Lifting while losing, what are the benefits?

Feeling strong and being able to lift more weight than the man next to you. Changing your body shape and being able to pig out one day and not worry about gaining weight the next day or feeling like your whole "diet" just went out the window.

The body does not work in black and white. Generally speaking, whenever your calorie intake is insufficient, your body taps into your muscle tissue to generate glucose to feed your brain; it also taps into your fat reserves to get the energy with which it can rebuild your muscles. When you do cardio exercises, your muscles suffer relatively little damage; as long as they can do what you are asking them to do, the body will gladly sacrifice muscle tissue to save energy, as it does not know when the next meal will come (your brain may know, but your metabolic processes do not).

When you lift, and particularly when you lift heavy and to temporary muscular failure, you damage your muscles more significantly, causing what is known as 'micro tears'. Your body will still tap into your muscle tissue to generate glucose and feed your brain, but now it has to repair its damaged muscles, which a) requires some extra calories and therefore burns some additional fat and b) grows your muscles.

The net result is that if you diet without exercise, you will lose significant amounts of body fat and muscle tissue; if you follow a cardio-only exercise program, you will lose a slightly higher proportion of fat, but will still likely lose some muscle mass (particularly if you opt for long, low intensity cardio such as walking at moderate speeds or using a stationary bike at low resistance/speed levels). If you follow a training regime with at least some weight training, you may be able to significantly slow down, completely stop or even reverse muscle mass loss.

The best approach will vary with each person, as multiple factors are at play - gender, age and general fitness level; as always it's best to consult a physician or a fitness instructor/coach, particularly if you are not used to exercising. That said, judicious use of weights training should increase the speed with which you lose weight, and make you feel better - as you get stronger, your metabolic rate increases and you lose faster, but also your body simply feels better and more energetic.

I've been doing this for 15 months now and will never go back!

Good luck.

A firm *kitten*.

LOL sorry neuromuscular adaptation?

It means gaining strength not by gaining muscle, but by your central nervous system becoming more efficient at recruiting muscle fibers.

I think you just answered a question for me - why a person can gain a measure of strength without growing in muscle mass. I always said that muscles have a maximum potential which has to be reached before growth can commence, now I have a better understanding of why, so thank you: :drinker: