Thoughts on lifting while cutting

Brocksterdanza

I am currently still on a 1000calorie a day deficit. I lift 3 days a week and cardio 6 days a week. Am I just spinning my wheels with lifting? I'm doing mehdi's 5x5 and am getting to the heavy lifts. During the time I've been doing this, I have dropped about 18 lbs which leaves only about 25-30 more to go. I truly enjoy seeing the scale move the 1.5 to 2 pounds a week but am wondering if this is killing a lot of my muscle. I lost a ton of weight doing insanity a couple years ago without lifting and lost ALOT of muscle in my weight loss. I was terribly weak. I am nearly to a deload in about 3 lifts but have progressed well. I am taking pictures and measurements as well as the scale. Thanks for your help folks.

Francl27

Yes it's killing your muscles to lose that fast. But the lifting helps (much more than insanity, which is pretty much cardio). So keep lifting, but keep a reasonable deficit, and eat a lot of protein.

I've been doing some kind of strength training the whole time and only lost 3 lbs of muscle, so it's definitely worth it.

cwolfman13

If you are lifting then you are preserving more lean mass than you otherwise would be but with just over 20 Lbs left to go, I'd dial the deficit back to 1 Lb per week.

auddii

Lifting will help prevent muscle loss as will eating adequate amounts of protein. A large deficit can increase your risk of losing muscle mass, but you are doing things to mitigate it. At this point, it's up to you to determine if it's more important to see the progress quickly or if the risk of possible LBM loss is too great. Determining that trade off is completely personal, so I can't really help you with that.

It is much more difficult to build muscle, more so than preserving it, but some people just can not do extended periods of weight loss and they'd rather rush through it. It's honestly going to be up to you.

WendyTerry420

If you are concerned about muscles, then I don't suggest a big deficit. 300-500 calories is sufficient if you are doing a heavy lifting routine.

Brocksterdanza

My main concern is to get to 215 or so. I just do not want to go back to where I could barely curl a 15lb dumbbell. After insanity, that happened. It was very embarrassing. My thoughts was to try to maintain as much muscle as possible while burning fat. As many have said, I will likely narrow my deficit to 500 or so in hopes that I can prevent further loss of muscle. In the end I do not want to be considered obese and a healthy adult. My cardio is great as I can run 5ks etc at at good clip but I just need the rest of the fat to get moving. If I lose a little muscle, I love lifting thus I'll work to gain it back. I just hated being obese and considered fat and unhealthy to my family and my kids I teach. I want to be a good role model.