How Can I Explain How Lifting Helps?

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  • squirrell79
    squirrell79 Posts: 154 Member
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    Someone else said this and I second it, loudly: show her the article about Staci on the Nerd Fitness website.


    *fist bump*
    Thank you ;)

    No problem! I've become a huge fan of lifting heavy objects and putting them down again, and I find Staci very inspirational. Although I'm only a beginner, I'm excited at the possibilities.
  • MistressAella
    MistressAella Posts: 99 Member
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    It's addictive isn't it? I freakin' love it! And it's contagious too, I've gotten a friend of mine hooked. lol. I'm nothing but a nerdy iron pusher :D haha!
  • craigmandu
    craigmandu Posts: 976 Member
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    I read this article that I happen to like concerning muscle mass and weight loss. It was obviously originally put out there to debunk the notion that muscle burns a very large amount "more" calories than fat at rest. (He says muscle burns 6 cals/hr/lb as opposed to fat at 2 cals/hr/lb)

    But that's just part of the story. I believe it shows in a pretty good way, how adding muscle mass to the skeletal structure of the body allows the body to perform more efficiently through improved insulin sensitivity. Also realize that 1 pound of muscle has a very defining and toning effect when spread throughout the body. Diet is absolutely the most important thing in terms of weight loss, lifting and getting stronger/denser muscles enables the body to be much more efficient and thus NOT convert as much of the calories you consume to fat stores.

    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-many-calories-does-muscle-really-burn-and-why-its-not-about-calories-anyway/#axzz2S9zbsRTU
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    I don't know what makes sense to different individuals, but I would stick with the basics:

    1. Resistance training helps to promote weight loss even with no increase in lean mass.

    2. Resistance training + cardio promotes greater fat loss than either modality alone.

    3. Resistance training can prevent the slowdown in metabolism that occurs with dieting alone. (Don't worry about the details).

    4. Resistance training increases self-confidence which improves compliance with a fat loss program.

    5. Resistance training is important from day 1 of a fat loss program and is essential for maintaining fat losses.

    Personally I would not go into the "building muscle burns more fat". For the average person, those effects have been wildly overstated, as is the "afterburn" effect.

    I also would not use people who have achieved their goals solely through resistance training and lot of increased muscle mass as "proof" of efficacy. Kudos to those who have done it, but most folks aren't going to see those kinds of results (mainly because they won't be willing to work that much).
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    Someone else said this and I second it, loudly: show her the article about Staci on the Nerd Fitness website.


    *fist bump*
    Thank you ;)

    That is a pretty awesome article.
    not as helpful for chicks who want to lose 100lbs since she lost her fat doing cardio BUT it's a great example for how lifting *IS* actually good for women and how it isn't going to make us look like radioactive muscle monsters.

    I'm sure she could have gone from her 179 to 143 by lifting and eating her (deliciously awesome looking) diet.

    It shows (to me at least) how lifting can eating proper can help you get healthy :):)
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    I don't know what makes sense to different individuals, but I would stick with the basics:

    1. Resistance training helps to promote weight loss even with no increase in lean mass.

    2. Resistance training + cardio promotes greater fat loss than either modality alone.

    3. Resistance training can prevent the slowdown in metabolism that occurs with dieting alone. (Don't worry about the details).

    4. Resistance training increases self-confidence which improves compliance with a fat loss program.

    5. Resistance training is important from day 1 of a fat loss program and is essential for maintaining fat losses.

    Personally I would not go into the "building muscle burns more fat". For the average person, those effects have been wildly overstated, as is the "afterburn" effect.

    I also would not use people who have achieved their goals solely through resistance training and lot of increased muscle mass as "proof" of efficacy. Kudos to those who have done it, but most folks aren't going to see those kinds of results (mainly because they won't be willing to work that much).

    Thank you! This is helpful too!
  • _SABOTEUR_
    _SABOTEUR_ Posts: 6,833 Member
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    I'm not an expert but this is what I understand:

    Beyond newbie gains (where you gain muscle for mueromuscular reasons aka you are training muscles in a way they have never been trained before and they have to adapt to that) it is nigh on impossible to gain muscle on a deficit (which you will be if you are trying to lose weight).

