Serious Eats
Ed Levine's Serious Diet, Week 87: Do Weights Help You Lose Weight?
"Will the weights help me lose weight or just license to eat more?"
Last week many of you suggested I vary my exercise regimen to lose the last 15 or so pounds I want to lose. Specifically, a couple of serious eaters mentioned that weight training could re-set my body's thermostat and rejigger my natural metabolism.
This notion intrigued me. I've never been much of a workout person. In fact, I've never worked out regularly, though I did take spinning classes regularly about ten years ago.
I do love to play sports that involve hitting and chasing balls, though. I play squash three times a week year-round, and when on vacation, I switch to tennis. But maybe I do need to augment my squash and biking with some weight training.
It may not be as much fun as squash, and it may not get me to work fast the way my bike does, but if it will help me lose these last so-hard-to-drop pounds I'm all for it.
The real question is what kind of weight training? Free weights? Machines? If the answer is machines, what kind? Maybe it's some combination of free weights and machines.
And here are the million dollar questions: Will the weights help me lose weight or just license to eat more? Or will they just reshape the weight I have arrived at? Perhaps, in the best of all possible worlds, the weight training will reset my body's thermostat. Wouldn't that be swell?
The Weigh-In
It's been a struggle all week, but we shall see what we shall see right now: 217. Up two pounds. Maybe it is time to hit the weights. And, I'm afraid to say, eat less.