Eating and only lifting, whats the outcome?

The outcome? Being a badazz, although I do walk on a very high incline for 30 min 3x/week. And run occasionally, when I'm stressing.

My highest weight was~ 200 lb. Have no idea what I weigh now, I go by measurements. 3 years in, though. Patience!

I agree with what you are saying but we are talking about someone who is 50 lbs overweight. How much lean body mass do you think she has to preserve? The psychological factor for someone trying to lose 50 lbs is huge and it is my opinion that seeing your scale weight decrease at the fastest rate possible is what motivates newbies to continue to work.

I had a 100lbs to lose when I first started, and while the weight didn't change as quickly on the scale as it did for some other people I lost a lot of inches.

This was just as satisfying to see as the scale number. Plus I could also see my body changing and I could open jars and feel strong... that's just as motivating.

I agree with what you are saying but we are talking about someone who is 50 lbs overweight. How much lean body mass do you think she has to preserve? The psychological factor for someone trying to lose 50 lbs is huge and it is my opinion that seeing your scale weight decrease at the fastest rate possible is what motivates newbies to continue to work.

I lost 37lb and worked my *kitten* off to make sure I maintained every last gram of LBM I could, which included lifting from day 1..and am very happy I did. Have you read the OPs responses?

What exactly do you mean "how much do you think she has to preserve?". Are you insinuating that she does not have much? If you are that is a silly assumption and also, if you do not have much in the first place why on earth would you risk it? It is really really hard for women to gain muscle.

I'm showing sitting down photos, mostly because my sitting down 'before' photo was the only one I could find.



125kg.



99kg.

Not 'more bulky' than before.

While we are all chatting it up about lifting, I need some help.

How can I work my thighs without doing lunges or squats. Keep in mind I work out at home so I have no press or anything.
I was told by my doctor, because of my bad knees and damage I did to them in highschool athletics, he strongly did not
Recommend me doing lunges. I tore some stuff up badly doing those. And I was in very good physical condition when it happend.
But what are some ways to work my thighs besides the lunge and squat. I can squat just in moderation.
Anyone got some intel for me?

I did rehab for my knee, and am now squatting 100kg/220lbs.

I'm still not allowed to do travelling lunges. I was doing a lot of leg raises, wall squats (with your back against the wall) and riding a stationary bike.

A lot of good responses from people thus far. I am doing the weight training only and calorie conscious approach for the first time ever. I've lost 10 pounds in 6 weeks which is exactly the pace I want to go at in order to preserve strength. Why did I choose this approach? I hate doing cardio. It is boring and wears your body down without providing a continued metabolic advantage. On the flip side, I love lifting weights and strong man events 4 - 5 times a week and won't skip. Find a weight training program that works for you - Convict Conditioning is a good one.

The important part is to worry about how you feel, how your clothing feels and how you look in the mirror. Getting 'bulky' for girls is not all that easy so definitely go for the challenging weights!

Thank you ill take a look. Is there a difference in looking "bulky" and looking "muscular"??
I want to and don't mind if I get muscular at all. Muscels are attractive in moderation. I wouldn't want to be a beast tho lol!!

You will find differences in interpretation - but 'bulky' is really when you have fat covering muscle. Muscular i.e. with muscle definition happens when you get to a low enough body fat to uncover the muscle. The size of the muscle will depend on genetics and your strength training routine. The big really muscular women that are often used as an example, well, they are on steroids.

Example, I have 'muscular' arms, but when a higher body fat, they look 'bulky'. They will never get really big however as I do not take steroids.

Ok thanks for enlightening me on the bulky lol! I don't mind looking bulk for a while. IF because of muscle
I should keep in mind IS UNDER ALL THAT FAT causing me to be bulky and once that fat is gone the once "bulkiness" will show as toned muscle... Right?

You got it ;-)

Also, if you keep to a reasonable deficit, then, aside from the fluid retention you initially get, you will lose fat faster than you will put on any muscle as the muscle you *may* gain will be slight. Therefore, you will continue to get smaller anyway - you may just see the scale weight stop for a few weeks due to the fluid retention in the muscle.

