Losing weight and maintaining muscle?

Ayehmwhy

Hello everyone!
A bit about me: I have lost 90 lbs since the beginning of 2018 from just getting my eating in check and logging daily, staying in a calorie deficit (thank you MFP!) I added in yoga and walking when I felt like my mobility had gotten better.
I joined a gym last week because I’m craving more of a challenge and I want to feel stronger and get more into fitness, so I’m very excited about it!
I’ve gone a couple times so far- I’m loving it.
I want to continue to lose weight and fat ( I have about another 100 lbs to go all in all) I’m hoping to retain the muscle I have at least. I was wondering if anybody had tips for which exercises might be more beneficial to my goals? I have been doing some research but some things go over my head, it feels like! So, basically..
Which strength training exercises would you recommend for someone looking to lose fat and retain muscle?
Thank you all for your time!

malibu927

Any beginner program listed here: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you

gia_incognito

Squats.

Ayehmwhy

Thanks for the link, malibu927! I’m gonna check that out
As for squats, I have heard they’re great but my knees ache just thinking about it. still, it’s probably worth a shot lol thank you for your input

lynn_glenmont

In response to your actual question, I would recommend compound lifts rather than lifts that isolate and focus on single muscles or muscle groups (i.e., whole body workouts, as opposed to "leg day" and "back day" and "arm day," etc.) -- the latter may be appropriate for someone trying to achieve a particular aesthetic result, but for a relative beginner whose aim is to feel stronger and retain muscle during weight loss, I would go with full-body workouts. Your muscles are meant to work together and support each other, and I think you'll see better results for functional strength ("feel stronger") from compound lifts.

In response to the question you didn't ask: There are other things that are more important than the particular exercises you choose when it comes to retaining muscle during weight loss.

The bad news is that you will almost certainly lose some muscle if you're losing weight. But you can minimize muscles loss by (1) keeping your calorie deficit small (but small is relative to your current weight and excess fat, so if you have 100 lbs still to lose, at this point you can still aim for 1.5 to 2 lbs a week); (2) get plenty of protein; AND (3) do resistance training that progressively challenges your muscle (i.e., increase weight, reps, sets, etc., as needed so you're still finding your sessions challenging over time).

It's a three-legged stool, and if you remove any of the legs, the stool will fall over (i.e., you will lose more muscle than is necessary).

Ayehmwhy

Thanks so much for taking time to reply and helping me out I feel like I’m doing pretty well on the calorie deficit and Protein intake so now I need to focus on learning some compound lifts, which I’ve only just learned about but they seem the way to go, for now. I’m curious, Are some of the the weight machines at the gym considered compound? some of them say they work more than one isolated muscle.

Ayehmwhy

Or are compound lifts mostly body weight/ free weight things?

lynn_glenmont

Ayehmwhy wrote: »

Thanks so much for taking time to reply and helping me out I feel like I’m doing pretty well on the calorie deficit and Protein intake so now I need to focus on learning some compound lifts, which I’ve only just learned about but they seem the way to go, for now. I’m curious, Are some of the the weight machines at the gym considered compound? some of them say they work more than one isolated muscle.

Ayehmwhy wrote: »

Or are compound lifts mostly body weight/ free weight things?

I guess it depends on which machines you have in your gym, but at least to some extent they're all going to do part of the job of stabilizing the weight in a particular path of movement, which your muscles have to do for themselves if you use free weights or body weight. My preference is for free weights and body weight exercises, but machines can occasionally be useful, and if you feel like you want to start with machines and shift to free weights later, that's certainly better than not doing any resistance training at all. I still like to use the leg press machine occasionally, especially to check strength gains for a single rep. And sometimes I use them when I'm recovering from an injury. Or if I'm traveling and the hotel gym doesn't have much by way of free weights.

ladyhusker39

Ayehmwhy wrote: »

Thanks for the link, malibu927! I’m gonna check that out
As for squats, I have heard they’re great but my knees ache just thinking about it. still, it’s probably worth a shot lol thank you for your input

If you're knees hurt during squats, you're form is off and needs to be corrected.

Unknown

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middlehaitch

If you are interested in starting with machines and eventually moving to free-weights this is a decent programme.

https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/ultimate-beginners-machine-workout-for-women.html

Definitely carry on with your yoga, it is so good for balance and flexibility.

There are a couple of good programmes in the link posted for beginners, the 'aworkoutroutine' dumbbell work out is good, as is the 'Nerdfitness' bodyweight routine.

If you are an absolute beginner I found the HasFit website had some good programmes, I just made a note in my phone of what to do then followed it at home or the gym.

Cheers, h.