How to lift to increase weight loss

I’ve been told that to lose weight it’s better to lift weights vs just cardio. I know I need to have a deficit. I want to slim down and tone up not build up muscle. I already do cardio but looking to add more. Do I lift heavy with low reps or lift light with more reps? I hope this makes sense. It’s all confusing to me but really hoping to achieve what I’m looking to do vs waste my time.

Replies

  • PoesiaSagrada
    PoesiaSagrada Posts: 26 Member
    Buff_Man wrote: »
    Weight loss will occur as long as you're in a calorie deficit. You can run, lift, swim, walk, whatever. But there are other benefits to weight training such as increased strength, muscle development and bone density. These are all important for good physical health as you age. You won't get big and muscly, even if you lift everyday. It takes a lot of work to look like a bodybuilder, man or woman.

    I am 42 and love lifting. I really wish I had started younger. I find that it's easier to stay thin with weight lifting. I only need to lift weights 3x/week for 30min to stay as trim as I did with ceaseless cardio back in the day.
  • mittencat77
    mittencat77 Posts: 137 Member
    I am about to start weights again because I have found that although it doesn’t burn too many calories doing it, the muscle I would built seemed to make my metabolism more efficient. It took quite a bit of time and consistency but it worked for me. Getting back at it tomorrow.
  • 2g1a
    2g1a Posts: 1 Member
    While others have given some great info, and I'd also say give the strong lifts program a look. As far as calories and monitoring it, what I do is wear my HR monitor while lifting. You can have an idea of what your total calories expended will be with that. Plus I use this to gauge my rest time between sets. So when I HR lowers back to a certain number, I start again. This way it's more of a interval type workout as well as weights.
    Best of luck
    Gary
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,292 Member
    edited June 2019
    ccrdragon wrote: »
    2g1a wrote: »
    While others have given some great info, and I'd also say give the strong lifts program a look. As far as calories and monitoring it, what I do is wear my HR monitor while lifting. You can have an idea of what your total calories expended will be with that. Plus I use this to gauge my rest time between sets. So when I HR lowers back to a certain number, I start again. This way it's more of a interval type workout as well as weights.
    Best of luck
    Gary

    Not really - heart rate monitors are terrible at estimating calories burned for anything other than steady-state aerobic activity.

    This ^, though the HR part to gauge recovery between sets does have some merit.

    HRMs only track HR, the calculation embedded for cals burned assumes steady state cardio and as such cals will be off for anything other than that, esp. lifting as your HR is elevated due to different physiological response than oxygen update to the muscles like it is for cardio.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,249 Member
    2g1a wrote: »
    While others have given some great info, and I'd also say give the strong lifts program a look. As far as calories and monitoring it, what I do is wear my HR monitor while lifting. You can have an idea of what your total calories expended will be with that. Plus I use this to gauge my rest time between sets. So when I HR lowers back to a certain number, I start again. This way it's more of a interval type workout as well as weights.
    Best of luck
    Gary

    The problem with this is that there isn't a direct correlation between heart rate and calories expended even during steady state cardio, and estimate you get lifting will be useless. Using to gauge recovery is not a bad idea though (I'm lazy and just use the timer in the SL app and perceived effort)