Benefits of heavy lifting while eating at a deficit?

Today414
Today414 Posts: 118
in Fitness and Exercise
Anyone know if theres any "point" to heavy lifting while eating at a deficit? I've still got quite a bit of weight to lose (5'7", 218 lbs, goal: 145 or so), but I am extremely interested in heavy lifting and cannot wait to get started. My end goal is to be strong and fit so I know that heavy lifting is somewhere in my future, I'm just anxious to get started. I don't have a whole ton of time (single mom, work full time,school full time), so I feel like.. if there's very little point, I shouldn't waste the time. I would still want to work in cardio for the aerobic benefits and calorie burn.

Thanks for any advice!!!! :drinker: :drinker:
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Replies

  • Yardtigress
    Yardtigress Posts: 367 Member
    Once you start heavy lifting, you will need to eat some of those exercise calories back or you won't be lifting for long. :noway: So go ahead and look into it. Most will have a protein shake after lifting.
  • AndyStanford
    AndyStanford Posts: 154 Member
    My advice would be to not eat at much of a deficit, as the lifting will burn off a chunk anyway.

    You say you don't have a lot of time, which I completely understand, so I'd suggest looking into something like StrongLifts 5x5, which has approx 30 min workouts, 3x a week. It's a good one to get started with, as you start with small weights, and steadily build up.
  • Today414
    Today414 Posts: 118
    Once you start heavy lifting, you will need to eat some of those exercise calories back or you won't be lifting for long. :noway: So go ahead and look into it. Most will have a protein shake after lifting.
    Well, yes, I'd increase my intake with increased activity, but generally, in order to build muscle you need to eat at a surplus, because its very hard for your body to build at a deficit, which is not at all conducive to losing weight... lol..

    I guess I'm just wondering if I'll have any increase in LBM at all.
  • Today414
    Today414 Posts: 118
    My advice would be to not eat at much of a deficit, as the lifting will burn off a chunk anyway.

    You say you don't have a lot of time, which I completely understand, so I'd suggest looking into something like StrongLifts 5x5, which has approx 30 min workouts, 3x a week. It's a good one to get started with, as you start with small weights, and steadily build up.

    Thanks for the advice! I"ll for sure look into Stronglifts. I can do 30 min 3x/week :)
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,021 Member
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.
  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
    -preserve lean tissue
    -newbie gainz
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.

    This
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.

    This^^^...even at a deficit you're going to get stronger and you will preserve lean body mass and burn fat. When you don't do any resistance training, you end up burning both lean muscle and body fat.
  • NCchar130
    NCchar130 Posts: 955 Member
    I believe the main point in doing it now is to preserve your existing muscle mass as much as possible while you are losing. Ideally you want to lose body fat only, though that's probably not even possible.
  • lasmit4477
    lasmit4477 Posts: 308 Member
    Look up Stronglifts 5x5! Great for starting out...well, it's great period. Also, make sure you educate yourself on proper form. I say that NOW is the time to start. It will help perserve lean body mass while you are in a deficit. I would recommend you getting 1 gram of protein per 1 lb of body weight and eat at a slight deficit, maybe 15-20% below your TDEE. You will not actually put on muscle mass while in a deficit, that is done with a calorie surplus, but what you will see are well developed muscles/tighter body as the fat is being lost.

    When people say they want to weigh a certain weight, they often have a certain "body image" in their mind that they will look like at that weight. Weight lifting will aid in the desired look you are going for and you will feel amazing!
  • 21Pontoon
    21Pontoon Posts: 46
    I've just started lifting and still eat at a deficit of 500 calories, so far I've had no negative side effects. Feel free to add btw if you want.
    I do try to eat an hour before I go and have a protein shake / meal within an hour of leaving the gym. It's a very personal thing though. Maybe carry on as you are and add in the weights, and then if you feel it isn't working add in things slowly.

    I've just bought this book that came highly recommended, it hasn't come in the post yet but it could help http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-New-Rules-Lifting-Women/dp/1583333398/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357836368&sr=8-1



    Good luck and be strong like hulk :) x
  • rachietuk
    rachietuk Posts: 308 Member
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.

    What about calorie intake? What range did you eat before heavy lifting and while heavy lifting?

    thanks
  • Today414
    Today414 Posts: 118
    Okay, you guys convinced me. I'm so excited!!!! :bigsmile: :bigsmile:
  • Sublog
    Sublog Posts: 1,296 Member
    Anyone know if theres any "point" to heavy lifting while eating at a deficit? I've still got quite a bit of weight to lose (5'7", 218 lbs, goal: 145 or so), but I am extremely interested in heavy lifting and cannot wait to get started. My end goal is to be strong and fit so I know that heavy lifting is somewhere in my future, I'm just anxious to get started. I don't have a whole ton of time (single mom, work full time,school full time), so I feel like.. if there's very little point, I shouldn't waste the time. I would still want to work in cardio for the aerobic benefits and calorie burn.

