How should a women lift to lose weight/fat. Help requested please

[ireyes]

Hello to all.

I'm currently dieting and going to the gym. I have a huge confusion on how to lift weights properly for weight loss. I continue to read numerous post on line and all i do is find myself extemely confused. Many sites state that light weights and more reps is the way to go, while others state maxs weights to the point of fatigue and low reps. I would love to do things correctly because i need to lose about 100lbs.

I have also read that i should lose first and then lift be ause the muscle just pushes that fat and of course others that say that the muscle is what burns the fat.

Very open to all excercise suggestions and helpful tips.

All your replies and help is greatly appreciated. I currently work out 5 days a week and do mostly cardio because i'm so lost.

Hope you have a great day.

 

[*Dim*]

perhaps rather do the cardio excercises to loose weight (treadmill, cycle, elliptical cross trainer and rowing machine)

try doing 10 minutes on each machine at a setting that feels comfortable to you ... every week, increase by 1 minute extra until you get to 20 minutes per machine, then increase your speed or hardness level once you have reached the 20 min per machine

combine this with a sensible good diet, lots of water, a daily vitamin supplement and you will loose weight healthily, and be a lot fitter .... do this 5 times a week

if you wish to do weights, do the circuits before you do the cardio equipment, but do repetions of light weights (2 sets of 10 on each weight machine)

worked for me

 

[ireyes]

Thank you very much for the reply.

I'm currently doing the treadmill for about 30 minutes at 3.7 with a 7.0 incline and elliptical for 7.

The weight i use on my legs are pretty heavy, seems like the light doesn't challenge me. Athough lighter woudln't bother me, i just want to do it right.

About the vitamins, do you recommend any one brand. For some reason i try to drink them and they just make me sick, nausea, lightheaded as if i were to pass out. Recently i tried the emergen-c and the same thing happened.

Have a blessed day!

 

[*Dim*]

ok ... I'm no expert but will tell you what I do ....

I have lost 9kg in 5 weeks (19.8 pounds) ... but bear in mind, I was grossly overweight to start with ... I am now loosing approx 1 kg (2,2 pounds per week) ... gets harder to shed weight after a while ... I feel great and getting very fit, and stamina is getting better

I wake up, have a glass of hot water with lemon juice .... about half an hour later, I have breakfast which consists of cooked oats or a south african cereal called pronutro ... or 2 weetabix with no sugar and organic skimmed milk ...shortly after, I have half a fresh graprefruit juice freshly squeezed with an orange which is also freshly squeezed ... a bit later, I have a really good multivitamin called solgar omnium (£20 for 30 tabs)

lunch consists of a banana and an apple or both with a small pack of walnuts ... if I dont have walnuts, I have a zero fat plain greek youghurt with the fruit, or blueberries with yoghurt etc

when I get home after work, I have a juice which I make in my juice extractor machine .... this may consist of a bunch of fresh spinach, an apple a pear a carrot, some celery etc .... I also have an energy nut bar then take an amino acid tablet just before going to gym

I also drink approx 2 litres of evian water per day, have cut out all alcohol (except for saturdays), and no longer drink coffee

I am never hungry , but do crave certain foods ... last week, I craved for pickled beetroot and pickled cucumbers/gerkins

at gym, I first start with the weights (light weights ... 2 sets of 10 reps on each machine ... then I go to the cycle machine... then the elliptical cross trainer, then the treadmill, then the rowing machine

when I get home, I eat a healthy meal which varies ... example of what I had last night:

a small piece of fillet steak grilled, some brocolli steamed, a fresh salad which consisted of ripe plum tomato, onions, cucumber, greenpepper, kalamata olives, rocket, spinich, watercress, spring onion,avocado pear ... with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and 1/2 a boiled sweet potato

pudding was a small sesame seed/honey bar ... just before bed, I have 1/2 a cup of Sencha green tea (no sugar or milk)

I have cut out sugar, and only use organic skimmed milk in my pronutro or weetabix cereal, and have reduced salt

to put things in perspective, I never used to eat breakfast or lunch, get home, drink 4 pints of beer before having a huge meal such as spagetti bolognaise with 3-4 slices of buttered bread and a chocolate mouse

works for me, and my son has joined me at gym and eating likewise

 

[SXIPro]

ok ... I'm no expert but will tell you what I do ....

