Strength training to lose weight

Star_1234

I want to do strength training in order to get better definition/look better/be stronger etc. but I still have 20lbs to lose before I reach my goal.

Can you still lose weight and gain muscle at the same time if you eat at a calory deficit? (TDEE-10 or 15% with 40c/40p/20f macs))

I have read that you can not do this. So is it better that I lose the 20lbs first through cardio (HIIT like insanity) and then move onto a beginners weight programme like Stronglifts 5x5.

FrenchMob

If you strength train and have a calorie deficit, you will lose weight, no cardio necessary. By strength training on a deficit you're reducing the amount of muscle you lose which is what you want.

Jereby10

As I understand it, weight training whilst on a calorie deficit diet, will help to speed up weight loss. By burning extra calories during exercise the body starts to tap into stored fat. I am trying this, as well as trying to reduce carbohydrates. I understand that if we use to many carbs prior to training, the body will use new carbs before stored fat. It seems to be working for me. Hope this helps.

RaggedyPond

For two months I only weight trained and didn't track calories. I lost no inches or weight but clothes still found a way to get looser.

Star_1234

Thank you everyone. Im thinking to lose 10lbs through cardio and then lose the final 10lbs through lifting weights. Its just figruing out whether I can weight train at a tdee of -15% and build muscle or not

ndj1979

you can't eat in a deficit and gain muscle…you need energy - calorie excess - to gain muscle and that is impossible while eating in a deficit…

when you have lost the ten pounds that you have referenced, you can do a bulk cycle where you eat like 200 cal a day over matinenance….or you could try to eat about 200 cals over maintenance on work out days and then eat in a deficit on non work out days..this is similar to the lean gains method, just no fasting...

ndj1979

I understand that if we use to many carbs prior to training, the body will use new carbs before stored fat. It seems to be working for me. Hope this helps.

your understanding is not correct.

erickirb

Thank you everyone. Im thinking to lose 10lbs through cardio and then lose the final 10lbs through lifting weights. Its just figruing out whether I can weight train at a tdee of -15% and build muscle or not

No start lifting now, don't wait 'til the last 10 lbs. the less muscle you lose from lifting the better you will look and feel at every weight while losing.

And no you will probably not gain any muscle on TDEE-15%, but you will not lose what you already have, which if you don't strength train, a larger % of your weight loss will come from muscle, not just the fat you want to lose.

Rosannajo88

Everything NDJ1979 said. Feed those muscles baby!! Your body will thank you for it in the long run xx

Capt_Apollo

you can't gain muscle... but you can get stronger and drop body fat.

ndj1979

but OP yes, start lifting now…I would recommend a program of compound lifts.

Capt_Apollo

Thank you everyone. Im thinking to lose 10lbs through cardio and then lose the final 10lbs through lifting weights. Its just figruing out whether I can weight train at a tdee of -15% and build muscle or not

combine them!! you'll see great results from full body training three days a week and cardio 2-3 days a week. so say you lift m-w-f, and you do some cardio tu-th-sat. it would be a really great work out plan to give you a lot of balance.

ndj1979

Thank you everyone. Im thinking to lose 10lbs through cardio and then lose the final 10lbs through lifting weights. Its just figruing out whether I can weight train at a tdee of -15% and build muscle or not

combine them!! you'll see great results from full body training three days a week and cardio 2-3 days a week. so say you lift m-w-f, and you do some cardio tu-th-sat. it would be a really great work out plan to give you a lot of balance.

this x 10 …

once you lose the 10 pounds you can transition to more of an upper/lower split four days a week and back off cardio …

TavistockToad

Thank you everyone. Im thinking to lose 10lbs through cardio and then lose the final 10lbs through lifting weights. Its just figruing out whether I can weight train at a tdee of -15% and build muscle or not

do both cardio and strength to lose the 20lbs... you will like the results better.

no you wont build muscle at TDEE -15% but you cans till make strength gains.

