Lifting weights to lose weights?

californiagirl2012

Good morning, Friends!

Have any of you had success with lifting weights to lose weight? I always feel that I must include some form of cardio in order to lose weight, but have recently read about people who have only lifted weights and lost weight. I guess the idea with that is that as you build muscle it causes you to burn more calories post workout. Anyway, I'm just curious if anyone has had success with this method? Thoughts?

God bless,

Laura

Exercise is for making your lean body mass pretty (especially lifting weights) for when the fat is gone. Losing fat with no muscle is ugly and cardio alone will not make you pretty. You cannot out exercise too many calories.

Everyone needs resistance training to improve their health and bone density and this will especially improve your quality of life when you get older. But you will not gain all that much lean body mass as fast as everyone thinks. Guys of course will gain more. A DXA scan will prove the point. There are lots of stories about changing size but no one REALLY knows unless they do a DXA scan. Here's more about that --> http://bradpilon.com/weight-loss/intermittent-fasting-and-bulking/ this is true whether you IF or not. My DXA scans proved that I really didn't gain that much lean body mass yet I look very muscular for a female. I have very high bone density from over 30 years of lifting yet my lean body mass is still only 104 lbs and my RMR is still only 1380.

I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is! Also I believe it is why most people think I look much younger than I really am. Because of this I don't have to worry about osteoporosis. If you wait until you are older and your bones start to deteriorate it's a bit too late, you can't get back what you lost, and you can only start a resistance routine that will prevent further damage.

Cardio is good for you but it is optional. I love cardio, but you can't out exercise too many calories. Of course you burn calories, but not near what all the HRM's say. I learned the hard way, running marathon after marathon (yes even multiple runs during the day), as well as hitting the gym hard, martial arts, staying active all the time, not eating while watching TV, not binging, not mindlessly eating, not pigging out, not having emotional eating issues, yet I gained weight year after year, each decade putting on the pounds. I worked harder and harder, not able to figure out what was wrong. It didn't seem like I ate too much, but for my small size I did and didn't realize it until just a few years ago when I finally started losing weight by eating less.


Everyone is different, but it's very easy to do a lot of cardio and think you can eat more than you really need, especially when you need to lose weight. It is also easy to think that you are burning more fat than you really are. Just do cardio if you enjoy it and because it's good for you.

The scale: As you start lifting ignore the scale to some extent, you will get sore, you will get DOMS, you body adjusts so relax and enjoy the progress of making your body HEALTHIER.

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

The routine I do consists of weight lifting first and cardio second, but I still do cardio (mainly running). I change up everything all the time. My running is sometimes long easy runs, sometimes HIIT, sometimes shorter medium pace runs. My weight routine changes each day, each week, Circuits, Intermittent Super Sets, Fibonacci Pyramids, X-sets, Progress Venus Pyramids, and some splits, constantly changing it up, everything a variety of Strength, Hypertrophy, and Endurance.

These exercises are not done every day, but most days I do an all body workout just different exercises each time. I did not design it but have found it works beautifully. Every day is different and constantly changing, some days heavy low reps, some days moderate weight with medium reps, some days light with high reps, some days circuit style, some days pyramid style, etc.

Legs; In addition to Deadlift's, Stiff Leg Dead Lifts, Sumo Dead Lifts and Squats I do Bulgarian Split Squats, Lunges, Reverse lunges, Curtsey lunges, Step Ups, Crossover Bench Step Ups, One legged Deadlifts (T-Bend), Lunge Matrix, Bowler Squat, One Legged Get Ups, Bower Squat and Calf Raise, Bowler Squat + Stiff Leg Deadlift, Curtsey Lunge + Dumbbell Squat, T-Bend + Y-Squat, Reverse Lunge & Step Up, Curtsey Lunge + Step Up, Y-squat, Narrow Stance Squat

