Lifting. Good or bad for weight loss?!

Azdak

AnvilHead wrote: »

Refrigerator1 wrote: »

Personal trainer here.
1). Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound is a pound. Muscle is more dense so it takes up much less space.
2). Lifting weights increases your BMR which increases the amount of calories you burn in a day. You want this as you are losing muscle while you age.
3). You are majorly hungry when you lift, because you are burning calories not only during the lifting but after as well. There are tons of documented research that shows people burn calories at a much higher rate after lifting than after cardio alone. This is a good thing. I do think if you are that hungry, you need to re-evaluate your calorie intake.
4). How you lift is partly based on genetics and partly what you want to achieve. Lift heavy, get big. Lift lighter, get toned. Again, there are tons of lifting programs on the Internet. Keep in mind that genetics thing though. You may have to adjust your program to suit certain muscles. For example, your "thick lower body" that you never seem to lose. You may want to lower the weight some and do more reps. It sounds as if genetically, you seem to hold muscle there. Try going lighter with more reps to lose some of the bulk.
5). Are you at a happy, healthy weight? Do you like what you see in the mirror? Can you maintain the workouts/calorie allotment with ease? If so, just keep on keeping on. Do not worry about the scale. If any of the above three questions are a no, you need to adjust your plan to achieve your goals. Remember, it takes time. Be patient, keep up the good fight, and you will get there.

Hope, this answers your questions and was of some help...

I'd think any personal trainer would know/understand that:

1) "Lift heavy, get big" isn't true if you're in a caloric deficit. You need a caloric surplus, adequate protein intake and sufficient training stimulus targeted toward hypertrophy to "get big". Also, women produce very little testosterone, which is critical to muscle growth, so most women don't get appreciably "big" without exogenous testosterone supplementation (e.g., anabolic steroids).

2) "Lift lighter, get toned" is a useless statement. There's no such thing as "getting toned". A muscle either gets bigger (hypertrophy) or smaller (atrophy) - it doesn't "tone". What most people consider "toning" is actually just losing subcutaneous fat so that the muscles beneath are more visible/defined. Lifting lighter has absolutely nothing to do with it and will not "tone" muscles.

3) You can't spot reduce, and lifting lighter with higher reps will do absolutely nothing to reduce "bulk" in a specific area. If you're genetically inclined to have a larger lower body, then you have a larger lower body. You can lose the subcutaneous fat and appear slimmer, but you will absolutely not reduce the size of your muscles by doing low weight and high reps. This is hokum which sounds like it's straight out of the pages of some women's magazine.



In response to the OP's question: Lifting is not bad for weight loss. It burns calories and helps retain lean muscle mass while losing fat, which helps result in more favorable/aesthetic body composition as you lose weight. Strength training may slightly mask weight loss because your body retains water/glycogen to assist with muscle repair/recovery, but it doesn't slow or stop fat loss.

Wasn't going to pile on, but since you started ;-)

There's the whole exaggerated BMR part as well. While it is true that lifting weights *can* increase BMR for hours following exercise, there is no consensus as to the extent of the increase and the majority of research suggests that it is only 4-5 calories per hour max. While doing that regularly is not something to be dismissed, it is not the "furnace" effect that is often claimed.

DizzyMissIzzy

Azdak wrote: »

AnvilHead wrote: »

Refrigerator1 wrote: »

Personal trainer here.
1). Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound is a pound. Muscle is more dense so it takes up much less space.
2). Lifting weights increases your BMR which increases the amount of calories you burn in a day. You want this as you are losing muscle while you age.
3). You are majorly hungry when you lift, because you are burning calories not only during the lifting but after as well. There are tons of documented research that shows people burn calories at a much higher rate after lifting than after cardio alone. This is a good thing. I do think if you are that hungry, you need to re-evaluate your calorie intake.
4). How you lift is partly based on genetics and partly what you want to achieve. Lift heavy, get big. Lift lighter, get toned. Again, there are tons of lifting programs on the Internet. Keep in mind that genetics thing though. You may have to adjust your program to suit certain muscles. For example, your "thick lower body" that you never seem to lose. You may want to lower the weight some and do more reps. It sounds as if genetically, you seem to hold muscle there. Try going lighter with more reps to lose some of the bulk.
5). Are you at a happy, healthy weight? Do you like what you see in the mirror? Can you maintain the workouts/calorie allotment with ease? If so, just keep on keeping on. Do not worry about the scale. If any of the above three questions are a no, you need to adjust your plan to achieve your goals. Remember, it takes time. Be patient, keep up the good fight, and you will get there.

Hope, this answers your questions and was of some help...

I'd think any personal trainer would know/understand that:

1) "Lift heavy, get big" isn't true if you're in a caloric deficit. You need a caloric surplus, adequate protein intake and sufficient training stimulus targeted toward hypertrophy to "get big". Also, women produce very little testosterone, which is critical to muscle growth, so most women don't get appreciably "big" without exogenous testosterone supplementation (e.g., anabolic steroids).

