Should I focus on strength training?

FitnessGirl11mfp

Hello all,
So far I have lost about 47 lbs since my highest pregnancy weight of 210 lbs. I am now at 163 lbs and my LO is 4 months old. I have about 23 lbs to go until I am in a healthy BMI and need to lose about 33 lbs to reach my goal weight of 130 lbs.
Should I start to focus more on strength training in order to be toned by the time I reach my goal? I've been doing cardio including walking and circuit training. Should I start to focus more on meeting my macros? I have seen the term "recomposition" in the threads. Can someone please explain what that is?

TR0berts

RE: strength training. Yes, it's a good idea to do some sort of strength/resistance training. Anything from bodyweight exercises to barbell lifting. Without going into detail, some at least decent training routines include: New Rules of Lifting, Strong Curve, StrongLifts, You Are Your Own Gym. Many others, depending on what you have access and/or how you want to go about things.

RE: Macros. More or less, yes. General recommendations are about 0.8 g of protein per lb of lean body mass per day. As I'm guessing you don't know what that is, but you have a goal weight of 130 lb, I'd say anything around 100 g of protein a day is probably fine for you. Don't sweat being under here and there. Fat: about 0.3-0.4 g of fat per lb of total body weight per day. More protein or fat is fine. Carbs can be whatever, so if you're over on fats and/or protein, you'll be lower on carbs. That's fine.

Recomposition is simply maintaining your weight (within a range) while losing body fat. I'll leave this link here. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat#latest

FitnessGirl11mfp

TR0berts wrote: »

RE: strength training. Yes, it's a good idea to do some sort of strength/resistance training. Anything from bodyweight exercises to barbell lifting. Without going into detail, some at least decent training routines include: New Rules of Lifting, Strong Curve, StrongLifts, You Are Your Own Gym. Many others, depending on what you have access and/or how you want to go about things.

RE: Macros. More or less, yes. General recommendations are about 0.8 g of protein per lb of lean body mass per day. As I'm guessing you don't know what that is, but you have a goal weight of 130 lb, I'd say anything around 100 g of protein a day is probably fine for you. Don't sweat being under here and there. Fat: about 0.3-0.4 g of fat per lb of total body weight per day. More protein or fat is fine. Carbs can be whatever, so if you're over on fats and/or protein, you'll be lower on carbs. That's fine.

Recomposition is simply maintaining your weight (within a range) while losing body fat. I'll leave this link here. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat#latest

Thank you so much! Your post was helpful. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to exercise lol. I honestly thought that strength training meant dumbells and other equipment mainly found in the gym. After researching, I found that it can be as simple as squats. Good to know because it is a challenge going anywhere with a 4 month old.

lseed87

Do it! Really helps! I like mixing in cardio too.

FitnessGirl11mfp

lseed87 wrote: »

Do it! Really helps! I like mixing in cardio too.

Thank you so much :-) I am definitely going to incorporate strength training into my workouts.

middlehaitch

Here is a simple but effective bodyweight routine you can do at home.

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

Once you find it no longer challenging look to see how you can make it more challenging. There are dozens of plank variations you can work through.
If you are breast feeding you may find step ups a better option than jumping jacks.

Cheers, h.

FitnessGirl11mfp

middlehaitch wrote: »

Here is a simple but effective bodyweight routine you can do at home.

https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

Once you find it no longer challenging look to see how you can make it more challenging. There are dozens of plank variations you can work through.
If you are breast feeding you may find step ups a better option than jumping jacks.

Cheers, h.

Wow that link was super helpful. Thank you :-) I am totally motivated to kick some butt!!

beautifulwarrior18

FitnessGirl11mfp wrote: »

Hello all,
So far I have lost about 47 lbs since my highest pregnancy weight of 210 lbs. I am now at 163 lbs and my LO is 4 months old. I have about 23 lbs to go until I am in a healthy BMI and need to lose about 33 lbs to reach my goal weight of 130 lbs.
Should I start to focus more on strength training in order to be toned by the time I reach my goal? I've been doing cardio including walking and circuit training. Should I start to focus more on meeting my macros? I have seen the term "recomposition" in the threads. Can someone please explain what that is?

The answer to strength training is always yes. When you cut calories you lose weight in two forms. You lose fat and you lose muscle. In order to maintain as much muscle as possible people who are cutting need to strength train. Why is it important to keep muscle? Well muscle requires more energy than fat on a daily basis. This energy comes in the form of a calorie. That means that 1 lb of muscle burns more calories than 1 lb of fat. So the more muscle you have the more calories you burn (or as most say it the faster your metabolism is).

There's no such thing as toning muscles. Strength training does one of two things. If you're eating at a deficit it maintains your existing muscle. If you're eating at a calorie surplus it maintains existing muscle and builds more muscle. (See paragraph above as to why we love muscle). Eating at a deficit will make you lose fat. Eating at a surplus will make you gain fat. So, as you are trying to lose weight you will not be toning anything you will be maintaining muscle and losing fat. Once you hit your goal weight if you decide you want bigger muscles you will eat at a surplus that involves ample amounts of protein and start lifting heavy weights to build muscle, this is called a bulk. Often times after a bulk, people will eat at a deficit again maintain muscle but lose any fat they gained during their bulk, this is called a cut. Cutting will make your muscles more obvious because there will be less fat covering them. If you've ever heard the phrase abs are made in the kitchen this is exactly what it's referring to. Everyone has abs, whether they show or not is determined by how much fat you have covering them. How much fat you have covering them is based completely on how much you eat. Technically speaking you could have a six pack and never workout. I wouldn't recommend it though.

