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Relax. I could have said "weight training" and really freaked you out.

Resistance Training is actually an excellent form of aerobic conditioning that most people overlook. If you don't believe me, stand up and start doing squats while you read the rest of this page, and then see if your heartrate and breathing have changed at all.

Something as simple as walking up a hill, or a set of stairs is a form of resistance training.

You don't always have to lift your bodyweight over your head with barbells to get credit for strength training. Anytime you are using your own bodyweight like in push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups, squats, lunges, etc.. It is resistance training, which is weight training, which is helping build muscle, which will help burn calories even while you sleep.

Huh?

Women in particular get a little cautious when you start talking about building muscle, because most people are aware that muscle adds weight. However...

IT TURNS YOU INTO A FAT BURNING MACHINE!

Muscle needs fuel, and if you are on a healthy diet and exercising your body will quickly burn through all the food sources that you provided. As you head into the night (and hopefully you are not snacking) your muscles will send a message to the brain that they are still hungry.

The brain contacts the stomach and the stomach says, "We're on empty down here." Then in even simpler terms the brain tells the fat cells, "Okay, gang you gotta melt down."

Because the muscles burn so much fuel your body is forced to turn fat into food for your muscle. This process takes place even while you sleep.

So it pays to put on muscle, which is done through resistance training, which is also aerobic conditioning.

Now with that said, guess what I'm bringing up next? The bigger the muscle the hungrier the muscle gets. So, the first thing that comes to mind are the legs.

The quadriceps (front thigh), hamstring (back thigh) and your calf muscles make up a large portion of your muscle mass. Heck, might as well include the glutes (a.k.a. your butt).

Get a bicycle! I don't care how old you are. It's fantastic exercise and an excellent form of transportation as well. Ride it to and from school. To and from work. Run your errands on it. You will see pounds start to fly off, AND you want to talk about AEROBIC EXERCISE?

I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about. If you rode your bike for an hour, keeping a brisk pace of 15 m.p.h. you would burn close to 600 calories if you weighed 150 lbs. Now throw in some hills, or go up to 20 m.p.h. and you'll burn 1,000 calories. The more you weigh the more you burn!

Okay, Winterland friends who think I don't know about not being able to ride a bike in the winter. I grew up in Western New York in what's known as the snow belt. So I know you folks get plenty of exercise shoveling and walking through four feet of snow wearing 80 pounds of clothing.

However, I also know that being cooped up all winter makes it easier to eat more. So now would be a good time to check out the major culprit in our that keeps the pounds on.