    Thanks for any advice!!!! :drinker: :drinker:

    Yes, especially when you have significant weight to lose.

    When you are obese and lift weights, you can both add muscle and lose fat at the same time. At least its easier to do so than when you get relatively lean.

    Secondly, you lift while dieting to ensure your body is maintaining muscle mass and your body is effectively partitioning calories while you lose weight.

    Meaning the energy that is being released from your body will be lost from fat cells instead of muscle tissue.
  • Juliane_
    Juliane_ Posts: 373 Member
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.

    This

    Ok, so are there any home workout DVD's that can help with that? I really need someone to "tell" me what to do. Family and work don't leave much time to go to a gym daily but I can easily pop in a DVD or something for an 1hr
  • spade117
    spade117 Posts: 2,466 Member
    I didn't look like a fat girl anymore.

    This

    Rock, you used to look like a fat girl?
  • newhabit
    newhabit Posts: 426 Member
    My advice would be to not eat at much of a deficit, as the lifting will burn off a chunk anyway.

    You say you don't have a lot of time, which I completely understand, so I'd suggest looking into something like StrongLifts 5x5, which has approx 30 min workouts, 3x a week. It's a good one to get started with, as you start with small weights, and steadily build up.

    ok so here is what i dont' get. you burn a lot while lifting supposedly, yet MFP has it set at liek 100 calories for 30 minutes of lifting... seems a little low for me. what is it really?
  • BellaFe
    BellaFe Posts: 323
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.



    ^This
  • Today414
    Today414 Posts: 118
    My advice would be to not eat at much of a deficit, as the lifting will burn off a chunk anyway.

    You say you don't have a lot of time, which I completely understand, so I'd suggest looking into something like StrongLifts 5x5, which has approx 30 min workouts, 3x a week. It's a good one to get started with, as you start with small weights, and steadily build up.

    ok so here is what i dont' get. you burn a lot while lifting supposedly, yet MFP has it set at liek 100 calories for 30 minutes of lifting... seems a little low for me. what is it really?

    My understanding is that it's extremely difficult to estimate calories burned while lifting. This is because it varies based on reps, times between sets, etc. From what I understand, it's best to use an HRM to estimated calorie burnage.. but even then, it's just a rough estimate.
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.

    This^^^...even at a deficit you're going to get stronger and you will preserve lean body mass and burn fat. When you don't do any resistance training, you end up burning both lean muscle and body fat.

    Yes. For example, when I wasn't lifting heavy (was lifting for endurance) I was losing 25% lean mass and 75% fat. When I was lifting heavy I was losing at 15% lean mass and 85% fat. Now the weight was coming off a little slower for a variety of reasons, but my goal wasn’t to simply get a lower number on the scale it was to find the most efficient way to decrease my overall body fat percentage and the most efficient way to speed up the process of looking good nekked.
  • vanguardfitness
    vanguardfitness Posts: 720 Member
    My end goal is to be strong and fit so I know that heavy lifting is somewhere in my future

    You've answered your question. The point of heavy lifting is to preserve your strength while in a calorie deficit.
  • Ellas_Time_4_Change
    Ellas_Time_4_Change Posts: 171
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.

    Well said!
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
    My advice would be to not eat at much of a deficit, as the lifting will burn off a chunk anyway.

    You say you don't have a lot of time, which I completely understand, so I'd suggest looking into something like StrongLifts 5x5, which has approx 30 min workouts, 3x a week. It's a good one to get started with, as you start with small weights, and steadily build up.

    ok so here is what i dont' get. you burn a lot while lifting supposedly, yet MFP has it set at liek 100 calories for 30 minutes of lifting... seems a little low for me. what is it really?

    My understanding is that it's extremely difficult to estimate calories burned while lifting. This is because it varies based on reps, times between sets, etc. From what I understand, it's best to use an HRM to estimated calorie burnage.. but even then, it's just a rough estimate.

    HRM's are designed to estimate your areobic caloric burn, lifting weights is anerobic and therefore a HRM is terrible for determining caloric burn unless you're doing circuits and therefore not lifting at your potential heaviest. That being said, at the risk of under eating I personally just put in 150 if I don't do an aerobic warm up.
  • Today414
    Today414 Posts: 118
    My advice would be to not eat at much of a deficit, as the lifting will burn off a chunk anyway.

    You say you don't have a lot of time, which I completely understand, so I'd suggest looking into something like StrongLifts 5x5, which has approx 30 min workouts, 3x a week. It's a good one to get started with, as you start with small weights, and steadily build up.

    ok so here is what i dont' get. you burn a lot while lifting supposedly, yet MFP has it set at liek 100 calories for 30 minutes of lifting... seems a little low for me. what is it really?

    My understanding is that it's extremely difficult to estimate calories burned while lifting. This is because it varies based on reps, times between sets, etc. From what I understand, it's best to use an HRM to estimated calorie burnage.. but even then, it's just a rough estimate.