2) "Lift lighter, get toned" is a useless statement. There's no such thing as "getting toned". A muscle either gets bigger (hypertrophy) or smaller (atrophy) - it doesn't "tone". What most people consider "toning" is actually just losing subcutaneous fat so that the muscles beneath are more visible/defined. Lifting lighter has absolutely nothing to do with it and will not "tone" muscles.

3) You can't spot reduce, and lifting lighter with higher reps will do absolutely nothing to reduce "bulk" in a specific area. If you're genetically inclined to have a larger lower body, then you have a larger lower body. You can lose the subcutaneous fat and appear slimmer, but you will absolutely not reduce the size of your muscles by doing low weight and high reps. This is hokum which sounds like it's straight out of the pages of some women's magazine.



In response to the OP's question: Lifting is not bad for weight loss. It burns calories and helps retain lean muscle mass while losing fat, which helps result in more favorable/aesthetic body composition as you lose weight. Strength training may slightly mask weight loss because your body retains water/glycogen to assist with muscle repair/recovery, but it doesn't slow or stop fat loss.

Wasn't going to pile on, but since you started ;-)

There's the whole exaggerated BMR part as well. While it is true that lifting weights *can* increase BMR for hours following exercise, there is no consensus as to the extent of the increase and the majority of research suggests that it is only 4-5 calories per hour max. While doing that regularly is not something to be dismissed, it is not the "furnace" effect that is often claimed.

As far as post exercise burn, I had read that the EPOC effect after high intensity work outs were as much as 6-15% of the total energy cost of the work out session.

Your BMR doesn't just stay elevated after the exercise, the more muscle you have the higher your BMR will be just because your body burns more calories to maintain the muscles that are already repaired.

bruhaha007

Since muscle weighs more than fat you could gain weight. The scale is only one measuring device and you should be taking measurements to look at total inches loss. We lose muscle as we get older so I think it makes sense to counter this affect by lifting and it helps burn calories as others have indicated. I am in favor of lifting as part of overall health improvement.

_Figgzie_

a caloric deficit is all that is needed for WEIGHT loss..........a caloric deficit and lifting weights is needed for FAT loss.
muscle doesn't weigh more than fat, it just takes up less space. if you lose 5 pounds of fat and gain 5 pounds of muscle, the scale will not change but you will see the difference as far as inches on your body. I wouldn't buy into the thought of "I didn't lose weight on the scale because I'm gaining muscle".......you will lose fat much quicker than you will gain muscle.

_Figgzie_

Refrigerator1 wrote: »

Personal trainer here.
1). Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound is a pound. Muscle is more dense so it takes up much less space.
2). Lifting weights increases your BMR which increases the amount of calories you burn in a day. You want this as you are losing muscle while you age.
3). You are majorly hungry when you lift, because you are burning calories not only during the lifting but after as well. There are tons of documented research that shows people burn calories at a much higher rate after lifting than after cardio alone. This is a good thing. I do think if you are that hungry, you need to re-evaluate your calorie intake.
4). How you lift is partly based on genetics and partly what you want to achieve. Lift heavy, get big. Lift lighter, get toned. Again, there are tons of lifting programs on the Internet. Keep in mind that genetics thing though. You may have to adjust your program to suit certain muscles. For example, your "thick lower body" that you never seem to lose. You may want to lower the weight some and do more reps. It sounds as if genetically, you seem to hold muscle there. Try going lighter with more reps to lose some of the bulk.
5). Are you at a happy, healthy weight? Do you like what you see in the mirror? Can you maintain the workouts/calorie allotment with ease? If so, just keep on keeping on. Do not worry about the scale. If any of the above three questions are a no, you need to adjust your plan to achieve your goals. Remember, it takes time. Be patient, keep up the good fight, and you will get there.

Hope, this answers your questions and was of some help...

great post!

AnvilHead

DizzyMissIzzy wrote: »

Azdak wrote: »

AnvilHead wrote: »

Refrigerator1 wrote: »

Personal trainer here.
1). Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound is a pound. Muscle is more dense so it takes up much less space.
2). Lifting weights increases your BMR which increases the amount of calories you burn in a day. You want this as you are losing muscle while you age.
3). You are majorly hungry when you lift, because you are burning calories not only during the lifting but after as well. There are tons of documented research that shows people burn calories at a much higher rate after lifting than after cardio alone. This is a good thing. I do think if you are that hungry, you need to re-evaluate your calorie intake.
4). How you lift is partly based on genetics and partly what you want to achieve. Lift heavy, get big. Lift lighter, get toned. Again, there are tons of lifting programs on the Internet. Keep in mind that genetics thing though. You may have to adjust your program to suit certain muscles. For example, your "thick lower body" that you never seem to lose. You may want to lower the weight some and do more reps. It sounds as if genetically, you seem to hold muscle there. Try going lighter with more reps to lose some of the bulk.
5). Are you at a happy, healthy weight? Do you like what you see in the mirror? Can you maintain the workouts/calorie allotment with ease? If so, just keep on keeping on. Do not worry about the scale. If any of the above three questions are a no, you need to adjust your plan to achieve your goals. Remember, it takes time. Be patient, keep up the good fight, and you will get there.