As far as meeting your macros they are part of having a balanced diet. If you've been really good about hitting your calories with wholesome foods I would say that you could absolutely start focusing on Macros. However, note that depending on your goals your macros may be very different than mine. For example, I do intense workouts 3x-5x a week and being sore really slows me down. So I tend to eat less carbs, more fats and more proteins because I do a lot of strength training and muscles need protein. Fats are just awesome for everyone. I limit my carbs because while they're important to my diet with my activity level the more carbs I eat the less fat and protein I'm able to eat and I need those to perform. I'm also very particular about the types of food I eat because I do workout so often I need to make sure I'm not eating foods that cause excess inflammation. So I avoid processed foods, added sugars, gluten, beans and peanuts, dairy, and a few other things that cause inflammation and water retention. If you're doing just a basic 3 mile run and a few full body strength training moves 3 x a week you won't necessarily need to eat as much protein as I do and you likely won't need to avoid the inflammatory foods as much as I do. I'd determine what your goals are and figure out what a good balance of macros would be. You can always start basic and tweek later.

And I see someone has already posted some links. Recomp is just replacing fat with muscle so you're changing your body's composition.

FitnessGirl11mfp

Thank you for the helpful info :-)

FitnessGirl11mfp

beautifulwarrior18 wrote: »

FitnessGirl11mfp wrote: »

Hello all,
So far I have lost about 47 lbs since my highest pregnancy weight of 210 lbs. I am now at 163 lbs and my LO is 4 months old. I have about 23 lbs to go until I am in a healthy BMI and need to lose about 33 lbs to reach my goal weight of 130 lbs.
Should I start to focus more on strength training in order to be toned by the time I reach my goal? I've been doing cardio including walking and circuit training. Should I start to focus more on meeting my macros? I have seen the term "recomposition" in the threads. Can someone please explain what that is?

The answer to strength training is always yes. When you cut calories you lose weight in two forms. You lose fat and you lose muscle. In order to maintain as much muscle as possible people who are cutting need to strength train. Why is it important to keep muscle? Well muscle requires more energy than fat on a daily basis. This energy comes in the form of a calorie. That means that 1 lb of muscle burns more calories than 1 lb of fat. So the more muscle you have the more calories you burn (or as most say it the faster your metabolism is).

There's no such thing as toning muscles. Strength training does one of two things. If you're eating at a deficit it maintains your existing muscle. If you're eating at a calorie surplus it maintains existing muscle and builds more muscle. (See paragraph above as to why we love muscle). Eating at a deficit will make you lose fat. Eating at a surplus will make you gain fat. So, as you are trying to lose weight you will not be toning anything you will be maintaining muscle and losing fat. Once you hit your goal weight if you decide you want bigger muscles you will eat at a surplus that involves ample amounts of protein and start lifting heavy weights to build muscle, this is called a bulk. Often times after a bulk, people will eat at a deficit again maintain muscle but lose any fat they gained during their bulk, this is called a cut. Cutting will make your muscles more obvious because there will be less fat covering them. If you've ever heard the phrase abs are made in the kitchen this is exactly what it's referring to. Everyone has abs, whether they show or not is determined by how much fat you have covering them. How much fat you have covering them is based completely on how much you eat. Technically speaking you could have a six pack and never workout. I wouldn't recommend it though.

As far as meeting your macros they are part of having a balanced diet. If you've been really good about hitting your calories with wholesome foods I would say that you could absolutely start focusing on Macros. However, note that depending on your goals your macros may be very different than mine. For example, I do intense workouts 3x-5x a week and being sore really slows me down. So I tend to eat less carbs, more fats and more proteins because I do a lot of strength training and muscles need protein. Fats are just awesome for everyone. I limit my carbs because while they're important to my diet with my activity level the more carbs I eat the less fat and protein I'm able to eat and I need those to perform. I'm also very particular about the types of food I eat because I do workout so often I need to make sure I'm not eating foods that cause excess inflammation. So I avoid processed foods, added sugars, gluten, beans and peanuts, dairy, and a few other things that cause inflammation and water retention. If you're doing just a basic 3 mile run and a few full body strength training moves 3 x a week you won't necessarily need to eat as much protein as I do and you likely won't need to avoid the inflammatory foods as much as I do. I'd determine what your goals are and figure out what a good balance of macros would be. You can always start basic and tweek later.

And I see someone has already posted some links. Recomp is just replacing fat with muscle so you're changing your body's composition.

Thank you so much for the useful information. I am just starting to do more exercise in order to have a healthy lifestyle. For now I'll just start basic with focusing on macros and go from there.
I definitely want to make sure that I am preserving and maintaining muscle mass so I will do more strength training. I am mainly just trying to be stronger and healthier by exercising. But thank you for clearing that up when you mentioned that there is no such thing as toning muscles. I have been reading through the threads and the Internet, and have learned a lot in a short amount of time about exercise and fitness. Thanks again for replying :-)