Capt_Apollo

Thank you everyone. Im thinking to lose 10lbs through cardio and then lose the final 10lbs through lifting weights. Its just figruing out whether I can weight train at a tdee of -15% and build muscle or not

combine them!! you'll see great results from full body training three days a week and cardio 2-3 days a week. so say you lift m-w-f, and you do some cardio tu-th-sat. it would be a really great work out plan to give you a lot of balance.

this x 10 …

once you lose the 10 pounds you can transition to more of an upper/lower split four days a week and back off cardio …

OP, here is a decent link on how to design a work out. http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/15/how-to-build-your-own-workout-routine/

dym123

OP, check out this website --> http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/. It will give you a suggested amount of calories you should eat to lose fat and build muscle. It also has workouts and other resources.

Star_1234

ok thanks everyone!

So im going to combine of both cardio and strength training for now!

I want to do the stronglifts 5x5 program and running.

Should I eat at a TDEE 20%?

I will keep my macs at 40/40/20

jimmmer

ok thanks everyone!

So im going to combine of both cardio and strength training for now!

I want to do the stronglifts 5x5 program and running.

Should I eat at a TDEE 20%?

I will keep my macs at 40/40/20

I would start out with TDEE-20%, but if you find you are losing weight too rapidly, or you are repeatedly stalling out on your lifts, feeling crappy, losing sleep, feeling irritable, etc, then you will want to change that to a less steep deficit.

Also bear in mind that the closer you get to your goal, the smaller the deficit needs to become to avoid losing unnecessary amounts of LBM. Say, go to TDEE-15%, then TDEE-10% as you zone in on where you want to be. This will keep you able to deal with the demands of the training and leave you looking better at the end.

Capt_Apollo

ok thanks everyone!

So im going to combine of both cardio and strength training for now!

I want to do the stronglifts 5x5 program and running.

Should I eat at a TDEE 20%?

I will keep my macs at 40/40/20

try just -10% for no. you're going to be upping your exercise a lot, and you want to be able to have the energy to keep up with yourself. do that for about a month, and then go from there.

_db_

I'll contradict prevailing wisdom and assert that, yes, you can gain lean muscle mass at the same time you lose fat while maintaining a significant calorie deficit.

I started out on MFP to get rid of some useless body fat after being diagnosed with (very!) high blood pressure. I started at 171 lbs and opted for a 2lb/week loss, which put me in the 1200 calorie range. In addition to dieting, I started walking for exercise. The first few weeks, I was losing 2-3 pounds a week. Unfortunately, I injured my ankle and couldn't walk for almost a month. Since I couldn't walk, I decided I'd do some resistance training just so I'd have some sort of exercise. Over the next few weeks, I barely lost any weight, and even gained on a few occasions, but I did notice my pants were fitting much looser, and my t-shirts were fitting much tighter. I was loosing fat and gaining weight. I've since started measuring my progress by taking skinfold measurements, and tracking my estimated body fat %, because I might not reach my original target weight of 152lbs, as that would require me getting to around 5-6% body fat if the current fat loss / muscle gain trends continue.

Over the past week, I've only lost .6lb by the scale, but I've lost 2.2lb of fat based on skinfold measurements, so that's 1.6lbs of lean mass that I've gained.

The thing you must do is ensure your protein intake is sufficient. Not necessarily 1g per pound, because that much can only be used when seriously bulking, but somewhere from .4-.8g per pound. Really, though, it depends on how much you've damaged (exerted!) your muscles, so if you don't exercise heavily, .4g/lb is probably enough, but if you work your muscles to failure, or near it, you might want to get closer to the 1g/lb level. Oh, and you need to make sure all of your protein is complete...no, the protein in vegetables/grains/pulses won't usually help, because they're not very protein-dense. You need meat, milk, eggs or soy. Salmon is the ideal source of protein, IMO, but chicken is pretty f*cking awesome, too, and a whole lot cheaper than salmon! Of course, you can take the easy way out and use a protein supplement. I really like Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex, because it's about as protein-dense as possible. You can use this site to check protein quality of foods: http://skipthepie.org/

I choose to split the remainder of my macros between carbs and fats, so I'm at 30p/35c/35f @ 1400 net cals. I'm also taking a daily multivitamin, because the relatively low level of carbs that I take in don't provide me with the various vitamins/minerals needed.