Hope, this answers your questions and was of some help...

I'd think any personal trainer would know/understand that:

1) "Lift heavy, get big" isn't true if you're in a caloric deficit. You need a caloric surplus, adequate protein intake and sufficient training stimulus targeted toward hypertrophy to "get big". Also, women produce very little testosterone, which is critical to muscle growth, so most women don't get appreciably "big" without exogenous testosterone supplementation (e.g., anabolic steroids).

2) "Lift lighter, get toned" is a useless statement. There's no such thing as "getting toned". A muscle either gets bigger (hypertrophy) or smaller (atrophy) - it doesn't "tone". What most people consider "toning" is actually just losing subcutaneous fat so that the muscles beneath are more visible/defined. Lifting lighter has absolutely nothing to do with it and will not "tone" muscles.

3) You can't spot reduce, and lifting lighter with higher reps will do absolutely nothing to reduce "bulk" in a specific area. If you're genetically inclined to have a larger lower body, then you have a larger lower body. You can lose the subcutaneous fat and appear slimmer, but you will absolutely not reduce the size of your muscles by doing low weight and high reps. This is hokum which sounds like it's straight out of the pages of some women's magazine.



In response to the OP's question: Lifting is not bad for weight loss. It burns calories and helps retain lean muscle mass while losing fat, which helps result in more favorable/aesthetic body composition as you lose weight. Strength training may slightly mask weight loss because your body retains water/glycogen to assist with muscle repair/recovery, but it doesn't slow or stop fat loss.

Wasn't going to pile on, but since you started ;-)

There's the whole exaggerated BMR part as well. While it is true that lifting weights *can* increase BMR for hours following exercise, there is no consensus as to the extent of the increase and the majority of research suggests that it is only 4-5 calories per hour max. While doing that regularly is not something to be dismissed, it is not the "furnace" effect that is often claimed.

As far as post exercise burn, I had read that the EPOC effect after high intensity work outs were as much as 6-15% of the total energy cost of the work out session.

Your BMR doesn't just stay elevated after the exercise, the more muscle you have the higher your BMR will be just because your body burns more calories to maintain the muscles that are already repaired.

A pound of muscle burns about 6 calories per day, a pound of fat about 2 calories per day. So if you lose 10 pounds of fat and put on 10 pounds of muscle (which is a sizable body change!), you'll have upped your calorie burn by around 40 calories per day - or about 1.667 calories per hour.

47Jacqueline

Actually building muscle is good for weight loss. The after burn from muscle building is an extra 5cal/ Hr. That may not sound like a lot, but over time it builds up.

rileyes

Refrigerator1 wrote: »

Personal trainer here.
1). Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound is a pound. Muscle is more dense so it takes up much less space.
2). Lifting weights increases your BMR which increases the amount of calories you burn in a day. You want this as you are losing muscle while you age.
3). You are majorly hungry when you lift, because you are burning calories not only during the lifting but after as well. There are tons of documented research that shows people burn calories at a much higher rate after lifting than after cardio alone. This is a good thing. I do think if you are that hungry, you need to re-evaluate your calorie intake.
4). How you lift is partly based on genetics and partly what you want to achieve. Lift heavy, get big. Lift lighter, get toned. Again, there are tons of lifting programs on the Internet. Keep in mind that genetics thing though. You may have to adjust your program to suit certain muscles. For example, your "thick lower body" that you never seem to lose. You may want to lower the weight some and do more reps. It sounds as if genetically, you seem to hold muscle there. Try going lighter with more reps to lose some of the bulk.
5). Are you at a happy, healthy weight? Do you like what you see in the mirror? Can you maintain the workouts/calorie allotment with ease? If so, just keep on keeping on. Do not worry about the scale. If any of the above three questions are a no, you need to adjust your plan to achieve your goals. Remember, it takes time. Be patient, keep up the good fight, and you will get there.

Hope, this answers your questions and was of some help...

I believe #4 needs some tweaking.

(Children, can we stop with the pound *kitten*?)

PearBlossom9

Weight lifting boosts your metabolism which in turn causes you to burn more calories over all. So maybe you burn 60 calories an hour sitting around watching tv but with that boost maybe you burn 70 an hour now. You can have a boost for a considerable amount of time after you have been weight lifting.