For upper body I do Standing Shoulder Press, Standing Dumbell Curls, Lying Tricep extension, Pullovers, Bent Barbell Row, Standing lateral Raise, Standing front Raise, Curl and Press, Shoulder Press + Curl, Dips, Lying Tricep Extensions + Flyes, Venus Raise (a type of snatch), Bent Row + Standing Lateral Raise, Pullovers, Pushup + Dips, Standing Dumbbell curls + Overhead Tricep Extension, Bent Lateral Raise + Pullovers, One Arm Dumbbell row, Flyes + Pushups, Seated Curl & Tate Press, Seated Curls + Overhead Tricep Extension, Pushups, Pullovers + Dips, Bent Barbell Row, Lateral Raise + Full Front Raise, Venus Raise + Dips, Standing Dumbbell curls + Lying Tricep Extension, Upright Row + Dips, Bent Barbell Row, Flat bench Press, Incline Bench Press, Bent Row Narrow, Bent Row + Kickback,

Then some upper and lower combos; Squat and Front Raise, Step Up & Press, Step Up + Standing Shoulder Press, Squat & Press, Squat & Swing, Curtsy Lunge + Standing Shoulder Pres, T-Bend & Row, Pike Front Rais + Curtsey Lunge, Flat Bench Press + Step Up.

Core: Bar Bell Rollouts (you can start out with Stability Ball Roll Outs), Swiss Ball Pikes (you can start out with Stability Ball Curl Ups), and planks. As you advance Swiss Ball Pike and pushup.

I probably forgot some but you get the idea.


Best of luck to you! Bobbie

athenaheim

Just interested in this topic.

FullOfWin

In my experience, the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns even at rest, but the amount is neglibile. Losing weight is 100% your food intake. This is the main and most important part of losing weight. Cardio is not necessary to burn fat. However, weight loss alone can leave you as what I describe as "soft skinny". Lifting weights can drastically change the shape of your body. So moral of the story islift weights and eat a deficit, cardio optional. So to lose weight - eat less, cardio if you feel like it, and weight lifting at least 2 days a week.

Fixed.

jacksonpt

In my experience, the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns even at rest, but the amount is neglibile. Losing weight is 100% your food intake. This is the main and most important part of losing weight. Cardio is not necessary to burn fat. However, weight loss alone can leave you as what I describe as "soft skinny". Lifting weights can drastically change the shape of your body. So moral of the story islift weights and eat a deficit, cardio optional. So to lose weight - eat less, cardio if you feel like it, and weight lifting at least 2 days a week.

Fixed.

*like*

belladonna786

I have lost weight, but that is due to diet. My body is changing in wonderful ways and that is due to heavy lifting.

heaven_511

bump

Jaulen

When I was in the best shape of my life, I weighed in at 130pounds, was 18% body fat, and had a 24 inch waist. And I'm 5'5"

I lifted weights every day. Worked out 6 days a week.
And it was baisically just a very simple circuit set on machines.

I'd start with 15 mins of cardio to warm up, then go through the circuit doing three sets of 12 reps with increasing weight each set, then half hour of cardio (split between a treadmill on high incline, an elliptical, stationary bike, rowing machine and a stair-mill) then would go and do 15 min of jumping rope (at first it was like jumping rope goal is to jump 100 jumps.....dang jumping rope is WORK!), and then one of two videos the trainer at the gym had recorded of the fitness classes (either core or full body).

Proper form, it's essential if you want to get the most out of weight lifting, using a machine or free weights....it's funny watching people (especially guys) lift super heavy weights with horrible form, and when they get shown the proper form then can lift about half of what they were doing before.

waldo56

Also needs to be said that you aren't going to gain anything more than a slight pittance of new muscle tisse if you are in a calorie deficit trying to lose weight. Aside from total beginners your body only gains new muscle tissue when you are in a calorie surplus. Even if you are a total beginner, that won't last long.

Yes new muscle tissue does raise your metabolism, but you can ignore this effect unless you plan on going into a surplus and actually building new tissue. Even then, you need A LOT to see a noticable difference.

