Confused About Weights

eeelizabeth2012

I love weights. I can easily do them every day for 30 mins (all the time I have over lunch hour). I am not trying to "bulk up" but rather, I want to tone and have heard that lifting will help you lose weight. I am aware that muscle weighs more than fat. That is okay, because it also looks different. I was reading a forum last night talking about how lifting weights means gaining weight, only. And that people should try and lose their weight and then focus on lifting? This does not make much sense to me. Can someone help me understand?

AliceDark

In order to gain muscle and "bulk up," you need to be lifting weights AND be eating at a surplus. Plus, it's really difficult for most women to bulk anyway, so you don't need to worry about that.

When you lose weight, you're not just losing fat -- you're losing fat, muscle, blood volume, everything. To some degree, there are things you can do to minimize muscle loss and increase fat loss. The point of lifting weights while you're eating at a deficit is to help you keep the muscle mass you already have, so you're losing proportionally more fat as you lose weight.

So...if you like lifting, great! Absolutely keep doing it while you are losing weight. You'll be happier with the end results of your weight loss if you're lifting the whole time.

djkkrissa

Okay lifting weights wont make you manly or anything. It will help you gain muscle. If you want to just tone i suggest using light weights with your exercises. If you do want to gain muscle go up in weights. Say you wanted bigger thighs. Then put a bar on your shoulders while doing squats.

AllTheNoms

Yes, lift! Retain as much LBM as you possibly can and you may even benefit from newbie gains ...but don't worry, as a woman it would be difficult to end up bulky.

hill8570

eeelizabeth2012 wrote: »

I was reading a forum last night talking about how lifting weights means gaining weight, only. And that people should try and lose their weight and then focus on lifting? This does not make much sense to me. Can someone help me understand?

It's very difficult to pack on muscle while eating at a deficit. If you're a beginner, you'll get a significant strength increase and maybe a small amount of muscle increase ("newbie gains"). The main win for lifting when you're dieting is that it keeps your body from using your existing muscle for fuel (muscle sparing) -- otherwise your body will happily burn both fat and muscle.

FitFitzy331

eeelizabeth2012 wrote: »

I was reading a forum last night talking about how lifting weights means gaining weight, only. And that people should try and lose their weight and then focus on lifting?

That is terrible advice. I have no idea where that came from but please ignore it. Use the search function and you'll see that most of the MFP forums discuss how you should start lifting immediately upon deciding you want to lose weight. Weight loss comes from consuming less calories than you are using in your day to day activity. Lifting heavy will not make you bulky. If you want to try to lose more body fat than lean muscle, you should lift heavy weights and try to increase your protein intake. Find a beginners lifting program, stick to it. Use a food scale and accurately track everything you are eating. You'll lose weight, retain more muscle and be fine.

cwolfman13

You can lift weights and lose weight...you can lift weights and maintain weight...you can lift weights and gain weight. The difference between the three outcomes is your energy (calorie) consumption.

silentKayak

Lifting is great! You should absolutely keep doing it, especially since you love it. It will not interfere with weight loss unless it makes you so hungry that you eat a lot more.

Depending on your program, you may not burn a lot of calories while strength training. There's usually some recovery time built in (waiting between sets), so hour for hour you'll probably burn more calories doing cardio (running, biking, etc). But that only matters if you're not losing weight, or having trouble sticking to your calorie intake goal. I do cardio exercise so I can eat more

If you wanted to gain a lot of muscle, it would be different. Then we'd tell you to lift heavy & eat a lot for big gains. You'd gain a bunch of muscle, but also a bunch of fat - really not appropriate if your primary goal is weight loss.

alisonstory

It's Spot on ! Listen to these people lift lift lift !

RavenLibra

As I understand it: to lose weight a calorie deficit is required... therefore you can lose weight in 3 ways... reduce your caloric intake and NOT exercise, increase your activity (exercise) level to where you don't need to reduce your caloric intake to be in a deficit OR a combination of the first 2...

The first tactic is good for folks that have a large amount of weight to lose... because.. they just might not be able to engage in meaningful physical activity due to medical conditions or physical limitiations... OR they are learning to eat healthier and understand portion control.

The second tactic... probably best for folks that already understand the benefits of a healthy diet, are capable of moderate to extreme physical activity and are not limited by physical or medical conditions...

the third tactic... is the lifestyle WE should all strive to attain... when what we have learned about diet and exercise comes together in harmonic balance... where we exercise on a daily basis and see food as fuel and on occasion an indulgence we have worked for.

ultimately... exercising.. for strength and stamina (lifting and cardio) provides our bodies the ability to make better use of the fuel we ingest so that it stores less fat...and stimulates us to participate more fully... we become healthier physically and mentally so that when confronted with the choice of sitting around or getting up and getting out... WE will choose to get up and get out and move...

it should be stated that... when a body is comprised of more ,ore muscle than fat.. that it burns more calories more efficiently so it becomes harder to store fat...

and MUSCLE is denser than fat... a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat... BUT you can put a pound of muscle in a smaller box than you can a pound of fat.

Sam_I_Am77

hill8570 wrote: »

eeelizabeth2012 wrote: »

I was reading a forum last night talking about how lifting weights means gaining weight, only. And that people should try and lose their weight and then focus on lifting? This does not make much sense to me. Can someone help me understand?

