One of the big problems people face when dieting to lose weight is to diet in a way that keeps the body from losing muscle. Unfortunately this is very difficult because as you decrease your caloric intake your body will begin to break down muscle to use for energy to replace what it is no longer receiving from your diet. The reason this is so bad for long term weight loss is because your muscle is what contributes the most to your daily metabolism so the less you have means the lower your metabolism will be. It is this problem with dieting that causes most people to fail to lose any real weight when they go on diets and why so many people get frustrated and give up trying to lose weight. There is a simple solution for this problem which is to do some weight training while you are dieting which will not only help you to maintain your muscle but, when done properly, can even increase the amount of muscle on your body which will increase your metabolism and greatly help your weight loss effort. Research has shown that when weight training is combined with a caloric restricted diet there is no loss in muscle while the same caloric restricted diet without weight training, even with aerobic training, caused a substantial decrease in muscle mass and a corresponding decrease in metabolism.¹ The lesson is clear here, anytime you go on a diet make sure to do some weight training to maintain your muscle in order to achieve real weight loss success from your diet.