Weights vs Other Exercise (Circuit/T25/etc) for my situation?

acmworkholdings
acmworkholdings Posts: 6 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all,

I know this has been covered many times so I apologize for the clutter. But I just wanted to get some thoughts for my personal situation (busy father - try to workout from 8-9 PM 4 nights a week). My goal is to lose weight, but keep my muscle somewhat. I also realize that this is more related to my diet than anything else.

That being said, would it be more beneficial to do weights or a program like T25 or another circuit? I've been doing weights for a while 3X week because I felt it provided positive effects after the workout unlike cardio.

But i'm starting to think i'd be better off doing some sort of circut training (with or without weights), T25 or similar programs. I feel like I would burn more calories doing those instead of weights, would use muscles as well, and therefore have a little more calories to work with from an intake perspective.

Anyway - I think the most logical thing is to do what I enjoy and eat right. But I also wanted to see if there were others in a similar boat that found doing certain type of exercises consistently helped more than another.

Thanks!

Replies

  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    The best way to preserve/build muscle is by progressive resistance training/lifting. While it might not burn as many calories, it has many other benefits.

    You will likely be able to keep some muscle with circuit training depending on what you are doing and your genetics but it won't be as effective in muscle preservation as using weights. But it also depends on your end goal and if you have specific body composition or strength goals.

    You can even do both.. weights 3x per week and do circuit training on other days, as long as you are not doing so much that you are burning yourself out. But in the end you also want to enjoy and have fun, so whatever you can stick to, go for it.
  • boneil78
    boneil78 Posts: 2 Member
    If you need to lose significant weight, you're better off focusing your workouts on calorie burn to help you be successful hitting a calorie deficit target. I've read a lot of articles recently that discourage calorie counting. While there are some compelling counterarguments to calorie counting as a long-term weight control solution, the truth is that if you've never tracked what goes into your mouth, you might be fooling yourself about the impact of grabbing that donut that one of your coworkers brought in. It may be the case that when you achieve a healthy weight, there are healthier and better long-term ways to maintain your weight, but there is a valuable awareness of nutrient density in foods that comes from counting calories that will be valuable even if you stop logging everything you eat.

    The "afterburn" of weight training is scientifically accurate, but it's also not a big enough effect to really affect your weight loss. While you need to focus on burning calories if you want to lose weight, resistance training is an important part of overall health - improving bone density, lean muscle mass, etc. Just as importantly, it's great for your motivation and mental health. You'll see muscles you didn't know you had in the mirror, and the neuroendicrine response from lifting heavy will biochemically improve your psychology along with prompting muscle growth. You can get into the "bro science" of bulk/cut cycles, but if overall health is your thing, and you only have 4 1-hour workouts per week, maybe do two endurance/calorie burn workouts and two weight training workouts followed by a HIIT session every week. Even better would be to find a good, professional, trainer for eight weeks or so who could help develop a sustainable program for you.

    Lastly, if you're trying to lose weight and maintain or build some muscle simultaneously, you will benefit by tracking your macronutrients and ensuring that you eat enough protein to support muscle recovery and health. Again, you don't need to go all bro-tein and walk around with a shaker bottle, but you're deliberately depriving your body of the energy it needs to maintain mass, so you want to do your best to prevent your body from reducing your muscle mass right along with your fat mass.
  • acmworkholdings
    acmworkholdings Posts: 6 Member
    Thanks! Sorry if I misspoke, but i'm not looking to gain muscle, but don't want to lose it either. The progressive method is something I do need to consider more. I find I try to do the same all the time.

    Basically my goal is overall fitness. I am not looking to be huge, but want to be healthier, be thinner, etc. I do find that I have a substantial amount of weight that I probably need to lose. I seemed to have gained a bunch of "baby" weight despite my wife doing all the work.

    Just not sure if my focus should be strength like I always do now, or if a weights circuit/cardio circuit would be better.

    Thanks again!
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    I wouldn't "worry" about gaining muscle at this point in a deficit, I say gain because some people new to lifting can gain a bit of muscle but nothing that would make you larger if you are overall losing weight. But mostly the aim when losing is to maintain it.
  • MtnManDad
    MtnManDad Posts: 2 Member
    ACMWORKHOLDINGS - You just stated your most important point. "Thinner!" So you need to focus on circuit, endurance, and burning more calories than intake. Yes, you want to maintain your muscle, so keep track of your protein intake in particular, with just enough healthy carbs from veggies. Stay away from ALL processed foods and carbs....like white rice, breads, etc. BoNeil78 gave you an excellent reply!
  • richiechowns
    richiechowns Posts: 155 Member
    acmworkholdings wrote: »
    Thanks! Sorry if I misspoke, but i'm not looking to gain muscle, but don't want to lose it either. The progressive method is something I do need to consider more. I find I try to do the same all the time.

    Basically my goal is overall fitness. I am not looking to be huge, but want to be healthier, be thinner, etc. I do find that I have a substantial amount of weight that I probably need to lose. I seemed to have gained a bunch of "baby" weight despite my wife doing all the work.

    Just not sure if my focus should be strength like I always do now, or if a weights circuit/cardio circuit would be better.

    Thanks again!

    I'm on week 1 of T25 Beta, where you start to use weights a few times a week (Alpha done), I've run through this programme before (2015 post first child, now we are post second) and I was in superb shape, my BF reduced significantly and it set me up going forward to other things, in my case I had been and wanted to get back to marathon runner. In the 5 weeks of Alpha I've lost 4kg, but I set an target of 1kg per week, which you don't have to do if you're concerned about losing too much muscle mass. Like the others on here have said, keep an eye on your macros, use MFP for this, so you're supporting lean muscle.

    Before my days running marathons, I used to lift weights, doing plans such as Stonglifts and similar to you I had muscle, was fairly strong, but was not in great shape/higher BF %, so I used HIIT then. T25 is a mix of HIIT stuff and body weight movements, I think body weight training is where I will go after this to compliment my running, The logic is that, if you can do good quality pull ups, dips etc, then surely you'll get stronger than lifting weights < your body weight?

    Mentally, I feel much happier in good shape, even if I'm not bulked up, lean muscle and feeling like I've given my cardiovascular system a good workout in the process.

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