Low reps vs high reps for looking thinner?

jval93jv
jval93jv Posts: 2 Member
edited October 2017 in Fitness and Exercise
My goal is to lose 30lbs by doing cadio and strength training 3x a week. I want to get leaner and looking thinner since I am 4 feet and 10 in tall. I want to avoid looking stumpy. I am confused on how I can reach my goal without looking too muscular. Do I complete more sets with more reps or more sets with few reps? Or does it even matter since I am working out at home using my own weight and occasionally resistance bands. Any advice is very much appreciated.

Replies

  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    You're not going to get "too muscular" while eating at a caloric deficit and doing bodyweight/resistance band exercises. Accidentally or otherwise.

    Getting muscular involves a lot of purposeful effort in both diet and training over long periods of time, it doesn't happen anywhere near as easily as people think it does.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
    jval93jv wrote: »
    My goal is to lose 30lbs by doing cadio and strength training 3x a week. I want to get leaner and looking thinner since I am 4 feet and 10 in tall. I want to avoid looking stumpy. I am confused on how I can reach my goal without looking too muscular. Do I complete more sets with more reps or more sets with few reps? Or does it even matter since I am working out at home using my own weight and occasionally resistance bands. Any advice is very much appreciated.

    Neither is going to make you look thinner/leaner - only a calorie deficit to lose the extra fat is going to do that. You have no reason to worry about getting too muscular - anything you might possibly consider too muscular will take years of serious weight training work (and probably a calorie surplus). Generally, the advantage of low reps is that you can utilize higher weight than you can at higher reps (which is likely mute in BW and resistance band work).
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    If you are eating in a deficit to lose, you won't bulk yourself up accidentally. However... what can happen is you lose weight and reveal the muscle you have, and if you get very lean you can look more defined and muscular (which may not be everyone's cup of tea).

    Even being in a surplus and bulking several times, I still don't look that big/muscular. I do look a little more curvy but if you saw me on the beach without flexing, I don't even look like I lift. Oh well.
  • Sunnybrooke99
    Sunnybrooke99 Posts: 369 Member
    I’m 4’11” too. You probably don’t need to worry about it. Just do the exercises that keep you motivated and feeling good. I do cardio with a good amount of resistance, and low resistance when I’m in the mood. Mostly, bc that’s just what keeps me going back to the gym, and it burns calories. I will add that I actually have a pretty thick thigh measurement (21”) for someone who is fit, at my height (I know this from the thighs thread lol) and even so, I really don’t look stumpy.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,343 Member
    edited October 2017
    bob_hatcher wrote: »
    The answer to your question is more reps. Look at long distance runners, lots of reps over an extended period of time builds long lean muscles. Fewer, higher intensity reps builds muscle mass (that's what body builders do.)
    No on both counts.

    "Long, lean muscles" are obtained by genetics. You can't change the origin/insertion points of muscles, what you have is what you have. Long distance runners are usually very low in body fat and don't carry a lot of muscle mass, which is what makes them look lean. "Lots of reps over an extended period of time" builds muscular endurance.

    Fewer high intensity reps leans more toward building 1RM strength, not mass. Hypertrophy (mass building) routines are, generally speaking, higher in reps/volume than pure strength workouts. And it's very difficult to build appreciable amounts of muscle mass regardless of how many reps you're doing, it's not something that happens accidentally or overnight.

    The answer to her question is a consistent caloric deficit (which will create the weight/fat loss), along with adequate protein intake and an intelligently designed training routine, which will help strengthen the muscles and help minimize loss of lean body mass while losing weight.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
    bob_hatcher wrote: »
    The answer to your question is more reps. Look at long distance runners, lots of reps over an extended period of time builds long lean muscles. Fewer, higher intensity reps builds muscle mass (that's what body builders do.)

    You literally could not be more wrong if you tried your hardest for the rest of your life.

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