3rd month Heavy Lifting/Cardio results (Pics)

Temple_Fit

Awesome progress pics.

heatherallen1020

Can you tell me what is heavy lifting? Does it work for people like me thats trying to loose alot of weight (75-100lbs) at the same time tone up?

Cmonnowguys

Can you tell me what is heavy lifting? Does it work for people like me thats trying to loose alot of weight (75-100lbs) at the same time tone up?

Heavy lifting is all about what is a challenging weight FOR YOU. Personally, I use that Stronglifts 5x5 program I mentioned up there. I do three different moves each day I go to the gym. They are compound movements, which means they use a lot of muscles at once, so they're more effective in terms of a total body workout than isolation moves (like curls.) My workout looks like this:

Day 1: Squats 5 sets of 5 reps; Bench press 5 sets of 5 reps; Pendlay Rows 5 sets of 5 reps
Day 2: Squats 5 sets of 5 reps; Overheard Press 5 sets of 5 reps; Dead-lifts 1 set of 5 reps

I just alternate between those two, with a day break between each.

You can look at the links I posted to see full explanations of the movements, and youtube is good to see what they look like.
When I first started I used just the Olympic bar, which weighs 45 lbs, for most of the exercises. That was heavy enough for me. I added on 2.5 lbs to each side of the bar each day I went to the gym. The goal with heavy lifting is to keep progressing with weight to gain strength, which challenges your muscles and leads to fat burn. It's important that you lift heavier, but not too heavy that you hurt yourself. Sometimes I stay at the same weight for a couple sessions until it's more comfortable before I add on another 2.5 lbs.

The best part about heavy lifting is that it will help you keep more of your muscle and it makes your body focus on burning fat. You will lose weight the same as if you do cardio, BUT with heavy lifting most of the weight you lose will be fat, which is what you want. That way when you lose weight you will still have most of the muscle you started with and you will look much toner than if you only do cardio. (With cardio you lose both fat and muscle, so you can end up with more loose skin.)

It doesn't matter if you have 5 lbs to lose, or 300 lbs. Strength training will help you keep your muscles AND burn more fat so you will LOOK better(tone) once you reach your goal. =]

vaneguz87

WOW!! Amazing results! great job

Cmonnowguys

Thank you all for the support! I hope all the info will be useful to those who've been wondering about incorporating strength training. These forums are so full of information if you know where to look. I'll continue posting what I learn. It's still very new to me, so I'm just trying to keep good track of everything so I can learn what works best for me. MFP is such a great place for inspiration and motivation and I'm getting so much from the people here.

cpiton

Great results! You look beautiful.
I've been lifting heavy since March and I'm always encouraged by women with the same goals. Thanks for posting! :bigsmile:

goldfinger88

Oh, you look incredible! And thank you for posting how you got that way. You're doing just great and making wise choices. You're a real success story.

kettle_belle83

Amazing progress!!!! Great job.

DawnEH612

You look absolutely fantastic! Look how great you look.... It's truly amazing how the body can be transformed. I really need to change my workouts. I gain muscle pretty easily for a female, I guess that's good, so I know if I really focused on that and eased up a bit on my cardio, I would probably have similar results.... I wish I we brave enough to post some before, during and eventually after photos... But....

JaySpice

You look great!

Cmonnowguys

You look absolutely fantastic! Look how great you look.... It's truly amazing how the body can be transformed. I really need to change my workouts. I gain muscle pretty easily for a female, I guess that's good, so I know if I really focused on that and eased up a bit on my cardio, I would probably have similar results.... I wish I we brave enough to post some before, during and eventually after photos... But....

Thank you! I felt the same way about posting though! That's why I didn't post any until I was a couple months in, haha. Seeing results of other women lifting was the whole reason I started, so I figured the least I could do was post my results so that maybe someone else could step out of their comfort zone as well. I consider it my good deed for the day.

MamaWannaRun

Thanks for sharing. Your story is inspiring!

Our stats are 'close'. I started MFP in February too, but at 179 and am down to 152. My bodyfat started higher but at the end of Feb, I was 39% and now I am at 34% and you are SPOT ON, heavy lifting makes a big difference! I hope to get into the 20% range too!

I have been sticking to 1200 calories. I tried to move up in calories, but gained way too much so I cut back again. I am going to have to re-visit the whole Eating More strategy again as I am AGAIN stalled. Thanks so much!

mattiol4

Wow! You look fantastic! Awesome job!

Cmonnowguys

Thanks for sharing. Your story is inspiring!

Our stats are 'close'. I started MFP in February too, but at 179 and am down to 152. My bodyfat started higher but at the end of Feb, I was 39% and now I am at 34% and you are SPOT ON, heavy lifting makes a big difference! I hope to get into the 20% range too!

I have been sticking to 1200 calories. I tried to move up in calories, but gained way too much so I cut back again. I am going to have to re-visit the whole Eating More strategy again as I am AGAIN stalled. Thanks so much!

Congrats on your progress! That's awesome. When it comes to upping calories, some people like to take the plunge and up them all the way up to their TDEE-15%. I didn't wanna be discouraged by the water weight gain that initially comes with that, so I chose to add 100 calories at a time and wait for my body to level out before adding more. My biggest jump was last week from 1600 to 1900, and I "gained" like 5 lbs. I was shocked that I lost it and then some by the end of the week. It really does work!

SexyCook

OH WOW...You look AMAZING...WOW

mznisaelaine

Wow you look amazing!

neesie0358

bump

JBsCrazyGirl

you look amazing, your hard work has really been good to you.
keep it up and congrats!

Kandyhar

You look so amazing! It is truly inspiring to see the progress! Our starting and goal weights, as well as heighth, is almost exactly the same so I will be adding you! I haven't even considered the calorie thing yet, hoping to just actually stick to my 1200 at first and see how it goes.

Muldactus

You look fantastic! Congrats to you for making such a huge and positive change. You should definately feel proud of yourself. And you definately make that bikini look amazing.