Is there any point to lifting?

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firstsip
firstsip Posts: 8,399 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Alright, now that I have your attention from that troll-worthy title.

I've been researching and posting about lifting during the process of weight loss. I've been told various answers, and read various answers. Many seem to point to: it's very hard to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time. With that partially understood, I would think the best option (at least for me, from my research) would be to focus on losing weight (I have about 20 lbs to go), then start lifting (I'm a 5'6" female, 23, who wants to go the heavy lifting route).

I've been doing strength training using my own body weight pretty frequently--should I stop this?
Is there a point to trying to lift heavy before I've reached my initial goal weight?
Thoughts, suggestions? Nude pics?
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Replies

  • Jynus
    Jynus Posts: 519 Member
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    lifting will retain more type II lean mass than not lifting while losing weight. And will experience more fat loss to compensate. What this means is you look leaner and more athletic in the end, and hopefully just avoid the skinny fat look. Take a gander at the lifting is the best thing to do thread for countless examples. Notice the common theme amongst all the women lifting while losing weight.
  • vtachycardia
    vtachycardia Posts: 374
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    with your bodyweight training, please describe a routine and rep counts. Nude pics or otherwise not required - :blushing:
  • iWaffle
    iWaffle Posts: 2,208 Member
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    lifting will retain more type II lean mass than not lifting while losing weight. And will experience more fat loss to compensate. What this means is you look leaner and more athletic in the end, and hopefully just avoid the skinny fat look.

    Totally agree. Lifting goes hand in hand with losing weight. Simply losing weight will put you in the skinny category but lifting and losing weight can put you into the "hot" category. As stated lifting helps encourage your body to hold on to that lean muscle tissue and sacrifice fat instead. You don't want to lose any of the hard earned muscle. Think about it, even as a woman you covet muscle even though you might not want cool looking biceps. The butt, aka glutes, is one solid muscle. If you lose it along with fat you'll just have a flat backside. Nice looking legs, muscle. An inspiring mid section and abs, all muscle. Anything you can think of that makes you look at someone and say "wow they're hot" (Aside from hair and a smile) is muscle, muscle, muscle.

    Lose weight with the goal of revealing the muscle underneath because that's what separates skinny from hot. Eat a nice amount of protein (1g per pound of lean mass per day), work on those muscles 3-4 times a week, keep doing the cardio to help with fat loss, eat good and get plenty of rest. That's the K.O. combination to looking awesome and being in good health.

    Final note. Strength building improves bone density and mass. That's a huge issue for many women as they get older.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    Start lifting yesterday.

    With any "diet alone" type of weight loss there is a certain amount of lean muscle tissue lost along with fat. You can mitigate this by making sure your protein intake is high enough but your best defense, even while eating at a deficit, is to add some weight lifting.
  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
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    For many months I did cardio only - lost a lot of weight. Eventually I noticed I wasn't as strong, I'm certain that I lost some muscle along the way. I added back in strength training and it has helped a great deal. I'm still in a calories deficit so I'm not adding any muscle mass, but I don't think losing muscle. I feel stronger now. For me a combination of both cardio and weight training works best.
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
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    Agree with the others!!!!! I only wish I had started weight training earlier so I could have avoided being skinny fat (or just skinny in my case) when I lost my baby weight. It has taken 3 years of hard core weight training to get rid of the cellulite, etc.. LIFT
  • Plates559
    Plates559 Posts: 869 Member
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    I agree, you should start lifting yesterday.
  • Ghkffb56
    Ghkffb56 Posts: 263 Member
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    lifting will retain more type II lean mass than not lifting while losing weight. And will experience more fat loss to compensate. What this means is you look leaner and more athletic in the end, and hopefully just avoid the skinny fat look. Take a gander at the lifting is the best thing to do thread for countless examples. Notice the common theme amongst all the women lifting while losing weight.

    ^
  • MrDude_1
    MrDude_1 Posts: 2,510 Member
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    I disagree with the above.
    You should have started lifting the day before yesterday... leaving yesterday as a rest day.. so you can lift again today.
  • MrDude_1
    MrDude_1 Posts: 2,510 Member
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    lifting will retain more type II lean mass than not lifting while losing weight. And will experience more fat loss to compensate. What this means is you look leaner and more athletic in the end, and hopefully just avoid the skinny fat look. Take a gander at the lifting is the best thing to do thread for countless examples. Notice the common theme amongst all the women lifting while losing weight.