I have lost 9kg in 5 weeks (19.8 pounds) ... but bear in mind, I was grossly overweight to start with ... I am now loosing approx 1 kg (2,2 pounds per week) ... gets harder to shed weight after a while ... I feel great and getting very fit, and stamina is getting better

I wake up, have a glass of hot water with lemon juice .... about half an hour later, I have breakfast which consists of cooked oats or a south african cereal called pronutro ... or 2 weetabix with no sugar and organic skimmed milk ...shortly after, I have half a fresh graprefruit juice freshly squeezed with an orange which is also freshly squeezed ... a bit later, I have a really good multivitamin called solgar omnium (£20 for 30 tabs)

lunch consists of a banana and an apple or both with a small pack of walnuts ... if I dont have walnuts, I have a zero fat plain greek youghurt with the fruit, or blueberries with yoghurt etc

when I get home after work, I have a juice which I make in my juice extractor machine .... this may consist of a bunch of fresh spinach, an apple a pear a carrot, some celery etc .... I also have an energy nut bar then take an amino acid tablet just before going to gym

I also drink approx 2 litres of evian water per day, have cut out all alcohol (except for saturdays), and no longer drink coffee

I am never hungry , but do crave certain foods ... last week, I craved for pickled beetroot and pickled cucumbers/gerkins

at gym, I first start with the weights (light weights ... 2 sets of 10 reps on each machine ... then I go to the cycle machine... then the elliptical cross trainer, then the treadmill, then the rowing machine

when I get home, I eat a healthy meal which varies ... example of what I had last night:

a small piece of fillet steak grilled, some brocolli steamed, a fresh salad which consisted of ripe plum tomato, onions, cucumber, greenpepper, kalamata olives, rocket, spinich, watercress, spring onion,avocado pear ... with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and 1/2 a boiled sweet potato

pudding was a small sesame seed/honey bar ... just before bed, I have 1/2 a cup of Sencha green tea (no sugar or milk)

I have cut out sugar, and only use organic skimmed milk in my pronutro or weetabix cereal, and have reduced salt

to put things in perspective, I never used to eat breakfast or lunch, get home, drink 4 pints of beer before having a huge meal such as spagetti bolognaise with 3-4 slices of buttered bread and a chocolate mouse

works for me, and my son has joined me at gym and eating likewise

Really good post. Two things though:

I'd go with tap water instead of Evian. Same benefit, but free.

Exactly what is pickled beetroot? (or beetroot by itself?)

 

[*Dim*]

Really good post. Two things though:

I'd go with tap water instead of Evian. Same benefit, but free.

Exactly what is pickled beetroot? (or beetroot by itself?)

thanks ... 2 litres of evian water costs me 77 pence .... the tap water here is very hard, has lots of lime so don't mind paying the 77 pence

pickled beetroot is beetroot that has already been prepared and sold in bottles with some type of vinegar (i.e. its not raw)

 

[Goldfish]

At 100lb overweight it's more important that you do SOMETHING and start fixing up your diet than that you train perfectly.

But, that said, there is (generally) much more value to heavy weight training than light weights and a billion reps. Hypothetical question: Every other day, you have to drag a truck across a football field. Your body is constantly having to perform this task, and it's obviously not an easy task to perform. At the same time, your body is in a low-calorie situation whereby it has to get rid of body mass to survive. Do you think the body might be inclined to preserve your lean fat-free mass to continue being able to haul trucks in this situation? And if so, exactly what body mass is left over that your body can get rid of? (I'll give you a clue, the answers are 'yes' and 'fat,' mostly in that order.)

Obviously, I don't expect you to be dragging trucks around, but I wanted to get you to imagine doing something really ridiculously hard so that you'd then be able to understand the value of heavy resistance training for fat loss.

