Weightlifting and weight loss

abbefaria4

Hello All,

I know that building muscle can help burn fat. However, I use weight as a way to track my fat loss progress. Even if muscle causes me to burn more fat, it will also cause me to weigh more and make it harder to tell if my diet is working. I know you can track body fat using calipers, but someone told me its hard to do reliably, and I like the feedback I get by seeing my weight on the scale every day. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Andrew

bbell1985

If you're in a deficit, you'll lose weight whether you lift or not. You will not add weight if you lift in a deficit.

middlehaitch

bbell1985 wrote: »

If you're in a deficit, you'll lose weight whether you lift or not. You will not add weight if you lift in a deficit.

This is all that is needed. h

malibu927

Outside of specific circumstances, it's extremely difficult to gain muscle while losing weight. You should still lift, though, to maintain as much muscle as possible while you lose.

Also the "muscle burns more calories than fat" is greatly exaggerated...it's something like an additional 6 calories per pound of muscle.

AnnPT77

All that ^^^ is true.

And muscle gain - in the form of actually adding new muscle fibers - is way, way slower than weight loss anyway. For a young man, under optimal conditions (including surplus calories, but not dangerous drugs), 1-2 pounds of muscle mass gain per month would be a good achievement. Most people would consider 1-2 pounds per month weight loss to be quite slow.

Be aware, though, that a new weight training routine can cause your body to hold onto a few pounds of water weight temporarily. This is normal and healthy: it's part of necessary muscle repair. But it can show up on the scale, masking fat loss that's happening at the same time. Don't stress; the fat loss will soon outpace the water weight, and you'll see those good results on the scale!

P.S. You absolutely can gain strength from weight lifting while losing weight (from neuromuscular adaptation, basically better muscle recruitment and efficiency); and you can develop a more muscular-looking appearance (from weight loss revealing the muscles, and a "pumped" appearance having to do with physiological results of regular workouts).

Best wishes!

RoxieDawn

And to add on to what has been said already, your body burns more calories maintaining muscle than it does maintaining fat. The amount of calories per pound of muscle built is about 6 calories and it does slightly increase metabolism but not by that much.