    ^

    i also concur.
  • penrbrown
    penrbrown Posts: 2,685 Member
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    When I first started my weight loss journey I was told there's no point trying to lift because you CANNOT build muscle on a calorie deficit. So I never lifted.

    Now I'm starting to lift and I can say that I don't care if I build muscle or not. I AM getting stronger and FEELING stronger and that's all that really matters. :)

    Do what feels right! Do what makes you feel good! And don't worry about the experts. Sometimes they're full of hog wash.
  • neilegni
    neilegni Posts: 36
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    I disagree with the above.
    You should have started lifting the day before yesterday... leaving yesterday as a rest day.. so you can lift again today.

    Hahaha! Love this.
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
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    hoooo yes - lift stuff. Lift heavy stuff. Do it now!
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    The more you lift, the more muscle you keep, the fewer pounds you have to lose to reach your goal body.

    It's way easier to keep as much of your muscle as you can WHILE you're losing, than it is to lose fat and a larger percentage and try to put only muscle back on later.

    And you don't have to add actual muscle mass to see a big improvement. My total overall muscle mass is probably lower than it was when I started losing weight. But the muscle I do have is stronger and better conditioned.
  • Eupho
    Eupho Posts: 201 Member
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    lifting will retain more type II lean mass than not lifting while losing weight. And will experience more fat loss to compensate. What this means is you look leaner and more athletic in the end, and hopefully just avoid the skinny fat look. Take a gander at the lifting is the best thing to do thread for countless examples. Notice the common theme amongst all the women lifting while losing weight.

    This is kind of whats happening to me! ^ ..

    I'm still 192lbs.. but I do lift and have done (on and off) .. for quite a while.. Only now.. the diet is becoming more 'serious' ..

    I am slowwwleee losing weight.. (intentionally slowly) and thanks to lifting heavy I can see a great shape coming underneath the squishy! .. :drinker: :drinker:
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
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    It's a common misconception that if you can't build new muscle on a deficit, then there's no point in lifting- but the truth is you won't know the difference between gaining muscle or not while lifting on a deficit- especially if you're new to it. The common goals are increased muscle tone and firmness, increased strength, increased metabolism, increased fat loss, increased bone density, feeling bada$$, and looking hot. You can achieve ALL of those goals without packing on any NEW muscle tissue. Most people (women in particular) have all the muscle you need to achieve those goals already, and by using neuromuscular adaptation (which is the primary source of gains whether you're in a deficit or not at the beginning) you train your CNS system to use the muscle that's already there. It's win-win-win-win-win. You'll feel like you're gaining muscle whether you are or not- so what does it matter, really?

    edit for typos.
  • chuisle
    chuisle Posts: 1,052 Member
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    The information is really overwhelming.

    But yes, lift. As a beginner, you are one of the few people who can reasonably expect to gain muscle and lose fat. Regardless, you want to maintain your muscle.

    I am 5'6 and started with about 20 lbs to lose. You'll see from my picture that its when I added lifting that I made breakthroughs.
  • holleysings
    holleysings Posts: 664 Member
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    I went from a size 14 to a size 12 in less than an month just weight lifting. Didn't lose a pound. I eat 2200-2600 calories a day. I have no plans to eat less or stop lifting with results like that!
  • dlwyatt82
    dlwyatt82 Posts: 1,077 Member
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    The point of lifting while losing weight isn't to gain muscle, it's to avoid losing it. You may also be very pleased with the visual changes if you're a complete beginner; there's quite a difference between muscle that's loose and untrained versus someone that's been lifting for a few weeks or more.

    Regardless of what's going on with your lean body mass, you can gain a certain amount of strength by lifting, even on a caloric deficit. Much of the strength gains come from training your central nervous system rather than by gaining muscle mass.
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
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    Focusing strictly on weight loss with the intention of getting to lifting once you're smaller is like deciding to become a race car driver, saving up a ton of money to buy a rally car, but waiting to learn how to drive until after you've got the car.

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