Yes, you can lose weight by lifting weights only but…
It depends on the number of calories you are burning during the exercise which again depends on your body size and how intense your workout is.
Typically, the more you are going to weigh the more calories you will burn as your body uses more energy to function.
This applies to both people who are overweight and individuals with higher muscle mass.
A program combining cardio and weight training has repeatedly shown to burn fat and build muscle.
Hey guys! it’s me Gympanzie with another great topic covering all the essential information you need to know in order to use weight lifting as a tool to lose weight.
Does lifting more weight burn more calories?
A simple way to understand this is you need energy for everything you do. Breathing, walking, blinking your eyes, heartbeats, etc.
Your body is constantly burning calories 24/7.
EVEN WHILE SLEEPING!!!
The more muscle tissue you have… your body needs more energy or calories to maintain them.
You may not know this that a pound of fat burns only 5 calories and a pound of muscle burns about 10-20 calories per day.
Weight loss occurs when you are in a calorie deficit and weight training raises your resting metabolic rate which is simply your body burning more calories in and out of the gym.
That means a single bout of weight lifting session will let you burn calories throughout the day which helps you to be in a calorie deficit.
Sure, you may not burn the same number of calories as you would burn while doing lunges or squat as you would from a run.
I always advise people to do weight lifting and cardio combined which will increase the number of calories burned during the session and afterward.
See guys fitness is something where there is no black or white, each and every form of training have their own benefits.
But what about me…
Do I follow the same?
YES, but I do it this way!
As I have already published an article on “Fat Loss Workout Routine in The Gym for Beginners and Intermediate People” wherein summary I have talked about increasing the intensity to burn more calories which include the following:
- Doing full-body workout routine with a shorter rest period on one day and a High-Intensity Interval Training the very next day.
- Including compound movements which target larger muscle group so you have to work harder.
- Using intensity techniques such as supersets, giant sets or circuit training to burn more calories in a short period of time.
Will, I put on weight if I lift weights?
Yes, you will put on weight, but you need not worry as that will come from lean muscles and not from body fat.
As I always mention that don’t focus on decreasing body weight, focus on reducing body fat.
For that, I highly recommend you to watch this post of mine.
Now many of the female readers might think that they will become “bulky” if they start lifting weights but there is a difference at what rate a male and a female could gain muscle.
The thing is women don’t have the same amount of hormonal profile as men have and therefore can’t have enough lean muscle to look bulky.
So, focus on reducing body fat percentage while toning your muscles.
And if you are still in doubt you can see a lot of female actors lifting weights and still, they look slim and trimmed but not bulky.
Ask your trainer to design a plan which is a mix of cardio and strength training.
Is it safe to lift weights if I am fat?
Absolutely but make sure you start with machines first, that’s because if you are overweight it may have a direct impact on your joints especially if you start doing a high-intensity workout in the beginning.
Currently, I train a lot of newbie clients in the gym as a freelancer, I can see many of them have difficulty in breathing if they do compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, etc.
Make sure to increase your intensity slowly and steadily.
And focus on feeling the muscle, try to focus on your targeted muscle.
Start working on perfecting the movement this way you will make progress at a faster rate.
Much faster than people around you 😉
You have to look at this process step by step.
For example, you can’t just jump from kindergarten to a college without understanding the basic concepts if you do that you will face difficulties that is why clear the basics first and then move on to the advanced concepts.
I hope you get my point 😊
Should I lose weight before lifting weights?
As I have mentioned that you people who are overweight might strain their joints and feel out of breath in the beginning.
It is always recommended to start with basic movements to strengthen your muscles and do cardio simultaneously.
You can either do weight training on one day where you focus on bodyweight exercises and do cardio on the next day.
Or doing cardio and weight training on the same day by allotting half of the time to lift weights and the other half for cardio.
Start with slow jogging considering that you are a beginner followed by lifting weights.
Heavyweights or light weights for weight loss?
According to many studies, you should lift weight between 60 to 80% of your one-rep max (Rep meaning the number of repetitions you do for a particular exercise)
Where one rep max is the maximum weight you can lift for a single repetition.
But the problem with this technique is you can’t find one rep max for each exercise as some of them are not safe to test as you might hurt yourself and you should always do this under strict supervision.
To make it easy for you to understand 60 to 80 % of your one-rep max will come around 10 to 12 reps.
So, it’s better to keep your rep range between 10 to 15 repetitions which will help you to lose weight and build muscle.
You can follow these instructions, to begin with:
- Pick up a weight which you can do for 15 repetitions, where you have to keep a note of it.
- If you can do more than 15 repetitions, let’s say 4 to 5 extra reps increase the weight slightly up like half kg to 1 kg in your next session.
- Start with 1 set per exercise slowly moving to 2 sets in week 2 and 3 sets in week 3.
- Now as you make progress slowly reduce your repetition down to 10 rep after 4 weeks and you can further reduce it to 8 reps per exercise.
What to eat when lifting weights to lose weight
There is no common answer to this question as each and every one of us have different weight and size which makes your daily caloric needs different in order to lose weight.
Not make things complex for you is to keep your diet balanced and use applications like CHRONOMETER CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD to enter your daily food intake.
It will calculate your daily caloric intake automatically 😉
You just have to enter what food you are eating.
You will find a CALORIE CALCULATOR at the end of this article which will help you to find out your daily calorie intake to lose weight.
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You are welcome!