Losing weight is something that people all across the world try to do on a daily basis. Unfortunately, people often stick to the treadmill, running, biking or various other forms of exercise to help them lose weight fast. This does usually help in the beginning as you are burning more calories, and from that losing weight. But what if there was a better way to lose weight? What if you could actually lose weight while you were sitting and doing nothing? When you do cardio, you only burn calories when you are doing the actual activity. That means every other minute of the day, while you are chatting with friends, watching a movie, or doing desk work, you are not burning a large amount of calories. The good news, is that there is actually a way to INCREASE the amount of calories you burn at rest. Let’s see how you can do it!

Lose Weight Without Cardio

One of the most important things you need to be doing to burn more calories at rest is not cardio. Instead, we need to look at what burns calories at rest. Your organs, and muscle tissue all burn calories when you are sitting and doing nothing. Since we can’t grow our organs and have them burn more calories, we can, however focus on the muscle tissue. When you build more muscle, your body uses extra calories all for maintaining the muscle you have built. This is why getting more muscle is much more advantageous for long term weight loss success. But how can one maximize muscle to burn calories at rest? Read below, and make sure to implement every part of the outline below, otherwise you may never be able to fully lose the weight you want for yourself!

Burn More Calories at Rest Through Muscle Building

Resistance Training

Resistance training is the best way to build muscle for yourself. Lifting weights, using resistance bands, or even doing bodyweight activities, challenges your muscles and forces them to grow. Without this stimulus, you won’t be able to get far in building much muscle, so this is where you need to start. If you need a daily low impact program to follow, we created one that you can find below! Many beginners have used this program to help them start out!

Eating Enough Calories and Protein

If you are not eating enough calories and protein your muscle will not grow. Protein is considered the building blocks of the entire body. This means that when we eat enough protein, we are able to rebuild the muscle that is broken down during working out. Don’t stop at just the protein! Make sure you are eating enough calories in general. If you under eat on calories, you will not be able to recover as well, which could hinder your muscle growth! If you are interested in checking out my favorite protein powder I use to help improve my protein intake, you can check out my Amazon Associate link here.

Managing Stress

Stress is a huge part of our lives. Unfortunately, if you don’t manage your stress, your body (and muscle) will not be able to recover as efficiently as it could. This means that you are leaving muscle mass on the table, burning LESS calories at rest. Manage stress through self care, meditation, and talking with friends.

Doing Light Cardio

I know you are probably losing your mind reading this right now, but here my out. This isn’t your normal going out for a long run, type of cardio. This is going out for a very light walk, bike ride, etc. The idea with doing light cardio, is that it helps to promote blood flow and muscle recovery. The better you can recover from your resistance training, the better your muscle will grow. Once this happens you can of course, burn more calories at rest. Make sure that your cardio isn’t TOO hard, otherwise it might affect your muscle growth. Although you don’t need a treadmill, they work as a great way to get in some light cardio. Here is the treadmill we recommend if you don’t have one. Treadmill LINK.

Sleep

Lastly, make sure you get enough sleep. In addition to all of the other ways to improve muscle recovery, sleep will help tremendously. Cutting down on your sleep, will leave you under recovered from life and your workouts, leading to less muscle growth. In addition, if you are tired from not sleeping well, the chances of you working out again is very low.

These are a few of many great ways to improve your muscle mass, and burn more calories at rest. Make sure to stay consistent, and you will be burning more fat in no time!!

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