NYTimes: Dispelling Lighter Weight, Higher Reps Myth page

[Steve-O]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/health/06real.htm

Short article dispelling the notion that high reps and lighter weight is the key to slimming down and toning up. Article says the difference between bulking up and slimming down/toning up is caloric intake. Bulking up requires a much higher calorie consumption.

[AppalachianMatt]

All these years when I was doing low weights/high reps to get cut.

[Stabby]

It seems like all of the time the primal method is being reaffirmed by actual evidence. How many trainers have switched from chronic cardio and endless sets to what they call "interval training", and we have known by observation that sports like football and basketball where energy is expended in short, intense bursts are far more useful than running an hour on the treadmill.

And of course calories expended during a workout are meaningless in the context of weight loss. "You don't lose weight to get healthy, you get healthy to lose weight". Eating has way more to do with resting metabolic rate than any amount of calories burned during those long and punishing workouts ever could. And the more intense the bursts, the strong and therefore healthier one will be.

[Jokaman70]

I've always scoffed at conventional wisdom when it comes to fitness. I'm glad that all these years I've been loading up enough weight to bend the bar!