Will this work for everyone? Maybe not. But it's definitely working for me.

I'll echo what everyone else is saying: Start strength training now. There's almost no downside to it, and if you're lucky, you might be able to lose some scale weight while you're getting your body in better shape.

erickirb

I'll contradict prevailing wisdom and assert that, yes, you can gain lean muscle mass at the same time you lose fat while maintaining a significant calorie deficit.

I started out on MFP to get rid of some useless body fat after being diagnosed with (very!) high blood pressure. I started at 171 lbs and opted for a 2lb/week loss, which put me in the 1200 calorie range. In addition to dieting, I started walking for exercise. The first few weeks, I was losing 2-3 pounds a week. Unfortunately, I injured my ankle and couldn't walk for almost a month. Since I couldn't walk, I decided I'd do some resistance training just so I'd have some sort of exercise. Over the next few weeks, I barely lost any weight, and even gained on a few occasions, but I did notice my pants were fitting much looser, and my t-shirts were fitting much tighter. I was loosing fat and gaining weight. I've since started measuring my progress by taking skinfold measurements, and tracking my estimated body fat %, because I might not reach my original target weight of 152lbs, as that would require me getting to around 5-6% body fat if the current fat loss / muscle gain trends continue.

Over the past week, I've only lost .6lb by the scale, but I've lost 2.2lb of fat based on skinfold measurements, so that's 1.6lbs of lean mass that I've gained.

The thing you must do is ensure your protein intake is sufficient. Not necessarily 1g per pound, because that much can only be used when seriously bulking, but somewhere from .4-.8g per pound. Really, though, it depends on how much you've damaged (exerted!) your muscles, so if you don't exercise heavily, .4g/lb is probably enough, but if you work your muscles to failure, or near it, you might want to get closer to the 1g/lb level. Oh, and you need to make sure all of your protein is complete...no, the protein in vegetables/grains/pulses won't usually help, because they're not very protein-dense. You need meat, milk, eggs or soy. Salmon is the ideal source of protein, IMO, but chicken is pretty f*cking awesome, too, and a whole lot cheaper than salmon! Of course, you can take the easy way out and use a protein supplement. I really like Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex, because it's about as protein-dense as possible. You can use this site to check protein quality of foods: http://skipthepie.org/

I choose to split the remainder of my macros between carbs and fats, so I'm at 30p/35c/35f @ 1400 net cals. I'm also taking a daily multivitamin, because the relatively low level of carbs that I take in don't provide me with the various vitamins/minerals needed.

Will this work for everyone? Maybe not. But it's definitely working for me.

I'll echo what everyone else is saying: Start strength training now. There's almost no downside to it, and if you're lucky, you might be able to lose some scale weight while you're getting your body in better shape.

There is a slight noob gain effect, and as a man with testosterone you would be more likely than a lady to gain this, that said most of the tightness in the shirt etc was most likely water stored in the muscle due to working them, not actual muscle gain.

sijomial

I'll contradict prevailing wisdom and assert that, yes, you can gain lean muscle mass at the same time you lose fat while maintaining a significant calorie deficit.

I started out on MFP to get rid of some useless body fat after being diagnosed with (very!) high blood pressure. I started at 171 lbs and opted for a 2lb/week loss, which put me in the 1200 calorie range. In addition to dieting, I started walking for exercise. The first few weeks, I was losing 2-3 pounds a week. Unfortunately, I injured my ankle and couldn't walk for almost a month. Since I couldn't walk, I decided I'd do some resistance training just so I'd have some sort of exercise. Over the next few weeks, I barely lost any weight, and even gained on a few occasions, but I did notice my pants were fitting much looser, and my t-shirts were fitting much tighter. I was loosing fat and gaining weight. I've since started measuring my progress by taking skinfold measurements, and tracking my estimated body fat %, because I might not reach my original target weight of 152lbs, as that would require me getting to around 5-6% body fat if the current fat loss / muscle gain trends continue.

