Is weight training the best way to lose weight? A friend of mine swears that once she started working out with weights the pounds started coming off. Is this true?

Weight training isn't the single best way to lose weight, but it is a crucial component of any fitness or weight loss strategy. In the past few years, we've really begun to focus on weight training as an integral part of weight control.

As we get older, we lose muscle mass; this loss is accompanied by a slowing of our metabolism. If your metabolism slows, you burn fewer calories. If you eat the same amount of food, the excess calories are stored as fat.

Fat is less dense than muscle, so the loss of lean, energy-consuming muscle is masked by the fact that there may be little or no total weight gain as measured on a scale. That's one reason we need to know our body fat percentage when undertaking a weight loss program. It's also why, when someone tells me they weigh the same amount they did in college, I tell them they had better start lifting weights. Of course, if someone is not exercising at all, the insidious effects of having a slower metabolism and requiring fewer calories is exacerbated, and that person will get fatter even more quickly.

When you add weight training to your exercise program, you can reverse the process of muscle loss. As you increase your overall muscle mass, your resting metabolism will accelerate. Not only will you become stronger and have more energy, you'll be leaner and have better muscle tone and definition. Who cares if you don't lose any weight on the scale? You might not, since muscle is denser than fat. Your clothes will fit better, anyway. Weight training also helps slow the loss of bone density, the leading cause of osteoporosis.

This is not to say you have to become a body builder. Here are some general weight training guidelines to follow:

• Two or three weight training sessions per week are enough.
• Make sure you choose exercises for all your major muscle groups: legs (quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus and calves), chest, back, shoulders, and arms (biceps and triceps).
• Use either free weights or machines.
• Keep the number of repetitions between eight and 15 per set.
• Lower weight and higher repetitions builds muscular endurance and increases definition. Higher resistance and fewer reps builds strength and mass more quickly.
• Never train the same muscle group two days in a row. Take one or two days rest between strength training sessions.
• You can even start "weight training" with your own body weight, by doing push-ups and lunges or squats at home.

I recommend getting some professional instruction at the Y, a fitness center, or a school. You can also read Weight Training for Dummies by Liz Neporent and Suzanne Schlosberg.

Weight training is not a silver bullet for weight control. You still must cut excess fat from your diet. You still need to do cardiovascular exercise, which burns more calories while you are exercising than weight training does. Weight training should be an integral part of a balanced approach to fitness and health.

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