[Lost Dog]

If I had a time machine, I would go back in time to when I started to lose weight, and hit the weights hard from day one.

If you tell yourself that you want to wait until you've lost a bit (or a lot) before you start weightlifting, you're making a huge mistake.

It took muscle to move my top weight around. Muscle I didn't know I had. A year of dieting and cardio sure had me lose weight, but a good amount of that weight was muscle. I ended up light, but non-so-lean.

You might not want to be a muscle guy, but I'm sure you'd be happy to find a way to lose fat faster. And, that's the part that I don't think people realize.

The example of me: I was 232 and 30% body fat. That's 70lbs of fat.

Through diet and cardio, I got to 197 and 25%. That's still 49lbs of fat. I lost 35lbs, but only 21 was fat. I lost 14lbs of lean mass. What a waste.

I know, you're only worried about the fat part. But, consider that your 3500 calorie per week deficit lets you drop about one pound per week. One pound of something... Only 60% of that was fat, for me.

I hope everyone knows that weight training, resistance exercise, lifting weights, etc. not only builds muscle, but also lets you keep the muscle you have when you're trying to shed fat.

So, assuming I used my time machine, my second shot at the 197 would have left me closer to 20% body fat. Yep, I would likely have dropped 11 more lbs of fat!

I've been 25% and I've been 20%. There's a big difference.

What's the other big difference? Time. Without the weights, that 11 lbs of fat would have taken another 15-16 weeks to lose.

Cardio is fine. Eating right is essential. Weights are a blessing.

Don't waste the muscle you've got. Go lift some weights.*

* anyone who needs to be pointed in the right direction, just ask.