Lifting

tara_means_star

Those of you who have been at this a while and incorporate strength training into your routine...does it slow weight loss?

Psychgrrl

Not at all. Eventually, more muscle means a more efficient (slightly) metabolism plus a leaner look. You may initially retain water as your muscles hold onto it to help repair themselves. Benefits faaaaaaar outweigh any temporary water weight gain.

DaddieCat

You might see a brief bit of water weight gain at the beginning, and the day after a lift session as water flowing into the muscles carries nutrients and aids in the tissue repair process. This will balance itself out and is nothing to be concerned over.

Overall, if you are tracking intake accurately and logging accurately, it will only aid in your weight loss goals as time progresses. The key there being tracking and logging accurately as these are far more important to fat loss than what type of exercise you are doing.

As long as you are in a caloric deficit, you won't gain any mass (or very much outside of initial beginner gains since you can't build something out of nothing) but you will gain some strength and improve your health as well as help you body maintain your lean mass while assuring more of your loss comes from fat as opposed to the lean mass loss that also accompanies weight loss.

*edited to correct spelling of a word that changed the meaning of a sentence.

Asher_Ethan

BecomingBane wrote: »

You might see a brief bit of water weight gain at the beginning, and the day after a lift session as water flowing into the muscles carries nutrients and aids in the tissue repair process. This will balance itself out and is nothing to be concerned over.

Overall, if you are tracking intake accurately and logging accurately, it will only aid in your weight loss goals as time progresses. The key there being tracking and logging accurately as these are far more important to fat loss than what type of exercise you are doing.

As long as you are in a caloric deficit, you won't gain any mass (or very much outside of initial beginner gains since you can't build something out of nothing) but you will gain some strength and improve your health as well as help you body maintain your lean mass while assuming more of your loss comes from fat as opposed to the lean mass loss that also accompanies weight loss.

Allllllll this.

tara_means_star

Just so I know what to expect...assuming I gain some water weight 1. is there a way to know it's just water weight and I'm not unknowingly eating at maintenance or above? and 2. When could I expect the water weight to disappear and return to my regularly scheduled rate of loss?

DaddieCat

Water weight will fluctuate daily and come and go throughout the whole process. There is no really effective means of discerning one from the other... you will just need to track your general weight loss trends over time. If, after several weeks, you aren't seeing losses that are consistent, you will need to make adjustments to your calorie and macro goals... but it's not something that can be discerned over a day or a few days.

You need to prepare yourself for the fact that this will be a time consuming process and adjust your thinking to that fact. Weight loss is not linear, either. So you might see losses some weeks and not others. As long as you are not consistently gaining you will be fine. If you see the trend moving upwards rather than downwards it's either time to adjust calories and macros, tighten up your logging methods (weight in grams for all dry foods, and ml for all liquids), or consider seeing a doctor to determine if there is a medical reason that you might not be losing such as hormonal, thyroid, etc.

Give the MFP method some time. There are literally thousand upon thousands of people who have succeeded by using MFP guidelines and accurate logging. Be patient. Your lifestyle will need time to adjust, and weight loss is a slow process unlike what the media would have you think.

tara_means_star

I've been losing weight but I'm thinking that I want to incorporate exercise into my life more, including lifting. Largely for the health benefits and keeping LBW. I'm lost 25 pounds and have been consistently losing, which is nice to see. I mainly want to know what to expect because otherwise, I know I'll see the scale thrown off and want to stop working out unless I know what to expect.

Sued0nim

Yes lift

You will be delighted you did

tara_means_star

I understand you lifted during weight loss rabbit...what should I expect with weight loss, water weight, etc..? Knowing what to expect will help me stick with it.

Sued0nim

Well I started training at the same time I started losing weight so basically it's normal to me to have fluctuations

I use trendweight.com (it synchs MFP entered weights via my fitbit ...you can also set up a fitbit account without owning one and synch that to MFP) which gives me good charts of my fluctuations

I work out with a trainer on a Wednesday ..and alone Mondays and Fridays mainly

And I'm a woman so ovulation and pmt lead to water weight too

When losing I would look at averages over 6-8 weeks, in maintenance I just check my extrapolation ever so often ...but basically accept 5lb fluctuations around goal as normal

riffraff2112

I lifted during my weightloss also. I do not think it slowed me down at all, I lost pretty consistently 2 lbs a week.
Recommended, it has worked wonders for my daughter also.

tara_means_star

Awesome, thanks guys!

amyepdx

I've been weight training since the beginning and not only do I see & feel the benefits, I believe it has contributed to my average loss coming out at 1.5 lbs a week with only a 1 lb a week deficit set for my calories because I don't add any exercise calories for those workouts.

cnbbnc

This sounds lame to say, but just trust it and what everyone is telling you. As long as you know you're eating at a deficit (and logging correctly) you'll know any temporary weight gain you see isn't due to your diet. I haven't been lifting for very long, but I did see my weight go up a pound or so when I started. It would last a couple days and then drop off. Then it would go up again. LOL! But...overall I was still seeing weight fall off consistently. I was losing inches too.

Lifting does work! Give it a chance.