It's very difficult to pack on muscle while eating at a deficit. If you're a beginner, you'll get a significant strength increase and maybe a small amount of muscle increase ("newbie gains"). The main win for lifting when you're dieting is that it keeps your body from using your existing muscle for fuel (muscle sparing) -- otherwise your body will happily burn both fat and muscle.

The "newbie" gains are largely neuro-muscular in that your nervous system is adapting to the movement of your body plus adding some load in different positions. It different for everybody but let's call it a 12-week period and then your neuro-muscular gains will plateau and improvement will need to be made muscularly. At this point, your strength improvement will likely slow down. You really don't need to work about experiencing significant hypertrophy.

_lyndseybrooke_

So much wrong. So much.

1. For the love of all that is holy, you will not "bulk up" from lifting weights unless you're eating at a calorie surplus. Even then, getting muscular is extremely difficult for women to do and, believe me, it won't happen on accident.

2. Lifting weights will "help" you lose weight in the same way any exercise helps you lose weight. It's a few extra calories burned, meaning you can eat more and still maintain your deficit. Weight lifting does not magically get rid of body fat, nor does cardio. Weight loss happens in the kitchen; fitness happens at the gym.

3. Muscle does not weigh more than fat. Stop saying that. You are correct, however, that a pound of muscle and a pound of fat, though they weigh the same, look quite different from each other.

4. Lifting weights does not mean you automatically will gain weight. Refer back to #1 and #2.

5. Too many people wait until they get to their goal weight before doing any strength training because they're looking to "tone up" after the excess fat is gone. There is no logic to that approach. You strength train while losing weight to MAINTAIN your muscle mass, not gain it. You gain strength while eating at a deficit and lifting, but you most likely won't gain much muscle. Muscles need calories to grow. And muscles do not "tone," they either get bigger or they get smaller. The "toned" look women want is just low body fat - it has little to do with lean muscle mass.

In short: Eat enough. Lift heavy things. Sleep. Repeat. Reap all the benefits.

RGv2

djkkrissa wrote: »

Okay lifting weights wont make you manly or anything. It will help you Maintain muscle. If you want to just tone i suggest eating at a slight deficit and lift within some sort of progressive overload program. If you do want to gain muscle, lift in that progressive overload program, but eat at a surplus.

Fify.

Say you wanted bigger thighs. Then put a bar on your shoulders while doing squats.

This is just a wut?

Th3Ph03n1x

Eat at a deficit and lift heavy. You will lose weight and hopefully retain most of your muscle.

I don't get the pound to pound comparisons. 10 lbs of ping pong balls weigh the same as 10 pounds of bowling ball too so that statement is meaningless.

lili61

LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »

So much wrong. So much.

1. For the love of all that is holy, you will not "bulk up" from lifting weights unless you're eating at a calorie surplus. Even then, getting muscular is extremely difficult for women to do and, believe me, it won't happen on accident.

2. Lifting weights will "help" you lose weight in the same way any exercise helps you lose weight. It's a few extra calories burned, meaning you can eat more and still maintain your deficit. Weight lifting does not magically get rid of body fat, nor does cardio. Weight loss happens in the kitchen; fitness happens at the gym.

3. Muscle does not weigh more than fat. Stop saying that. You are correct, however, that a pound of muscle and a pound of fat, though they weigh the same, look quite different from each other.

4. Lifting weights does not mean you automatically will gain weight. Refer back to #1 and #2.

5. Too many people wait until they get to their goal weight before doing any strength training because they're looking to "tone up" after the excess fat is gone. There is no logic to that approach. You strength train while losing weight to MAINTAIN your muscle mass, not gain it. You gain strength while eating at a deficit and lifting, but you most likely won't gain much muscle. Muscles need calories to grow. And muscles do not "tone," they either get bigger or they get smaller. The "toned" look women want is just low body fat - it has little to do with lean muscle mass.

In short: Eat enough. Lift heavy things. Sleep. Repeat. Reap all the benefits.

All this, all day.

eeelizabeth2012

Thank you everyone for the advice. Maybe the forum I read was about "bulking" specifically. Either way, I will keep doing what I am doing.

randomtai

LyndseyLovesToLift wrote: »

So much wrong. So much.

1. For the love of all that is holy, you will not "bulk up" from lifting weights unless you're eating at a calorie surplus. Even then, getting muscular is extremely difficult for women to do and, believe me, it won't happen on accident.

2. Lifting weights will "help" you lose weight in the same way any exercise helps you lose weight. It's a few extra calories burned, meaning you can eat more and still maintain your deficit. Weight lifting does not magically get rid of body fat, nor does cardio. Weight loss happens in the kitchen; fitness happens at the gym.

3. Muscle does not weigh more than fat. Stop saying that. You are correct, however, that a pound of muscle and a pound of fat, though they weigh the same, look quite different from each other.

4. Lifting weights does not mean you automatically will gain weight. Refer back to #1 and #2.

5. Too many people wait until they get to their goal weight before doing any strength training because they're looking to "tone up" after the excess fat is gone. There is no logic to that approach. You strength train while losing weight to MAINTAIN your muscle mass, not gain it. You gain strength while eating at a deficit and lifting, but you most likely won't gain much muscle. Muscles need calories to grow. And muscles do not "tone," they either get bigger or they get smaller. The "toned" look women want is just low body fat - it has little to do with lean muscle mass.

In short: Eat enough. Lift heavy things. Sleep. Repeat. Reap all the benefits.

This X a million.