Contrary to the common opinion and the impression that is given by many infomercials and ads about weight training workouts, many common exercises are not primarily designed to lose weight. Find out about the most common misconceptions in this article.

In general, weight lifting does not necessarily burn a lot of fat. Heart rate and overall fat burning capacity is relatively low, because many weight lifting workout routines address only a group of muscles at a time. Therefore, the same time spent in an exercise that engages more muscles at the same time will burn a lot more fat and energy.

However, there are exceptions to this generalization. You actually can get both done at the same time if you follow the guidelines in this related article about how to burn fat by building muscle.

Weight lifting workouts really strengthen specific muscle groups and build muscle. This can actually lead to an increase in weight, particularly if it is not accompanied by fat burning exercises and targeted nutrition adjustments.

A balanced “weight lifting workout” should consist of a cycle through different actual weight lifting exercises that are changed up with fat burning exercises like jogging or bicycle. It is also important to give the different muscle groups time to build and “digest” the strengthening exercises for certain time intervals before addressing them again with intensity.

It is also important to consider your overall workout goals and the time that you have available to put into the routines. Someone who wants to develop an overall fitness from scratch with a 3-day per week time availability will end up with a significantly different workout plan than a person who is in good shape and wants to build more strength in 5 workouts per week.

Most people who want to learn how to lose weight fast and gain better overall conditioning and fitness will get best results with a fitness workout routine that matches about 2 parts of fat burning exercises with one part of muscle and strength building.

This means if you are looking at a 3 day regiment, you can do two days of fat burning and conditioning, and one day of weight lifting. If you have the time to work out on five days per week, you can do three days of fat burning and conditioning, and two days of weight lifting and strength building. For best results switch between fat burning and weight lifting days.