    HRM's are designed to estimate your areobic caloric burn, lifting weights is anerobic and therefore a HRM is terrible for determining caloric burn unless you're doing circuits and therefore not lifting at your potential heaviest. That being said, at the risk of under eating I personally just put in 150 if I don't do an aerobic warm up.

    Well, that's good to know. Thank you!
  • Troll
    Troll Posts: 922 Member
    After a deficit-you wont be lifting heavy. it will seem heavy, but will be nowhere near what youre probably capable of.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.

    Yep. You avoid the "skinny fat" syndrome if you lift, keep LBM while losing fat.
  • mercymarque
    mercymarque Posts: 450
    I just posted something regarding this today. Cardio will bring down the weight but if you want a toned body you will need strength training. Strength training will give you the body you want to be in. You will need to up your protein and eat as clean as possible. Rest is also very important. Work one muscle group at a time and have rest days in between. Once you start u want to start with whats comfortable rest for 60 seconds and increase. You can also look at bodybuilders.com (it a free site and provides tips and exercise for women as well as men). Good luck
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,021 Member
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.

    What about calorie intake? What range did you eat before heavy lifting and while heavy lifting?

    thanks

    Very low calories while I was only doing cardio. I was netting less than 1000 per day, which was the exact wrong thing to do. And I was eating bad food ... Lean Cuisines, "low fat" foods with fake ingredients, etc. But I was clueless back then.

    Once I started lifting, I quickly realized I HAD to eat more, and I had to eat real food with lots of nutrients. It simply wasn't possible to train the way I wanted to train on so few calories. I started eating at maintenance (roughly 1900 calories) on training days and 25-30% below maintenance on non-training days. But it's important to note that my calories consist of a lot of good food ... a ton of lean protein and vegetables. I regularly eat 180 g of protein per day, which typically includes around 32 oz of meat, as well as egg whites and Greek yogurt, and a lot of healthy fat from fish, olive oil, and nut butters. A diet high in protein and healthy fats + resistance training will prime your body for fat burning.

    And here's a good time to make the point: it's okay if you don't know everything right now. Just make the effort to learn as much as you can. And as much as I would like to say this site is a good place to do that, there is so much total BS on here that it's very hard to pick out the good advice. So verify things by researching other sources. I can tell you what has worked for me, but it will be much more effective for you if you figure out WHY it works and why other things (like the nonsensical thread about how you can get leaner thighs by neglecting to train them) don't work.
  • megalin9
    megalin9 Posts: 771 Member
    The point is to get stronger and to preserve your lean body mass while you lose fat. If you focus mostly on cardio and don't train with resistance, you are going to lose muscle. So your weight will drop, but your body won't look the way you want it to. When I started out, I was 100+ lbs overweight, and I did only cardio for a year. I lost 70 lbs, but I still looked "fat." After three months of heavy lifting, my body had completely changed. I didn't look like a fat girl anymore. I looked like someone who spends time in the gym regularly. It is worth it. Do it.

    What about calorie intake? What range did you eat before heavy lifting and while heavy lifting?

    thanks

    Very low calories while I was only doing cardio. I was netting less than 1000 per day, which was the exact wrong thing to do. And I was eating bad food ... Lean Cuisines, "low fat" foods with fake ingredients, etc. But I was clueless back then.

    Once I started lifting, I quickly realized I HAD to eat more, and I had to eat real food with lots of nutrients. It simply wasn't possible to train the way I wanted to train on so few calories. I started eating at maintenance (roughly 1900 calories) on training days and 25-30% below maintenance on non-training days. But it's important to note that my calories consist of a lot of good food ... a ton of lean protein and vegetables. I regularly eat 180 g of protein per day, which typically includes around 32 oz of meat, as well as egg whites and Greek yogurt, and a lot of healthy fat from fish, olive oil, and nut butters. A diet high in protein and healthy fats + resistance training will prime your body for fat burning.

    And here's a good time to make the point: it's okay if you don't know everything right now. Just make the effort to learn as much as you can. And as much as I would like to say this site is a good place to do that, there is so much total BS on here that it's very hard to pick out the good advice. So verify things by researching other sources. I can tell you what has worked for me, but it will be much more effective for you if you figure out WHY it works and why other things (like the nonsensical thread about how you can get leaner thighs by neglecting to train them) don't work.

    You are wise. :drinker:
  • queendeej
    queendeej Posts: 214 Member
    I started my weightloss journey with 110 pounds to lose. I've lost 67 pounds so far. I started Chalean extreme (just the circuit classes only 3 days a week) about a month ago while continuing my regular Turbofire workout. I feel stronger already so I hope this means I'm preserving some lean muscle mass even though I eat at a deficit. I've been losing weight at a similar rate as before about 8-10 pounds a month but a plus for me is I've been eating more and I enjoy eating ;-) I say go for it!

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