Overview
Weight lifting builds muscle, which increases overall body strength, tone, and balance. Muscles also burn calories more efficiently than fat and other body tissues. So even at rest the more muscle tissue a person has the more calories a person is burning.
Review Date 4/10/2022
Updated by: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.