I’ve been a personal trainer for a number of years. More years than I can count on my hands anyways but that’s besides the point. In the beginning I worked at a bigger box gym and was the personal trainer that would take you around and show the machines, and back then people were afraid of bulking up and looking like a body builder. They didn’t want to look like a body builder, they just wanted to lose weight.

And the more things change, the more they stay the same. I still have to field those concerns, though it has gotten better. I think a lot of it really has to do with association. They see big jacked body builders lifting weights in all the advertisements and they just associate weights with that.

This scares some people off of using weight training as part of a fat loss program. And it’s a shame because it can be a critical component. Here’s why…

Well before we dig into why…let’s clarify something really quick. It’s not weight loss we are after. I mean, if it was, then crashing a motorcycle might be the greatest program for that. No what we really are talking about is fat loss.

And in order to create fat loss, we need to be in a caloric deficit. As in calories in vs. calories out. When it is in a caloric deficit, your body needs to use calories to maintain basic functions, and instead of getting them from food, it uses up stored energy in the form of body fat…or at least that’s the hope.

The reality is, it can burn up stored body fat…but it can also burn up stored sugar in the form of glycogen or it can even burn up your muscle tissue.

The importance of weight training, is that it signals to your body “hey…we need the muscles, see we use them…don’t burn them up…burn the body fat instead.”

In addition to that, it improves metabolism and insulin sensitivity (both good things btw) and last but not least, it makes you stronger more muscular. I know that might not be something you’re interested in but bare with me.

When you go through a body transformation program there are a number of things that happen. Yes people get leaner and their bio markers of health improve, but what also changes is their sense of self effectiveness. They walk down the street with confidence knowing that if something comes up, they got this. If they need to move a couch or something, they got this. They want to go to the beach, they have a body they feel more comfortable putting on display.

No they won’t look like a body builder, but they’ll have the strength, the physique and the physical capacity to live life on their own terms. If this is something that sounds good to you and you’re looking for help, I offer a free trial at my personal training studio on Main Street in Boonton. Just send me a text at 973 476 5328 to get started.

Eric Moss is a personal trainer in Boonton and moonlights as a world-record-holding modern-day professional performing strongman, author, and motivational speaker. In the tradition of the strength performers more common during the turn of the century, he performs feats of strength such as bending steel and breaking chains as part of a live show and travels across the country doing presentations on goal achievement for conferences, corporations, associations, nonprofits, and government entities as well as for schools and universities. His personal training studio is located on Main Street in Boonton New Jersey and is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville, Montville, Butler, and Parsippany New Jersey.