Question for the heavy lifters out there

bagge72

the question is: can you achive deficit you want to achive wothout burning extra kcals?
if yes, then you do not need cardio
you might want cardio (good for your health, especially for heart)
but you don't need it. to lose weight you need to eat at deficit.

New question. I understand eating at a deficit (it's how I lost my weight until now) but I keep reading that in order to build muscle you need to eat more than your maintainance calories. What do I do about this? Just accept that I won't see a lot of strength gain for now?

You should still see pretty decent gains at first, because you are just making the muscle you already have stronger. I made huge gains the first 2 months, but now I've stalled on the larger muscle groups, and the smaller ones I'm making small gains.

Oh also, I usually run betweent 3.5 - 4 miles after I'm done lifting, and then make sure to take a protein/recovery shake right after. Would like to take some more creatine or something during the week, but I'm afraid of the extra water weight haha.

auroranflash

Thanks for all the replies, I've enjoyed reading what you all have to say. I think it's very helpful to hear from people who have had success.

Rae6503

Wow. This thread is so full of win.

Qarol

A lot of people do JUST lifting. Primarily because cardio can (not will, but can) interfere with strength gains.
If you do cardio, do them on days you aren't strength training on. You should be wiped after your lifting session anyway.

yea, THAT. I do try to do some light cardio on off days. I am absolutely spent after lifting, but I don't want to do cardio beforehand; I don't want anything tiring me out for the weights.

DavPul

If you said 15 pounds, I'd be inclined to say just lift and cut calories. But for 60, I'd definitely do the cardio. That's pretty much my own plan right now for a 50ish pound loss.

You've got a ton of options. I lift mon, wed, and fri. I do cardio on the off days. Or I lift in the AM and do cardio after work. One thing i like is getting to the gym a little earlier than my lifting partner and doing a little cardio for lifting and a little after. With jumping rope, I do 12 mins before and after, with the spin bike, I have to up it to 20 mins before and after.

Choose whatever works with your schedule and energy levels. Perhaps when you get down to 10-15 pounds to go you can drop the cardio if you want. But for me, it's really hard to keep my energy level up while lifting heavy and cutting calories for an extended period of time.

JNick77

I've recently purchased a gym membership and starting throwing the heavy stuff around. My question is this:

I still have about 60 pounds I'd like to lose, so should I work in some cardio after I lift or will the lifting/new muscle be sufficient to burn fat? I'm still trying to work out my routine but I've got it down to an upper/lower body split 4 days a week, I do about 5-10 minutes on a bike to warm up before lifting and on Mondays I work in a spin class (thumbs up for free classes with a membership!).

Thoughts?

Initially try like 20-min sessions of low-impact cardio like 3 days a week. Work up to 30-min sessions and then add a 4th day if you feel you're recovering well enough.

erickirb

I've recently purchased a gym membership and starting throwing the heavy stuff around. My question is this:

I still have about 60 pounds I'd like to lose, so should I work in some cardio after I lift or will the lifting/new muscle be sufficient to burn fat? I'm still trying to work out my routine but I've got it down to an upper/lower body split 4 days a week, I do about 5-10 minutes on a bike to warm up before lifting and on Mondays I work in a spin class (thumbs up for free classes with a membership!).

Thoughts?

Initially try like 20-min sessions of low-impact cardio like 3 days a week. Work up to 30-min sessions and then add a 4th day if you feel you're recovering well enough.

OP only if you want to do cardio, no need to if you are fine eating less and having the same deficit. Cardio for weight loss is overrated.

JayByrd107

bump

JNick77

I've recently purchased a gym membership and starting throwing the heavy stuff around. My question is this:

I still have about 60 pounds I'd like to lose, so should I work in some cardio after I lift or will the lifting/new muscle be sufficient to burn fat? I'm still trying to work out my routine but I've got it down to an upper/lower body split 4 days a week, I do about 5-10 minutes on a bike to warm up before lifting and on Mondays I work in a spin class (thumbs up for free classes with a membership!).

Thoughts?

Initially try like 20-min sessions of low-impact cardio like 3 days a week. Work up to 30-min sessions and then add a 4th day if you feel you're recovering well enough.

OP only if you want to do cardio, no need to if you are fine eating less and having the same deficit. Cardio for weight loss is overrated.

I don't totally disagree with that but conditioning will absolutely make you better at lifting. I know all people are a little different but doing a little cardio has definitely helped me in my body re-comp goals. Trust me, I friggin' HATE doing cardio but it's a necessary evil unfortunately. Not to mention certain types of cardio can act as eccentric-less exercise and improve your development. Almost any strength-coach or powerlifter that's worth a damn will tell you to do some cardio. Don't forget that cardio doesn't always have to be running. Options:

1. Medicine Ball Slams: Take a medicine ball and with two hands hold it over head and slam that ****er into the ground as hard as you can. Do this for 10-reps as fast as you can for one set, take a 30-second rest and repeat for 10 sets.

2. Clean and Pulls: I love doing this. I use a weight that's about 50% - 60% of my max for Power Cleans from the Hang and I'll do 3-reps, then go do 5-chin-ups, come back without resting do 3-more cleans, 5-more chin-ups and repeat that 5 times. One set looks like:
a. cleans
b. chins
a. cleans
b. chins
a. cleans
b. chins
a. cleans
b. chins
a. cleans
b. chins
*Rest 90-seconds and repeat as many times as you can. Increase intensity by reducing rest-time.

You can do that with a variety of things too, combinations like push-ups, chin-ups, sit-ups or broad jumps, push-ups for instance.

damorzacon

Got some great info in here! Thanks everyone!!