Now this isn't to say you won't gain weight, strength training will cause your inter-muscle energy systems to charge up, meaning more creatine, more glycogen, and a lot more water, your muscles will get a little bigger and feel firm and the scale will go up, but this is not new muscle tissue (new muscle tissue is not firm unless charged with energy), it does not contribute to your metabolism. This gain will plateau rather quickly and you'll pee it away if you quit strength training for a couple weeks (you will not lose real tissue growth).

What most people see as a raise in ther metabolism from strength training is actually a gross underestimation of the calorie burn of strength training. Strength training burns a lot of calories, every bit as many as running.

weloveourboys

Weight lifting is the #1 way to lose weight. Each pound of muscle gained is ~7% increase in your BMR.

Cardio is a fast fix. Lifting is a long term fix.

Oh give me a break. Cardiovascular exercise is imperative for your heart health. It is ignorant to think that cardiovascular exercise is a "fast fix."

weloveourboys

I have lost weight, but that is due to diet. My body is changing in wonderful ways and that is due to heavy lifting.

She's got it. Losing weight is 80% diet and only 20% due to exercise.

Espressocycle

Lifting weight burns calories. Developed muscles consume more energy than fat.

rageddemon

my advice...mix it up

KatLifter

Wow! Thanks everyone! Great responses. Does anyone have a specific weight lifting workout that they follow and wouldn't mind sharing?

Thanks again!

Jamie Eason's Livefit is a great way to get started with lifting and clean eating, I am just starting week 3, and it's completely free
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-easons-livefit-introduction.html

Yogi_Carl

Surely - whether you are using bodyweight or weightlifting exercises for strength - it is not the increase in muscle mass that causes metabolism to increase. Especially eating in a deficit, you are unlikely to gain significant muscle tissue. Even eating a surplus, weightlifters and bodybuilders have to work far harder than most people would be prepared to in order to acheive the gains they seek.

It is more to do with the calories burned during strength workouts and the increase in metabolic rate in the hours following, during tissue repair and a tiny amount of tissue growth; if any.

I don't know, I don't claim to be an expert but that's my angle on it and I would welcome one of our more experienced strength work people to amend or commend this.

What strength work does that cardio may not is to shape up the physique under the fat so you look good when you get there. The main calorie burn comes, not from muscle growth and it's metabolic demand, but on an increase in metabolism during repair and rest.

Am I right?

ptjolsen

Yes, mix lifting and functional exercise, with cardio and diet and you will be most successful.

Punkin7411

I can only tell you what is working for me. I started out doing the Turbo Fire/Chalean Ext hybrid which does not involve cardio. While I found my body getting smaller, the scales moved very, very little. At 200+ lbs, the scales needed to move. I know I paid too much attention to them, but my 55 yr old 5'4" body had no business carrying that weight and it mattered to me. I then changed to Turbo Jam cardio 5 days and incorporated 2 days of strength training from either Turbo Jam or Chalean Ext. And I'm using MFP to track everything I eat. It is working. My weigh-in tomorrow will likely be very close to 30 lbs lost. My average weekly loss is 1.6 - 2 lbs. Now I'm using Turbo Jam Fat Blaster and Turbo Fire and never do the same DVD two days in a row. What attracted me to Beachbody was the muscle confusion idea. I had a really hard time figuring out the daily calories to eat too with all the "high math" equations with BMR and all that so I had to play around with daily calorie intake too. My goal is 1300 if I don't exercise, which is only about one day every 1-1/2 weeks or so. On days I exercise I usually eat part of my calories back but there is no rocket science to it. If I'm hungry, I must eat but I'm trying to eat as clean as possible and reach for the healthy stuff. I guess I say all that to say you must find what works for you and what you will stick with.......for life. Best of luck.

mustgetmuscles1

My cut and paste advice.

Losing fat anywhere on the body is more to do with a calorie deficit than any particular exercise. With that said the fat will burn off from wherever the body decides. You can not control this and it usually comes off in the reverse order it went on.

To lose "weight" put your calories in a moderate deficit. Notice I said "weight". To make sure the majority of your weight loss comes from "body fat" you will need to do resistance training. Muscle is very expensive to maintain calorie wise. If you do not convince your body that the muscle is necessary it will get rid of it. This can look great on the scale but is terrible for body composition. This site is full of people who reach their weight loss goals and are not happy with the way their bodies look. This is usually do to excessive calorie deficit (from severe dieting or excessive cardio) and no resistance training (lifting relatively heavy weights). Strength training should be started as soon as possible. I recommend picking a premade program like Starting Strength, 5x5, New Rules For Lifting. Any will get you results for quite awhile.

The amount of protein and fat has an effect on muscle retention and growth (if in a surplus)
I like this video for setting up calorie goals and macros (protein, fats, carbs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bakMu9ddQ5I

Pick whatever diet you want to follow. Clean, dirty, vegan/veggie, Paleo, IIFYM, IF, 6 meals, 1 meal, whatever your preferences are as long as the basic minimums are met the rest wont make much of a difference.

Is cardio necessary for fat loss? Nope. You can lose weight just with diet alone or diet with strength training combined to maximize fat loss.

Should you do cardio anyways? Yep. Many benefits of doing cardio but I recommend high intensity cardio. 20-30 minutes as hard as you can go. Try HIIT training at first. Do that about 3 times per week. Spending hours on a treadmill will burn calories but is so inefficient that I think its a waste of time unless you are training for some kind of event.

Read this and the attached study but do not lower your calories that low:
http://fitnessblackbook.com/dieting_for_fat_loss/maintain-muscle-mass-on-800-calories-per-day/

Watch this video to decide what kind of cardio you might want to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up5n86VGC3c

waldo56

The main calorie burn comes, not from muscle growth and it's metabolic demand, but on an increase in metabolism during repair and rest.

Am I right?

Yes.

But strength training burns a lot of calories outright while performing it as well. It is virtually impossible to actually measure so science has very little to say on the subject (however the chemical reaction that creates movement from calories is hideously inefficient when not an aerobic reaction; strength training is a gas guzzler).

.........................................

Just a personal theory of mine, backed up by my rather meticulous data, but it seems that calorie burn rate is roughly equivalent at any maximum output rate in a fixed time....

1) Heavy compound strenght training, where you are working in the low rep area, and waiting sufficiently between sets to stay at peak performance (4-5 min)
2) Circuit training, when you go exercise to exercise, higher rep sets, recovering between rounds (2-3 minutes to catch your breath)
3) Moderate rep sets, where you wait 2 minutes or so between sets to be recovered enough to go again
4) Sprinting, where you recover enough between each run to run at peak output
5) Jogging, as fast as you can go and yet sustain over a longer period

All burn almost exactly the same amount of calories. Some are constant movement, some have long breaks, the chemical reaction efficiency covers the difference; in each instance you are going as fast as you can possibly go while maintaining peak performance. Doing 30 minutes of any of them at peak output would seem to be expected to burn almost exactly the same number of calories, no matter which you do.

Where you go even faster and performance declines (for example typical HIIT), your calorie burn rate would be even higher.

lasmit4477

ok, here's the deal.

Weight loss happens when you burn more cals than you consume... cals in vs cals out... the energy balance equation.

So as long as your are burning more than you are consuming, you'll lose weight. You can do that with exercise or without. If you chose to incorporate exercise, it can be cardio or strength training. Cardio and strength training (i.e. heavy lifting) have different effects on the body, but they both burns cals and thus both help you get into the ever important calorie deficit.


And because I'm too big of a jerk to let it slide, I HAVE to say this (yes, I know it's a matter of semantics, but it needs to be said)...

All those people who say they lost weight lifting or running or kick boxing or whatever... WRONG. They lost weight by eating less cals than they burned. It wasn't the exercise that caused the weight loss, it was the deficit. This is an important distinction to make because people who don't want to exercise (or who can't exercise) CAN STILL LOSE WEIGHT through proper eating.

.

This^^^

Also, when people say that they want to lose weight, they have a general idea of what they want to "look" like! Lifting heavy will help you achieve the body composition that you are probably after and will help you maintain your LBM.

thecapaccino

bump