Olympic Weightlifting - Cutting Weight

Lexislavery
Lexislavery Posts: 1 Member
Since I've started Oly lifting a few months ago, I've found myself getting fatter instead of leaning out. I used to do more "bodybuilding" style workouts and a small amount of cardio for about 2 hours 4x a week. Now I Oly lift 1 hour 5x week and never do cardio. I've gained close to 10 pounds in six months. Is cutting out the cardio really making that much of a difference? Or do the bodybuilding style workout with higher reps burn more calories?

Replies

  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
    Calories in vs calories out. The difference between a typical strength workout vs a typical bodybuilding workout is probably negligible. Not doing cardio would be part of it. Diet is going to be the number 1 factor though. 10 lbs in 6 months represents roughly a 200ish calorie surplus a day. If your goal is to build muscle/strength then that is actually a good rate at which to gain. Why do you assume the 10 lbs is fat? Surely if you are training weights some of it would be lean tissue. When I bulk I attempt to gain about 1-2 lbs a month so 10 lbs in half a year would be successful in my book. If you want to lean out simply remove some calories.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    You're no longer eating at a caloric deficit. Recalculate your needs.

    Also 2 hours of exercise 4x a week is excessive. Even 1hr of lifting each time is a bit much, unless this is including all your rests. I'm actually right now working on getting my sessions down to ~50 minutes or less, 60ish if you include rests.

    I agree that reducing cardio is likely a big culprit. I used to do way more cardio, then I switched to almost just weights, and then I did weights less often... and I gained weight while eating the same amount of food or a bit more.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
    You're no longer eating at a caloric deficit. Recalculate your needs.

    Also 2 hours of exercise 4x a week is excessive. Even 1hr of lifting each time is a bit much, unless this is including all your rests. I'm actually right now working on getting my sessions down to ~50 minutes or less, 60ish if you include rests.

    I agree that reducing cardio is likely a big culprit. I used to do way more cardio, then I switched to almost just weights, and then I did weights less often... and I gained weight while eating the same amount of food or a bit more.
    1-2 hours of lifting is not too much depending on your goals. With power lifting and oly lifting you generally take long rest periods between lifts. It's not uncommon for me to take a 5-8 minute rests between sets of heavy squats. When people talk about lifting for "an hour or two" they generally mean an hour or 2 in the gym, not an actual hour or two of moving weight. If you think about it in the terms of time spent actively moving the weight, a lifting session could be as short as 5-10 minutes.
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