Going to lessen weight training, bad idea?

vventure23

Hey, so I've been around the same weight (180 ish at 5'4") for the past year. I noticed a lot of change quickly in my body when I started lifting heavy, and even though I stayed the same weight I looked more toned and skinny so I kept up with it. I haven't been seeing much of a change in months and months now though, it's frustrating.

The last 3 weeks have been challenging to fit in workouts, with my full time job and part time grad school working around a 5 day vacation break. I haven't lifted much, but did a lot of walking on vaca and have been doing some cardio stuff... And suddenly the scale is moving! I went from 183 3 weeks ago to 177 this morning.

So I want to keep the trend going. I'm going to do weight training 2x/week and keep up with the cardio.

Thing is, I know most of the weight I've lost was muscle weight. I'm a size 8 at 180-185, so I don't worry about my BMI much, but the numbers coming down on the scale is a good feeling. Hopefully this won't backfire... Does anyone think it will back fire? I just wanna do something different because what I was doing isn't working anymore and that's frustrating :P I don't wanna maintain, I wanna get better!

RepsnSets

It really comes down to trial and error. Cut back on your lifting and ramp the cardio up for a couple of weeks. Dont give up lifting fully it means you will have to start from scratch. I assume you were changing up your lifting routine every so often? Mixing reps and sets etc?

vventure23

Yeah my routine was always changing, I'd do different things on different days (one day of heavy/low rep, one day of lighter/high rep, that kind of thing) and would completely change up what I was doing every 2-3 months. I still want to keep lifting, but I want to lose pounds (I know I don't physically or internally look anything like a woman with a BMI of ~30, but I still hate that number).

Alright, I'm gonna try it out for 2 or 3 months and see how it goes. At least then it'll be warmer outside and the gym will be less crowded lol.

jzammetti

I lift three days a week and from what I understand that is the perfect amount of heavy lifting. I used to run 4 days a week, but I needed to get stronger since long distance running was killing me. Now I run for warmups to my weight lifting and sometimes one logn run on a weekend day (an off day of liting). I am trying to do what is best for my body and since I am new to lifting I think I need to give my body rest days.

My point is I think your new routine is perfect

seekingstrengthX2

My rx: 2 days lifting, 3 days cardio, 2 days rest. Sounds like you're doing great. Keep it up!!