What does lifting heavy do?

Lifting heavy helps increase your strength (as you are seeing) and, depending on whether you are cutting or bulking, it will help maintain/preserve muscle mass, or increase it.

Cutting = eating at a deficit so as to lose weight, optimally to lose fat and not muscle.
Bulking = eating at a surplus so as to gain muscle mass.

As for abs: One thing to recognize is that you cannot target fat loss. When your body starts to burn fat from your body, it will take the fat from all over. Your stomach may feel bigger, and actually be bigger, because you're developing the muscles underneath the fat. The muscles get bigger, the fat stays the same, so you will gain size as a whole.

Lifting Heavy: this is basically a requirement for building strength. The "toned" look you are after is a product of muscle mass and low body fat percentage. Unfortunately you cannot really do both at the same time (add muscle and cut fat). It's more or less a one-or-the-other approach. Most often what happens is people choose to cut first, eating at a deficit and cutting body fat. To ensure that more fat is lost and less muscle is lost during this process of cutting, strength training - lifting heavy - is done to preserve the muscle you already have (because if you don't lift, you will lose fat AND muscle).

Once you've reached a low enough body fat percentage to be happy, then you can choose to add additional muscle, if you wish, but eating a slight caloric surplus and continuing to lift heavy.

You do not need to "blast out" cardio to lose body fat. Walking is an effective enough cardio exercise to sufficiently create a larger calorie deficit for weight loss.

What you want to do, ideally, is eat at a slight caloric deficit, and then create a larger deficit through exercise. Everything you do, from strength training to yoga to walking or running, will burn calories.

Maintain a consistent deficit and you will lose weight.

Lifting heavy helps increase your strength (as you are seeing) and, depending on whether you are cutting or bulking, it will help maintain/preserve muscle mass, or increase it.

Cutting = eating at a deficit so as to lose weight, optimally to lose fat and not muscle.
Bulking = eating at a surplus so as to gain muscle mass.

As for abs: One thing to recognize is that you cannot target fat loss. When your body starts to burn fat from your body, it will take the fat from all over. Your stomach may feel bigger, and actually be bigger, because you're developing the muscles underneath the fat. The muscles get bigger, the fat stays the same, so you will gain size as a whole.

Lifting Heavy: this is basically a requirement for building strength. The "toned" look you are after is a product of muscle mass and low body fat percentage. Unfortunately you cannot really do both at the same time (add muscle and cut fat). It's more or less a one-or-the-other approach. Most often what happens is people choose to cut first, eating at a deficit and cutting body fat. To ensure that more fat is lost and less muscle is lost during this process of cutting, strength training - lifting heavy - is done to preserve the muscle you already have (because if you don't lift, you will lose fat AND muscle).

Once you've reached a low enough body fat percentage to be happy, then you can choose to add additional muscle, if you wish, but eating a slight caloric surplus and continuing to lift heavy.

You do not need to "blast out" cardio to lose body fat. Walking is an effective enough cardio exercise to sufficiently create a larger calorie deficit for weight loss.

What you want to do, ideally, is eat at a slight caloric deficit, and then create a larger deficit through exercise. Everything you do, from strength training to yoga to walking or running, will burn calories.

Maintain a consistent deficit and you will lose weight.

everything he said+++

Lifting heavy helps increase your strength (as you are seeing) and, depending on whether you are cutting or bulking, it will help maintain/preserve muscle mass, or increase it.

Cutting = eating at a deficit so as to lose weight, optimally to lose fat and not muscle.
Bulking = eating at a surplus so as to gain muscle mass.

As for abs: One thing to recognize is that you cannot target fat loss. When your body starts to burn fat from your body, it will take the fat from all over. Your stomach may feel bigger, and actually be bigger, because you're developing the muscles underneath the fat. The muscles get bigger, the fat stays the same, so you will gain size as a whole.