    Heavy weight lifting is not really to do with the weight itself. It is about what is heavy for you. You need to do strength training, something like Stronglifts or Starting Strength so you can increase your strength. With these you progressively increase your weight every time you perform the same exercise.

    Many people ask, 'why lift if I'm not going to increase muscle on a deficit?' The reason is if you just change your diet and/or cardio you will lose muscle mass as well as body fat, which can lead to being 'skinny-fat' (where you lose the weight but your body is still wobbly). If you lift weights 'heavy' (progressively increase the weights each workout) you will retain your muscle mass and just lose fat (which is preferrably as bf% is a much better indicator of health than weight/BMI).

    I hope this helps.
  • ktliu
    ktliu Posts: 334 Member
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    What I learn was cardio will make you lose the calories while you are doing the work. So whatever you logged, you got that number. With lifting, you will log lower number because your heart usually stays in Zone 3/. However, the magic happen after the lifting workout, You will continue to burn an added 5-10% for another 24-36 hours. that's what makes the difference.

    Pure cardio will make you thinner but looks like a smaller version of yourself, Lifting will give you definition where you didn't have before, thus making you look better. and the results will stay with you longer, sometimes even a lifetime. My father in law used to do some lifting. nothing crazy, he managed to keep a pretty active lifestyle, he's still learning yoga at a ripe young age of 84. but when he flexes, you can still see that defined bicep. So that's a testament to take it to your old age. And also muscles need more calories to maintain. thus throughout your lifetime, it burns more calories.

    I personally mixed it up with 4 pure lift days. and 3 cardio days with some lighter lifting almost every cardio day unless I'm out of time.

    Hope it helps
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    Sorry to keep splitting hairs, but HRMs are terrible for estimating calories burned during strength training. The calculations they use assume steady state cardio, and strength training is nether steady state nor cardio. In most cases, and HRM will DRASTICALLY over estimate calorie burns for lifting.

    Ok, I've only ever had the one HRM that I have right now. It seems to be just fine. If my HR is only like 90 it shows me burning hardly any calories, which makes sense because It's close to resting heart rate. When my rate is up, I burn more. Make sense to me.

    I have to put out there than whenever I do any lifting or strength training, I'm doing other stuff inbetween that raises my heart rate too.
    Since I track my calories both in and out, I feel this is important.

    my gf doesn't use a HRM so it's cool :)
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    I'm not an expert but this is what I understand:

    Beyond newbie gains (where you gain muscle for mueromuscular reasons aka you are training muscles in a way they have never been trained before and they have to adapt to that) it is nigh on impossible to gain muscle on a deficit (which you will be if you are trying to lose weight).

    Heavy weight lifting is not really to do with the weight itself. It is about what is heavy for you. You need to do strength training, something like Stronglifts or Starting Strength so you can increase your strength. With these you progressively increase your weight every time you perform the same exercise.

    Many people ask, 'why lift if I'm not going to increase muscle on a deficit?' The reason is if you just change your diet and/or cardio you will lose muscle mass as well as body fat, which can lead to being 'skinny-fat' (where you lose the weight but your body is still wobbly). If you lift weights 'heavy' (progressively increase the weights each workout) you will retain your muscle mass and just lose fat (which is preferrably as bf% is a much better indicator of health than weight/BMI).

    I hope this helps.

    That helps too! many of my friends have lost weight just through diet and cardio and put it right back on. Somehow this post gives me a better understanding of why.
    If you just lose bf% but have stronger muscles to maintain your loss (now I'm soundsing like an idiot again lol) then you have a great chance of keeping the weight off.
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
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    I hope she comes to the dark side.
    tumblr_lr65k4znja1qbg1wd.gif
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    What I learn was cardio will make you lose the calories while you are doing the work. So whatever you logged, you got that number. With lifting, you will log lower number because your heart usually stays in Zone 3/. However, the magic happen after the lifting workout, You will continue to burn an added 5-10% for another 24-36 hours. that's what makes the difference.

    Pure cardio will make you thinner but looks like a smaller version of yourself, Lifting will give you definition where you didn't have before, thus making you look better. and the results will stay with you longer, sometimes even a lifetime.

    this seems to be what happened to me. in total I've lost about 50lbs over the past few years. I looked just as crappy as I did before but... I'm SO MUCH SMALLER OMG!!!! Yeah.. I may be "tiny" but I sure don't take my clothes off in front of people. *shudder* skin and celluite everywheres!!!

    I started adding in weights a couple months ago and can already see a difference. I'm still learning so no way do I look all awesome like the girls in those blogs, but whatever I can tell that it helps!

    being a buff old lady would be awesome. I want to be able to garden and stuff when I'm 85!
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    ...
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    I hope she comes to the dark side.
    tumblr_lr65k4znja1qbg1wd.gif


    haaha awesome. Me too. Her husband is uber fitness and trying to get her into it too.
  • Trilby16
    Trilby16 Posts: 707 Member
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    I'm not gonna disagree about the value of lifting but if your gf only picks up 5 lb weights now, she is not suddenly going to be ABLE to pick up 50 pounds just because you tell her she should do it. She'll have to work up to it and gain strength. You want to challenge your muscles, yes, but don't injure yourself.
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    You could start by showing her this thread -
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/977538-halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky

    yeah, comparing her to other girls is the way to go.

    hahaha. I know lots of people will probs be offended by this but you're right.
    IF the comparison was comprable, it would be fine.
    I enjoy success threads where the OP started like me (or me at some point) and got to a goal that I'd like to be at.
    Then I can see the benefit.

    but a 250lb chick who's never touched weights isn't going to get much inspiration from reading about how a 140lb chick got super skinny and HAWT from lifting and eating tongs of meat.

    It's all relative.
    A lot of those threads make me cry because I WANT them to inspire but they just make me feel crappy. (I'm a girl. bite me)
  • CoderGal
    CoderGal Posts: 6,800 Member
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    It is scientifically impossible to become biger and bulkier to begin with on a calorie deficit.

    by volume, muscle weighs more then fat. This means that muscle takes up less room then fat. So if you think you bulked up in muscle, that means you slimmed down by a gigantic amount.

    You don't turn into a hulk over night. It takes lots of calorie surplus and strength training and time. And in a blink of an eye those effects can be reversed. Just be lazy, tada your problems are solved.

    Show pictures of the girls replying to you and ones you can find online that are lifting and are not big and bulky.

    Cardio had me in a skinny sagging mess. I wasn't 'firm' until I added strength training. The pictures below are at the same weight (130lbs). The left is cardio at a local gym, the right is weight lifting:

    untitled.JPG

    I'm a terrible example, there are so many people on this site who look leaps and bounds better and have had a much greater transformation. Oh, and I wouldn't consider myself bulky. I'm a prime example of how squats do not make your thighs fat.
    528720_10152565150090607_1439223811_n.jpg
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    I'm not gonna disagree about the value of lifting but if your gf only picks up 5 lb weights now, she is not suddenly going to be ABLE to pick up 50 pounds just because you tell her she should do it. She'll have to work up to it and gain strength. You want to challenge your muscles, yes, but don't injure yourself.

    100% agree.
    Last time we worked out together she was listing like 10lbs while I was doing more (I can't lift more than 50 anyway)
    I just wanted to show her a few things and teach her form and tell her the benefits of doing more than cardio.
    I'm just crap at explaining things.
  • petstorekitty
    petstorekitty Posts: 592 Member
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    It is scientifically impossible to become biger and bulkier to begin with on a calorie deficit.

    by volume, muscle weighs more then fat. This means that muscle takes up less room then fat. So if you think you bulked up in muscle, that means you slimmed down by a gigantic amount.

    You don't turn into a hulk over night. It takes lots of calorie surplus and strength training and time. And in a blink of an eye those effects can be reversed. Just be lazy, tada your problems are solved.

    Show pictures of the girls replying to you and ones you can find online that are lifting and are not big and bulky.

    short and sweet, I like. Will cut and paste :):):)
  • lesspaul
    lesspaul Posts: 190 Member
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    For sure, and I'm not disagreeing with you, only with what always seems to be incomplete advice. Exercise and you'll lose weight. No, it's not that simply. You can't talk about exercise in a vacuum.

    You might be able to if you had a really big vacuum. My Kirby is too small. I checked.

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