. Strength training is your secret weapon to leanness, despite the lingering weight loss myth that you should simply diet and do cardio.

You go to the doctor and the doctor tells you that you need to lose a certain amount of weight for your health. He questions why you lift and recommends you perform regular cardiovascular exercise.

What do you do? Lift your way to a leaner you (while ensuring you are in a slight caloric deficit).

You acknowledge that you could be a bit leaner, but you've been lifting for awhile. You look better with more muscle on your frame and you enjoy strength training.

More muscle increases your daily caloric expenditure, as it gives some of your incoming calories an additional place to go beyond fat gain.

Slow and steady weight loss, with consistent lifting and a healthy, high protein diet help minimize muscle loss during your weight loss. Ultimately, you want to be leaner, you do not really care about the number on a scale.

The doctor in the above scenario is a bit hyperfocused on BMI. Metrics, however, are supposed to measure progress. In this case, we are concerned about health and longevity.

You want more muscle but you also want to be leaner. Abandoning strength training, reducing calories, and adding cardio is likely not going to produce the body you envision. It is certainly not going to help produce a muscular body.

Conditioning or "cardio" is not really the best way to help increase the calories out part of the calorie equation. A better method would be to increase your daily low-level activity, such as increasing your steps.

Regardless, conditioning is really about improving your performance for certain tasks and improving cardiovascular health.

Lift your way to a leaner you.

PS - If you're interested in taking online coaching with Barbell Logic for a test run, check it out here.

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