Lifting Heavy: this is basically a requirement for building strength. The "toned" look you are after is a product of muscle mass and low body fat percentage. Unfortunately you cannot really do both at the same time (add muscle and cut fat). It's more or less a one-or-the-other approach. Most often what happens is people choose to cut first, eating at a deficit and cutting body fat. To ensure that more fat is lost and less muscle is lost during this process of cutting, strength training - lifting heavy - is done to preserve the muscle you already have (because if you don't lift, you will lose fat AND muscle).

Once you've reached a low enough body fat percentage to be happy, then you can choose to add additional muscle, if you wish, but eating a slight caloric surplus and continuing to lift heavy.

You do not need to "blast out" cardio to lose body fat. Walking is an effective enough cardio exercise to sufficiently create a larger calorie deficit for weight loss.

What you want to do, ideally, is eat at a slight caloric deficit, and then create a larger deficit through exercise. Everything you do, from strength training to yoga to walking or running, will burn calories.

Maintain a consistent deficit and you will lose weight.

Lifting heavy helps increase your strength (as you are seeing) and, depending on whether you are cutting or bulking, it will help maintain/preserve muscle mass, or increase it.

Cutting = eating at a deficit so as to lose weight, optimally to lose fat and not muscle.
Bulking = eating at a surplus so as to gain muscle mass.

Lifting Heavy: this is basically a requirement for building strength. The "toned" look you are after is a product of muscle mass and low body fat percentage. Unfortunately you cannot really do both at the same time (add muscle and cut fat). It's more or less a one-or-the-other approach. Most often what happens is people choose to cut first, eating at a deficit and cutting body fat. To ensure that more fat is lost and less muscle is lost during this process of cutting, strength training - lifting heavy - is done to preserve the muscle you already have (because if you don't lift, you will lose fat AND muscle).

So if i cannot add muscle and cut fat at the same time, should i even bother lifting weights if i am in weight loss mode?

Thanks, CF.

Yes, absolutely keep lifting while you are in weight loss mode! It will build strength and help your body to retain the muscle you already have while it burns off the fat.

Keep lifting. Get on that barbell. Every part of your body will benefit.

Regarding your strength gains from 3 weeks of working out, they are neuro-muscular at this point meaning you are training your nervous system to work more efficiently. It takes a long time to add actual muscle mass.

So if i cannot add muscle and cut fat at the same time, should i even bother lifting weights if i am in weight loss mode?

Thanks, CF.

YES!

It is critical to preserving the precious muscle you already have!

When you eat at a deficit, you're going to lose fat AND muscle. But strength training can minimize the muscle loss.

Please come join the group at Stronglifts 5x5 for Women- you'll learn tons!

Noob gains aren't always small. One blessing of being very fat or obese is that your fat can metabolize lots of calories. And so can cover even large deficits. If your body is getting all it's TDEE from diet and fat there is no need for it to compromise protein synthesis. So while as a general rule gains are impossible at a deficit. For some people this does not hold true. Especially those with a decent amount of weight to lose. Sure it will eventually plateau. Usually because they have lost enough weight that your body can no longer afford not to dip into dietary protein for essential calories.

I'm not saying this to be rude, so hear me out. You can lift more than 10 lbs. You say you're "petite," but a toddler can lift more than 3 lbs, which is the weight you say you started at, so just how petite are you? 2 feet tall? I'm not making fun of you for potentially being weak - I'm suggesting that you're underestimating your own strength. Most women are able to start with the bar (45 lbs) on squats and bench press and a bit more on deadlifts (I started with 95 lbs with no prior lifting experience). "Feeling a burn" on the third rep doesn't mean that's as heavy as you can go. I just really doubt that you're some special butterfly that legitimately can't lift more than 10 lbs unless you have some sort of medical issue. If you can pick up a one-year-old, you're lifting more than 10 lbs. Hell, I've picked up purses that were more than 10 lbs.

Lift heavier. Just try it. I think you'll surprise yourself. Don't let the "I'm a petite little lady" excuse hold you back from getting as much out of your workout as you possibly can.