Over the past week, I've only lost .6lb by the scale, but I've lost 2.2lb of fat based on skinfold measurements, so that's 1.6lbs of lean mass that I've gained.

The thing you must do is ensure your protein intake is sufficient. Not necessarily 1g per pound, because that much can only be used when seriously bulking, but somewhere from .4-.8g per pound. Really, though, it depends on how much you've damaged (exerted!) your muscles, so if you don't exercise heavily, .4g/lb is probably enough, but if you work your muscles to failure, or near it, you might want to get closer to the 1g/lb level. Oh, and you need to make sure all of your protein is complete...no, the protein in vegetables/grains/pulses won't usually help, because they're not very protein-dense. You need meat, milk, eggs or soy. Salmon is the ideal source of protein, IMO, but chicken is pretty f*cking awesome, too, and a whole lot cheaper than salmon! Of course, you can take the easy way out and use a protein supplement. I really like Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex, because it's about as protein-dense as possible. You can use this site to check protein quality of foods: http://skipthepie.org/

I choose to split the remainder of my macros between carbs and fats, so I'm at 30p/35c/35f @ 1400 net cals. I'm also taking a daily multivitamin, because the relatively low level of carbs that I take in don't provide me with the various vitamins/minerals needed.

Will this work for everyone? Maybe not. But it's definitely working for me.

I'll echo what everyone else is saying: Start strength training now. There's almost no downside to it, and if you're lucky, you might be able to lose some scale weight while you're getting your body in better shape.

Agree there is no downside to strength training.
Agree that is it possible for some people to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time (I have).
Disagree with your your protein recommendations - seems very low.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24092765/?i=2&from=sport,+training

A Systematic Review of Dietary Protein During Caloric Restriction in Resistance Trained Lean Athletes: A Case for Higher Intakes.
AuthorsHelms ER, et al. Show all
Helms ER, Zinn C, Rowlands DS, Brown SR.
JournalInt J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2013 Oct 2. [Epub ahead of print]

AffiliationAbstract
Caloric restriction occurs when athletes attempt to reduce body fat or make weight. There is evidence that protein needs increase when athletes restrict calories or have low body fat.

PURPOSE: The aims of this review were to evaluate the effects of dietary protein on body composition in energy-restricted resistance-trained athletes and to provide protein recommendations for these athletes.

METHODS: Database searches were performed from earliest record to July 2013 using the terms protein, and intake, or diet, and weight, or train, or restrict, or energy, or strength, and athlete. Studies (N = 6) needed to use adult (≥ 18 yrs), energy-restricted, resistance-trained (> 6 months) humans of lower body fat (males ≤ 23% and females ≤ 35%) performing resistance training. Protein intake, fat free mass (FFM) and body fat had to be reported.

RESULTS: Body fat percentage decreased (0.5% to 6.6%) in all study groups(N = 13) and FFM decreased (0.3 to 2.7kg) in nine of 13. Four groups gained or did not lose FFM. They had the highest body fat, smallest magnitudes of energy restriction or underwent novel resistance training stimuli. Two groups lost non-significant amounts of FFM. The same conditions that existed in the groups that did not lose FFM existed in the first group. These conditions were not present in the second group, but this group consumed the highest protein intake in this review (2.5-2.6g/kg).

CONCLUSIONS: Protein needs for energy-restricted resistance-trained athletes are likely 2.3-3.1g/kg of FFM scaled upwards with severity of caloric restriction and leanness.

pcastagner

I'll contradict prevailing wisdom and assert that, yes, you can gain lean muscle mass at the same time you lose fat while maintaining a significant calorie deficit.

