Chapter 3: Weight Management 52 Figure 3.5. Hierarchy of Factors for Nutrition Just above nutrition, proper sleep and stress management plays the next most important role in effective weight management. We will be talking more about sleep and stress in Chapter 4. At the top of the list is hormonal balance. Although this topic will not be discussed in detail, hormones play a critical role in weight management. In addition to controlling blood sugar levels and insulin balance, hormones regulate our metabolism and therefore are intricately connected to the amount of fat gained or lost. After sleep and stress management, exercise is the next most important factor in effective weight management. Just as with nutrition, there also seems to be a hierarchy in terms of the effectiveness of exercise in promoting fat loss (Cosgrove, 2019). As depicted in Figure 3.6, resistance training (e.g., metabolic resistance training, high-intensity resistance training, traditional resistance training) is believed to be more effective than endurance training (e.g., high-intensity interval training, low-intensity steady state) in terms of losing body fat and keeping it off. Additionally, some forms of strength training seem to be more effective than others in terms of promoting fat loss. According to Cosgrove (2019), the most effective exercises for losing body fat are metabolic resistance training (MRT), high-intensity resistance training (HIRT), and traditional resistance training. Metabolic resistance training (MRT) involves performing multiple sets of a compound lift at various loads. For best results, the compound lift used should either be a total body (e.g., deadlift) or lower body (e.g., squat) exercise. The last set is comprised of at least three micro-sets with short intra-set rest periods interspersed (e.g., 20 seconds). The unique programming and execution of MRT is believed to result in a higher post-exercise caloric expenditure, up to four times higher, than traditional low-intensity steady state exercise (Cosgrove, 2019).
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