Question

momar23
momar23 Posts: 292 Member
edited November 20 in Fitness and Exercise
so many questions!!! Is there any advantage lifting heavy when you have a significant amount of weight to lose over just doing body weight exercise or moderate weight lifting with more reps?

Replies

  • IsaackGMOON
    IsaackGMOON Posts: 3,358 Member
    There is a chance that you will preserve what muscle mass you have.

    You can also increase your strength while lifting in a deficit. Which is a plus, right? I answered your previous thread about your knees, just make sure you don't do anything too heavy which could potentially make them worse.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    momar23 wrote: »
    so many questions!!! Is there any advantage lifting heavy when you have a significant amount of weight to lose over just doing body weight exercise or moderate weight lifting with more reps?

    Great question.

    I seem incapable of answering this without typing 2 pages of crap. I've deleted it twice so now I'm just going to post this cliffs notes version:

    If you are untrained and previously sedentary then you will get adequate training stimulus from bodyweight exercises and light/moderate loads. There's a secondary potential advantage in that you could set up your training in some sort of circuit type fashion to increase energy expenditure.


  • momar23
    momar23 Posts: 292 Member
    But can I preserve muscle mass I have if I lift moderately heavy weight with more reps? I am definitely lifting less than my potential with squats and deadlifts but I have been increasing the weight.
    I am planning on going to a trainer in the fall when I am closer to my goal weight as I want to have someone experienced around before I try anything heavy.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    momar23 wrote: »
    But can I preserve muscle mass I have if I lift moderately heavy weight with more reps? I am definitely lifting less than my potential with squats and deadlifts but I have been increasing the weight.
    I am planning on going to a trainer in the fall when I am closer to my goal weight as I want to have someone experienced around before I try anything heavy.

    For now I'm going to say yes, it's likely. But this assumes a reasonable rate of weight loss and that you are relatively untrained.
  • bulk_n_cut
    bulk_n_cut Posts: 389 Member
    momar23 wrote: »
    so many questions!!! Is there any advantage lifting heavy when you have a significant amount of weight to lose over just doing body weight exercise or moderate weight lifting with more reps?

    when one has a significant amount of weight to lose, just doing body weight exercises probably will be equivalent to lifting heavy, and depending on how overweight the person, many body weight exercises might even be too heavy to do with proper form
  • momar23
    momar23 Posts: 292 Member
    I am doing a body weight circuit using a tabata app high intesity for short periods with shorter rests. So right now I do moderate lifting one day then the next day I do a body weight circuit then the following day another strength workout. Then a rest/cardio day. So three days on one off. I'm losing about 5-6lbs a month and I am definitely stronger than when i started. But Until recently I had been thinking that I've been increasing my muscle which clearly isn't the case.
    I guess i am ok with this since the scale is going in the right direction and I have dropped several pant sizes. The more I read the more I realize I have a lot to learn:)
  • momar23
    momar23 Posts: 292 Member
    Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll have to learn about body recomposition once I get to an appropriate goal weight
  • bulk_n_cut
    bulk_n_cut Posts: 389 Member
    great job on the loss. you feel stronger than when you started because there's less dead weight for your muscles to lug around (fat). most likely, your muscles haven't grown, because you need to eat a lot for that and put on both fat and muscle weight. i might be wrong but it's pretty tough to put on more muscle while overall losing weight
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    bulk_n_cut wrote: »
    great job on the loss. you feel stronger than when you started because there's less dead weight for your muscles to lug around (fat). most likely, your muscles haven't grown, because you need to eat a lot for that and put on both fat and muscle weight. i might be wrong but it's pretty tough to put on more muscle while overall losing weight

    It can happen and it does happen especially in overweight beginners. It's less likely to happen in trained athletes (and to less of an extent) and it's even less likely in lean resistance trained athletes getting very lean.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    SideSteel wrote: »
    momar23 wrote: »
    so many questions!!! Is there any advantage lifting heavy when you have a significant amount of weight to lose over just doing body weight exercise or moderate weight lifting with more reps?

    Great question.

    I seem incapable of answering this without typing 2 pages of crap. I've deleted it twice so now I'm just going to post this cliffs notes version:

    If you are untrained and previously sedentary then you will get adequate training stimulus from bodyweight exercises and light/moderate loads. There's a secondary potential advantage in that you could set up your training in some sort of circuit type fashion to increase energy expenditure.

    So I'll take that as a Yes?
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    momar23 wrote: »
    I am doing a body weight circuit using a tabata app high intesity for short periods with shorter rests. So right now I do moderate lifting one day then the next day I do a body weight circuit then the following day another strength workout. Then a rest/cardio day. So three days on one off. I'm losing about 5-6lbs a month and I am definitely stronger than when i started. But Until recently I had been thinking that I've been increasing my muscle which clearly isn't the case.
    I guess i am ok with this since the scale is going in the right direction and I have dropped several pant sizes. The more I read the more I realize I have a lot to learn:)

    Whether or not you are gaining muscle isn't incredibly important. You are doing intelligent things to retain muscle and/or gain muscle so the end result will be more muscle than you would have had if you weren't training to begin with.

    You can gain muscle in a deficit and being that you have a lot to lose (I hope that's not offensive, I certainly don't mean it as such -- just using your words) and you are presumably relatively new to training, you might be gaining small amounts of it.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    edited June 2015
    DavPul wrote: »
    SideSteel wrote: »
    momar23 wrote: »
    so many questions!!! Is there any advantage lifting heavy when you have a significant amount of weight to lose over just doing body weight exercise or moderate weight lifting with more reps?

    Great question.

    I seem incapable of answering this without typing 2 pages of crap. I've deleted it twice so now I'm just going to post this cliffs notes version:

    If you are untrained and previously sedentary then you will get adequate training stimulus from bodyweight exercises and light/moderate loads. There's a secondary potential advantage in that you could set up your training in some sort of circuit type fashion to increase energy expenditure.

    So I'll take that as a Yes?

    LOL. See? I still didn't even answer it. I suck tonight.


  • bulk_n_cut
    bulk_n_cut Posts: 389 Member
    SideSteel wrote: »
    bulk_n_cut wrote: »
    great job on the loss. you feel stronger than when you started because there's less dead weight for your muscles to lug around (fat). most likely, your muscles haven't grown, because you need to eat a lot for that and put on both fat and muscle weight. i might be wrong but it's pretty tough to put on more muscle while overall losing weight

    It can happen and it does happen especially in overweight beginners. It's less likely to happen in trained athletes (and to less of an extent) and it's even less likely in lean resistance trained athletes getting very lean.

    noob gains eh
  • momar23
    momar23 Posts: 292 Member
    Thanks this is all starting to make more sense. I have almost 40lbs to lose yet I think. I really won't know until I get there I guess. But when I get there I don't want to be all weak and pathetic and starting from scratch trying to get strong.
This discussion has been closed.