Pump It Up
As you get older, your resting metabolic rate drops, but weight training can rev it right back up again. A pound of muscle burns up to nine times the calories a pound of fat does. A woman who weighs 130 pounds and is muscular burns more calories than a sedentary 120-pound woman of the same height.
Regular strength training can increase your resting metabolic rate anywhere from 6.8 to 8.0 percent. This means that if you weigh 120 pounds, you could burn around 100 more calories a day, even when you’re just surfing the Web.
If you don’t have the time or the money to hit the gym you can still get excellent results with only two 15-minute lifting sessions a week. Completing just one set of 10 reps provides about the same muscle-building benefits as three sets, as long as they’re performed to muscle fatigue.
Weight training also gives your metabolism a short-term boost. When women lift weights, their metabolisms remain in overdrive for up to two hours after that last leg curl, allowing them to burn as many as 100 extra calories on lifting day.