Is weight training worth it in my situation?

Oceanborn2

Loose skin, barely any muscle to begin with (sedentary), and I need reduce my body fat a bit. I often hear that lifting retains LBM, and also that the lbs you would've lost from muscle will instead come from fat, but what if you don't have any 'muscle' to begin with?

I also will never be able to lift for physique (at least very much) due to loose skin, so a heavy weight lifting routine for tons of mass doesn't seem like that great of an idea.

With all of that in mind, will lifting really help target fat better? I want to be really trim/slim rather than a meat head.

DopeItUp

Lifting is pretty much always worth it, barring complicating medical issues. You don't have any muscle now, so you want to lose what little you have? Think about that for a second. Plus, having more muscle can help fill in the that loose skin you have from all the missing fat too. All the MORE reason to pick up the weights.

DavPul

Your own first paragraph answers your question. Why so much cardio typing out the last two paragraphs?

eatgoodeat

DavPul wrote: »

Your own first paragraph answers your question. Why so much cardio typing out the last two paragraphs?

Oceanborn2

As I said in the OP I won't be able to fill it up with muscle. Unless I get on roids or something.

I guess I should've explained a bit further, but I want to get rid of this extra 15lbs is all. The part I'm confused on is about how lifting when in a caloric deficit supposedly burns fat more efficiently. Are there any studies on this?

[edited by MFP Mods]

eatgoodeat

I'm going to ignore your poor attitude, lack of sense of humor and assumptions and say that there's an multitude of benefits to strength and resistance training while you are in a deficit trying to lose weight, it's not isolated to just lifting weights.

I'm not a scientist nor do I care to be when it comes to the physiological field but what my high school science education tells me is that everything is energy. I can understand that, when you do resistance training for strength in a deficit, long after you are done with the activity your body is repairing itself to get stronger for the next round of stimulation, which takes energy, it pulls energy in this order. I don't really care if livestrong.com is credible or not, I'm not writing an academic paper but you can go down the rabbit hole of internet education for yourself to find more studies on this topic but I get the logic to how it burns fat efficiently.

Hell if science says I can be burning fat while i'm sleeping just from doing some body weight yoga stances or picking up a Barbell, that's great efficiency! Does it work? Do I need case studies to prove it to me? Nah, I just look at the people around me that live the results @DavPul, @DopeItUp and many many others on MFP and the rest of the world

You don't have to be a "meat head" to care about wanting to have a strong enough back to help you walk upright or strong enough legs to push yourself up if you fall, strong enough arms to carry a gallon of milk to your fridge

do it not to only burn fat but to enjoy all the other benefits too

Sued0nim

Oceanborn2 wrote: »

Loose skin, barely any muscle to begin with (sedentary), and I need reduce my body fat a bit. I often hear that lifting retains LBM, and also that the lbs you would've lost from muscle will instead come from fat, but what if you don't have any 'muscle' to begin with?

I also will never be able to lift for physique (at least very much) due to loose skin, so a heavy weight lifting routine for tons of mass doesn't seem like that great of an idea.

With all of that in mind, will lifting really help target fat better? I want to be really trim/slim rather than a meat head.

Do I look like a meathead?

You sound like you're making excuses not to put any effort in...stop it!

Yes fine you can lose weight just from following a calorie defecit, but your starting position, as you describe it, does not sound great

So yes...as with every other member of the human race, start a progressive heavy lifting programme your body and your ego will thank you for it

Karen_can_do_this

Lifting I'd worth it.
That's pretty much it.
It boosts your strength, your self esteem and is overall awesome!
I can't quote scientific research stuff but coming from personal experience?

Lifting rocks!

Patttience

In defense of the OP i think a couple of people on this thread have been pretty rude.

And to respond to your question, i am not a weight lifter but i'd say if you are going to take it up, then you'd probably want to be sure its something you want to continue for a long time otherwise, when you stop, you will just return back to where you started more or less.

It won't do anything much for loose skin. Depending on your age, i understand that time will resolve that since it takes a couple of years to completely regenerate a new skin. If you are past middle age, I wouldn't be super optimistic but then there's still bound to be some improvement over time if you can keep the weight off.

As per exercise, any exercise is good just choose something that you can sustain long term. So make sure its something you enjoy.

As for burning fat efficiently. I have no idea. However, bigger muscles do mean that you won't add fat as quickly as when you have smaller muscles because bigger muscles means they can store more glycogen which means you have longer before excess carbs are converted to fat (since glycogen is the carbs are held in the body after digestion. But of course if you are consistently over eating, nothing will change, you'll get fat.

rybo

Lifting (strength training) is always worth it. ALWAYS.
To convince yourself otherwise is foolish.

jemhh

Did you already lose a fair bit of weight to end up with loose skin? Heavier people tend to have a fair bit of muscle just due to needing it in order to move their bodies around. If you had started weight training earlier you would have retained more of that muscle. At this point you should start in order to prevent further wasting.

rileyes

Eat more protein and lift heavy things. I think strength training will get you better results than cardio. I would focus on pushing and pulling heavy things with some cardio thrown in.

rileyes

@jemhh my thoughts exactly.

lorrpb

You have muscles even though they might not be "strong". You can gain amazing strength quickly and it will help you in many ways. I say this from the viewpoint of someone who 1 yr ago barely had the strength to climb steps or get into our pickup. I am still prob "below average" on strength but can do much much more than before. I can see tangible strength gains every couple of weeks. I losing inches even faster than pounds and I've lost 100 pounds. There is no downside to strength training.

hamptontom

i've been doing cardio for a couple of months (walking, biking) and have just started lifting...it can be intimidating, or i should say it has been for me, for the simple reason that it's not as uncomplicated as walking or getting on a bicycle. there are wrong ways to do it, and there's risk of injury if you do it wrong...so there's both physical effort to be made, plus a degree of "accumulation of knowledge" - but like anything worth doing, it's worth it once you get some momentum.

Ironmaiden4life

rybo wrote: »

Lifting (strength training) is always worth it. ALWAYS.
To convince yourself otherwise is foolish.

^^^^THIS ......nuff said