I am SO happy I recently began weight lifting, in addition to cardio.. Every thread I read, akin to this, reminds me I made a great decision. Great job, all!

While we are all chatting it up about lifting, I need some help.

How can I work my thighs without doing lunges or squats. Keep in mind I work out at home so I have no press or anything.
I was told by my doctor, because of my bad knees and damage I did to them in highschool athletics, he strongly did not
Recommend me doing lunges. I tore some stuff up badly doing those. And I was in very good physical condition when it happend.
But what are some ways to work my thighs besides the lunge and squat. I can squat just in moderation.
Anyone got some intel for me?

I can't squat or lunge either as I'm missing a few bits out of my knee.....

Here's some things you can do at home (see which ones don't cause you pain/damage as injuries and how they react all very different):

Weighted straight leg raises.
Leg extension with a resistance band (tie between legs of a chair).
Very slow stair climb (with whatever weights you have). Be careful coming down stairs though if lunging hurts so maybe come down backwards?

However, the best results I've got are from cycling. High resistance (staionary bike) or find some hills (outside).

Because I'm a stay at home mom and I'm limited. Can't make it to gym at this time. But I use dumbells at home. And bands and my own body weight and jump rope.
I have a full body work out I do to work all my muscels ,glutes, triceps, traps, biceps, obliques, ect. All the majors. I have a workout for each muscel/muscel group. I do 3sets with 20 reps a piece. And each week I bump reps up by 5 more. And as I get Stronger ill up my dumbell weight and get more resistant bands. I plaink as well to help the abs. And some yoga. I have 10 exersizes I do. Includes stretching and gettig after my ham string.

Look into Convict Conditioning..if you google it you can find sites that you can download it for free. I am not sure if a copyright violation so I am not linking here.

It is a bodyweight based workout so you do not need access to a gym.

This is really interesting - thanks !

bump

GAIIIIINZ will be the outcome

I'm nearly done with my 3rd round of p90x (classic version which is the weight lifting plus a little cardio but I stopped doing cardio a couple of weeks ago) my last 2 rounds were the lean version (mostly cardio and not a lot of lifting). I wasn't looking to lose weight, just reduce my BF%. I know this isn't your goal but If you lift heavy and eat at a deficit you will have similar results. Here are my stats. The first number is starting and the second number is from last week (week 11 so I still had 2 weeks left) :

R arm un flexed- 10". 9.7"
R arm flexed- 10.7". 10.6"

L arm un flexed- 10". 9.6"
L arm flexed- 10.7" 10.7"

After almost 90 days I haven't gained any muscle but I've lost fat so my muscles appear to be bigger than they were before. I'm also stronger. The weights I am using were so heavy for me I could only do 5 reps on bicep curls and 1-2 reps on tricep exercises. Now I'm doing 15+ reps on the bicep curls (I need to increase the weight on these now) and 5-7 reps on tricep moves.

I really wish I took progress pics but I didn't before, my biceps weren't even 'sticking out' above the rest of my arm when flexed. Now I have a hump where they are if you have more fat to lose, results will be more dramatic.

You obviously know what you want and IMO you'll get there with lifting heavy and eating at a deficit. Cardio does have health benefits but it isn't required to get the look you desire. Gl!

Edited for typos and to add that I've just take a pic of my flexed arm so have a look in my profile photos. I haven't worked out today so it isn't 'pumped' or whatever.

I have lost most of my weight (at least 40, and maybe 50 pounds because I didnt weigh for a long time) through a calorie deficit and lifting progressively heavier weight.

It is worth maintaining EVERY BIT of muscle you can...so happy to see you thinking this way.

I do walk a few days a week as well.

I started at 40.




now:

Will read through all this later .... OP I'm just starting out doing pretty much just lifting and body weight exercise, I can't do the gym for time/money constraints ...... So far don't have much weight but am hoping to build up what I have looking around for 2nd hand plates etc . I'm currently 148lbs so need to lose a fair bit still :ohwell: