to lift or not to lift that is the question

IrishMiner76
IrishMiner76 Posts: 38 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I’ve been quite successful at losing 40lbs over the past 5 months I would like to lose another 30lbs. I’ve lost the weight by cutting out fast food, booze and avoiding carbs (less than 50grams per day) eating high protein (eggs,chicken,tuna) and as many green leafy veggies I can and drinking as small fresh water lake each day, however I really want to start lifting weights again, my conundrum is do I start eating carbs to fuel my workouts or would a simple increase in protein post workout be sufficient ? If I do this can expect my weight loss to plateau? I guess my question is do I lose all the weight I can before I start lifting or start eating to lift and see what happens? I’d hate to undue my hard work over the past 4months (right now light cardio 30-60mins per day, is my only exercise) I use to be an avid lifter but have not lifted for 10+ years. Any good articles or blogs anyone can suggest would be appreciated… Cheers

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    If you want to lift, sooner than later is always better (barring injury obviously.)

    I'd start lifting while maintaining your current food choices. Tweak as necessary while you go along. If you want to keep eating low carb long term, you need to see if it works for your lifestyle (i.e., wanting to lift weights) or not.
  • SteveWhite66
    SteveWhite66 Posts: 7 Member
    Hi ! I think I would just start with some light weights. If you're not looking to bulk-up or add weight then I don't see the need to add too many more calories, although you will probably feel more hungry. Personally, I would add protein rather than carbs every time if I felt the need for more fuel !
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    The answer is always LIFT! I love Stronglifts 5X5. You can check it out at stronglifts.com.
  • holothuroidea
    holothuroidea Posts: 772 Member
    The answer is always yes to lifting.

    Just keep your goals in mind. If your diet is working for you, there's no reason to change it. Don't worry about strength gains for now (although you will probably see them, but that's not the point), worry about getting back into a good routine and perfecting your form. Just keep the intensity of your lifts in the 3-5 rep range and make sure to work every muscle group 2-3x per week. If you start to feel really tired or notice you're not recovering well, adjust the volume of your workouts before trying to adjust your diet.

    If you're already eating high protein and you find that even low volume workouts leave you feeling drained, you can increase the percentage of your calories that come from carbohydrates, but there's no need to increase your total calorie goal.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
    holothuroidea wrote: »
    The answer is always yes to lifting.

    Just keep your goals in mind. If your diet is working for you, there's no reason to change it. Don't worry about strength gains for now (although you will probably see them, but that's not the point), worry about getting back into a good routine and perfecting your form. Just keep the intensity of your lifts in the 3-5 rep range and make sure to work every muscle group 2-3x per week. If you start to feel really tired or notice you're not recovering well, adjust the volume of your workouts before trying to adjust your diet.

    If you're already eating high protein and you find that even low volume workouts leave you feeling drained, you can increase the percentage of your calories that come from carbohydrates, but there's no need to increase your total calorie goal.

    This. You can always reassess your diet based on your results. There are keto lifters; there are people who also say "show me a keto lifter and I will show you someone who can improve your lifts on more carbs". Hell, people say anything and everything. You're going to have to find what works best for you. Obviously your diet is working, so try keeping it for now and add the lifting back in.

    Why did you stop lifting (just curious)?
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    I'm going to assume that you're a male born in 1976 based on your user name and I'll give a compelling reason to start lifting sooner rather than later.....

    We males of the species start losing about 1% of our lean muscle mass annually starting at age 40 or thereabouts (and the rate accelerates as we age) unless we do some time of resistance training and get enough protein. We've all seen that frail old fellow in his '70s who has lost both muscle mass and the bone density that regular exercise maintains.

    It's not the fountain of youth but regular exercise including at least moderate resistance training is the next best thing. I'll be turning 60 myself shortly and while I've still got some weight to lose I don't think I've been fitter at any time in my life (except maybe right after basic training in the Army....), I plan on going out kicking and screaming!
  • ovidnine
    ovidnine Posts: 314 Member
    If you're interested, do it now!

    If you still have about 30lbs to lose I wouldn't worry too much about changing your eating habits when you start lifting. Your body has plenty of fuel to spare and as a "new" lifter (even if you once lifted a lot years ago) your body will probably respond well to the stimuli. If you eventually feel the need to tweak your eating you'll be able to without too much trouble.

    There are lots of excellent lifting programs that are great to start out or back into lifting out there and I'm with BrianSharpe, there no better time than the present because biology starts working against us.
  • IrishMiner76
    IrishMiner76 Posts: 38 Member
    Great feed back everyone! I think I just needed to hear/read the answers a loud. Lifting it is. I stopped lifting in my late 20's and started running but had a bad ACL injury and decided against surgery and thus just went on with life not exercising because I had a great excuses "sorry can't, got bad knees". so it's been about ten years and i'm turning 40 in two weeks last September was my Ah ha moment sooooo clean eating light walking/elliptical and lots of stretching i'm back in a position to take it up a notch, but still keep my head about it. Thanks again for the feedback MFP'ers you guys and gals rock ! Cheers

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