I started out on MFP to get rid of some useless body fat after being diagnosed with (very!) high blood pressure. I started at 171 lbs and opted for a 2lb/week loss, which put me in the 1200 calorie range. In addition to dieting, I started walking for exercise. The first few weeks, I was losing 2-3 pounds a week. Unfortunately, I injured my ankle and couldn't walk for almost a month. Since I couldn't walk, I decided I'd do some resistance training just so I'd have some sort of exercise. Over the next few weeks, I barely lost any weight, and even gained on a few occasions, but I did notice my pants were fitting much looser, and my t-shirts were fitting much tighter. I was loosing fat and gaining weight. I've since started measuring my progress by taking skinfold measurements, and tracking my estimated body fat %, because I might not reach my original target weight of 152lbs, as that would require me getting to around 5-6% body fat if the current fat loss / muscle gain trends continue.

Over the past week, I've only lost .6lb by the scale, but I've lost 2.2lb of fat based on skinfold measurements, so that's 1.6lbs of lean mass that I've gained.

The thing you must do is ensure your protein intake is sufficient. Not necessarily 1g per pound, because that much can only be used when seriously bulking, but somewhere from .4-.8g per pound. Really, though, it depends on how much you've damaged (exerted!) your muscles, so if you don't exercise heavily, .4g/lb is probably enough, but if you work your muscles to failure, or near it, you might want to get closer to the 1g/lb level. Oh, and you need to make sure all of your protein is complete...no, the protein in vegetables/grains/pulses won't usually help, because they're not very protein-dense. You need meat, milk, eggs or soy. Salmon is the ideal source of protein, IMO, but chicken is pretty f*cking awesome, too, and a whole lot cheaper than salmon! Of course, you can take the easy way out and use a protein supplement. I really like Optimum Nutrition Pro Complex, because it's about as protein-dense as possible. You can use this site to check protein quality of foods: http://skipthepie.org/

I choose to split the remainder of my macros between carbs and fats, so I'm at 30p/35c/35f @ 1400 net cals. I'm also taking a daily multivitamin, because the relatively low level of carbs that I take in don't provide me with the various vitamins/minerals needed.

Will this work for everyone? Maybe not. But it's definitely working for me.

I'll echo what everyone else is saying: Start strength training now. There's almost no downside to it, and if you're lucky, you might be able to lose some scale weight while you're getting your body in better shape.

Agree there is no downside to strength training.
Agree that is it possible for some people to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time (I have).
Disagree with your your protein recommendations - seems very low.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/24092765/?i=2&from=sport,+training

A Systematic Review of Dietary Protein During Caloric Restriction in Resistance Trained Lean Athletes: A Case for Higher Intakes.
AuthorsHelms ER, et al. Show all
Helms ER, Zinn C, Rowlands DS, Brown SR.
JournalInt J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2013 Oct 2. [Epub ahead of print]

AffiliationAbstract
Caloric restriction occurs when athletes attempt to reduce body fat or make weight. There is evidence that protein needs increase when athletes restrict calories or have low body fat.

PURPOSE: The aims of this review were to evaluate the effects of dietary protein on body composition in energy-restricted resistance-trained athletes and to provide protein recommendations for these athletes.

METHODS: Database searches were performed from earliest record to July 2013 using the terms protein, and intake, or diet, and weight, or train, or restrict, or energy, or strength, and athlete. Studies (N = 6) needed to use adult (≥ 18 yrs), energy-restricted, resistance-trained (> 6 months) humans of lower body fat (males ≤ 23% and females ≤ 35%) performing resistance training. Protein intake, fat free mass (FFM) and body fat had to be reported.

RESULTS: Body fat percentage decreased (0.5% to 6.6%) in all study groups(N = 13) and FFM decreased (0.3 to 2.7kg) in nine of 13. Four groups gained or did not lose FFM. They had the highest body fat, smallest magnitudes of energy restriction or underwent novel resistance training stimuli. Two groups lost non-significant amounts of FFM. The same conditions that existed in the groups that did not lose FFM existed in the first group. These conditions were not present in the second group, but this group consumed the highest protein intake in this review (2.5-2.6g/kg).

