Women-success with weight lifting.

mdove3411

I have seen a lot of women on here who have said that lifting weights was their main way of toning and loosing weight. I have always done pretty much just cardio other than using dumbbells with workout videos. I have over 100lbs to loose. I was doing turbo fire (which I absolutely LOVE) until I injured my knee. So now I am trying to let it heal before doing it again. My question is when talking about "weight lifting" where do I begin?? What exercises do I do? How much weight should I lift? I have also always said I wanted to loose a good bit first and then start lifting for toning, but is that wrong? Should I be doing it the whole time? I notice whenever I use weights with my videos I end up not loosing anything on the scale.. I know that this is from muscle but in your experience when did that stop and you start actually seeing the scale move? Tons of question... Anyone who's had great success & has the time can message me if you'd like. Also, as I mentioned my injured knee.. any workouts that you'd suggest that are easy on the knees?

Oh yeah: anyone who will share your success photos that would be awesome also!!

katebowen37

The cool thing about weight lifting is that it doesn't burn calories, but it builds muscle which raises your resting burn rate (You'll burn more calories ALL THE TIME the more muscle you have). Also, even though the scale doesn't go down, you do get skinnier and more toned (A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat). I do XTrain Fit videos which incorporate a lot of non-intensive weight lifting combined with cardio and I love them. Weights are great, the hard part for me is I need a preset routine.
Try googling weight lifting for an injured knee. My first thought is that you can do a couple of the biggies: bench press, seated military press, one arm rows, chest press. You can also do a lot of core exercises to work your back and stomach. Those are nice because they don't need a lot of weight, they use your body weight to work.
Also, to answer your question, you'll gain muscle faster in the beginning, but eventually that will slow down and your resting metabolism will be so high from the muscle that you will lose weight. Also, I'd say start with weights from the beginning. Who wants to be skinny if all their muscle got melted away with the fat? As for how much weight you can lift, it's super easy. How much can you lift? Start with 10lb. If it's too easy, go up. Too hard, go down. Every time you do that exercise, you'll slowly be able to do more.

ana3067

katebowen37 wrote: »

The cool thing about weight lifting is that it doesn't burn calories, but it builds muscle which raises your resting burn rate (You'll burn more calories ALL THE TIME the more muscle you have). Also, even though the scale doesn't go down, you do get skinnier and more toned (A pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat). I do XTrain Fit videos which incorporate a lot of non-intensive weight lifting combined with cardio and I love them. Weights are great, the hard part for me is I need a preset routine.
Try googling weight lifting for an injured knee. My first thought is that you can do a couple of the biggies: bench press, seated military press, one arm rows, chest press. You can also do a lot of core exercises to work your back and stomach. Those are nice because they don't need a lot of weight, they use your body weight to work.
Also, to answer your question, you'll gain muscle faster in the beginning, but eventually that will slow down and your resting metabolism will be so high from the muscle that you will lose weight. Also, I'd say start with weights from the beginning. Who wants to be skinny if all their muscle got melted away with the fat? As for how much weight you can lift, it's super easy. How much can you lift? Start with 10lb. If it's too easy, go up. Too hard, go down. Every time you do that exercise, you'll slowly be able to do more.

All exercise burns calories. Weight lifting burns calories.
Weight lifting will promote muscle growth if eating at a caloric surplus, and newbies can expect some slight newbie gains even in a deficit.
The scale can and will go down while lifting weights if eating at a caloric deficit.
OP will not gain muscle unless she eats at a surplus (above maintenance). One does not need to put on muscle before one loses weight while weight lifting.

Otherwise, lifting weights is a great way to minimize lean body mass losses while in a deficit. Simple full body routines are fine for beginners. Programs like Starting Strength, NROL, StrongLifts5x5, are probably all fine. I've only ever done my own programs or standard upper/lower or ABA BAB schedule. Lift as heavy as you can, in a deficit usually sticking to 3-6 rep range is more htan enough. If it's easy to do 3-4 sets of 6 reps, increase the weight. Eat enough protein (at least 0.82g per total weight, or your lean body mass in grams of protein), get lots of rest.

harlequin0318

This ^.

And it all depends on what is fun for you. Personally, i dislike cardio, so i choose to do very little, and use most of my gym time to lift heavy things.

stacibuk

ana3067 wrote: »

All exercise burns calories. Weight lifting burns calories.
Weight lifting will promote muscle growth if eating at a caloric surplus, and newbies can expect some slight newbie gains even in a deficit.
The scale can and will go down while lifting weights if eating at a caloric deficit.
OP will not gain muscle unless she eats at a surplus (above maintenance). One does not need to put on muscle before one loses weight while weight lifting.

Otherwise, lifting weights is a great way to minimize lean body mass losses while in a deficit. Simple full body routines are fine for beginners. Programs like Starting Strength, NROL, StrongLifts5x5, are probably all fine. I've only ever done my own programs or standard upper/lower or ABA BAB schedule. Lift as heavy as you can, in a deficit usually sticking to 3-6 rep range is more htan enough. If it's easy to do 3-4 sets of 6 reps, increase the weight. Eat enough protein (at least 0.82g per total weight, or your lean body mass in grams of protein), get lots of rest.

great tips