CONCLUSIONS: Protein needs for energy-restricted resistance-trained athletes are likely 2.3-3.1g/kg of FFM scaled upwards with severity of caloric restriction and leanness.

wait, what? did you just tell him that his protein is too low? can you check your math?

his recommendation for a non-athlete - 1g/lb TOTAL mass

your study's results for energy restricted ATHLETES - 2.5-3.1g/kg OF FFM


if I use his reccomendation, I eat 165 grams per day. Following yours, I would eat 149.5-201.5 grams, and since I read the rest of the abstract, I know that the range is DEPENDENT ON THE SEVERITY OF THE ENERGY DEFICIT.



a little simple arithmetic, please. So tired of people not doing the math and citing this study in particular, and almost always skipping the part about how the subjects of the study were in a much steeper deficit than someone following the very good recommendations given around here not to cut too fast.

jay11284

Adding strength training, instead of just doing cardio, is a great way to speed up your weight loss and just improve your overall physique. When I was just dropping weight I still looked fat, but now that I've added strength training I look more toned and I just feel better overall too.

TR0berts

ok thanks everyone!

So im going to combine of both cardio and strength training for now!

I want to do the stronglifts 5x5 program and running.

Should I eat at a TDEE 20%?

I will keep my macs at 40/40/20

try just -10% for no. you're going to be upping your exercise a lot, and you want to be able to have the energy to keep up with yourself. do that for about a month, and then go from there.

Yeah, what the Captain said. Also, you only have 20 lbs to lose. That's really not all that much - 10% deficit is good.

Mischievous_Rascal

Thank you everyone. Im thinking to lose 10lbs through cardio and then lose the final 10lbs through lifting weights. Its just figruing out whether I can weight train at a tdee of -15% and build muscle or not

combine them!! you'll see great results from full body training three days a week and cardio 2-3 days a week. so say you lift m-w-f, and you do some cardio tu-th-sat. it would be a really great work out plan to give you a lot of balance.

This is exactly my schedule. I went from 32% down to 18% BF in just under a year doing resistance training and walking, and eating just a few hundred calories under my TDEE - around a 5% deficit. (My scale weight didn't go down significantly, but I've had to replace all my clothes!) Save your muscles and start lifting now!!!

Star_1234

Great advise everyone! Tdee wise, I will adjust it as i make (or dont make) progress.

MickeS

"combine them!! you'll see great results from full body training three days a week and cardio 2-3 days a week. so say you lift m-w-f, and you do some cardio tu-th-sat. it would be a really great work out plan to give you a lot of balance."

Hey!
I'm going for my first cut right now. Following Strong lifts program. Aren't you suppose to rest on rest days? Cardio and calorie restrictions AND full body workouts? To much to fast?

jimmmer

Great advise everyone! Tdee wise, I will adjust it as i make (or dont make) progress.

Very sensible. You've got a good starting point - now get to it and knuckle under!

Star_1234

"combine them!! you'll see great results from full body training three days a week and cardio 2-3 days a week. so say you lift m-w-f, and you do some cardio tu-th-sat. it would be a really great work out plan to give you a lot of balance."

Hey!
I'm going for my first cut right now. Following Strong lifts program. Aren't you suppose to rest on rest days? Cardio and calorie restrictions AND full body workouts? To much to fast?

What days can I incorporate cardio while doing the stronglifts 5x5 program?

Capt_Apollo

"combine them!! you'll see great results from full body training three days a week and cardio 2-3 days a week. so say you lift m-w-f, and you do some cardio tu-th-sat. it would be a really great work out plan to give you a lot of balance."

Hey!
I'm going for my first cut right now. Following Strong lifts program. Aren't you suppose to rest on rest days? Cardio and calorie restrictions AND full body workouts? To much to fast?

you're doing a cut... so i'm assuming you're way beyond the OP.

you are suppose to rest on rest days. but if you are doing full body training alternating days, and doing cardio alternating days, you are resting your muscles groups on those days.