If, on the other hand, your activities are arbitrarily low in intensity and take a lot out of your cardiovascular system but not out of your muscular system, in the same low-calorie situation, will your body have much incentive to spare your muscle mass? No, not really.

With regards to the question of does muscle mass push out your fat, or does it increase metabolism? Well, there's truth to both statements actually, but the latter is more relevant for anyone losing weight. If you were to increase your muscle mass while maintaining your fat mass, all your girths would increase. But this won't happen unless you're eating a calorie surplus - ie your diet is organised in such a way as to increase your bodyweight. If you're eating in a calorie deficit, then you have to lose weight. If you maintain muscle mass while losing weight, you'll lose a lot of fat and maintain your metabolic rate. If you increase muscle mass while losing weight, you'll be losing even more fat in that time period, and increasing your metabolic rate (but doing this is usually only achievable in the absolute beginner stage of training - good news for you, you probably CAN achieve this initially).

Just to make a point using maths (to further back up the above paragraph), let's say two people both lose 1lb of bodyweight in a week, and none of it is water weight. The first person (A) maintains all fat-free mass, so the entire 1lb lost is fat. The second person (B) increases muscle mass by 1lb, thus increasing fat-free mass by 1lb, so by decreasing the bodyweight by 1lb, B actually loses 2lb of fat. In practice, the numbers probably aren't that smooth. But both people would be a little bit smaller, and would have the same - or a higher - metabolic rate as before.

 

[*Dim*]

At 100lb overweight it's more important that you do SOMETHING and start fixing up your diet than that you train perfectly.

But, that said, there is (generally) much more value to heavy weight training than light weights and a billion reps. Hypothetical question: Every other day, you have to drag a truck across a football field. Your body is constantly having to perform this task, and it's obviously not an easy task to perform. At the same time, your body is in a low-calorie situation whereby it has to get rid of body mass to survive. Do you think the body might be inclined to preserve your lean fat-free mass to continue being able to haul trucks in this situation? And if so, exactly what body mass is left over that your body can get rid of? (I'll give you a clue, the answers are 'yes' and 'fat,' mostly in that order.)

Obviously, I don't expect you to be dragging trucks around, but I wanted to get you to imagine doing something really ridiculously hard so that you'd then be able to understand the value of heavy resistance training for fat loss.

If, on the other hand, your activities are arbitrarily low in intensity and take a lot out of your cardiovascular system but not out of your muscular system, in the same low-calorie situation, will your body have much incentive to spare your muscle mass? No, not really.

With regards to the question of does muscle mass push out your fat, or does it increase metabolism? Well, there's truth to both statements actually, but the latter is more relevant for anyone losing weight. If you were to increase your muscle mass while maintaining your fat mass, all your girths would increase. But this won't happen unless you're eating a calorie surplus - ie your diet is organised in such a way as to increase your bodyweight. If you're eating in a calorie deficit, then you have to lose weight. If you maintain muscle mass while losing weight, you'll lose a lot of fat and maintain your metabolic rate. If you increase muscle mass while losing weight, you'll be losing even more fat in that time period, and increasing your metabolic rate (but doing this is usually only achievable in the absolute beginner stage of training - good news for you, you probably CAN achieve this initially).

Just to make a point using maths (to further back up the above paragraph), let's say two people both lose 1lb of bodyweight in a week, and none of it is water weight. The first person (A) maintains all fat-free mass, so the entire 1lb lost is fat. The second person (B) increases muscle mass by 1lb, thus increasing fat-free mass by 1lb, so by decreasing the bodyweight by 1lb, B actually loses 2lb of fat. In practice, the numbers probably aren't that smooth. But both people would be a little bit smaller, and would have the same - or a higher - metabolic rate as before.

good post ... just one query though, based on my observations

have seen most of the guys at gym who do heavy weights (mainly bodybuilding) have much difficulty on the cardio machines (the few who do occasionally venture onto the machines) ....

why then if they have so much muscle, are they unable to last even 5 minutes on the cycle, and they puff and pant?

most probably a dumb question, but I have seen this time and time again ....

somehow, the guys doing bodybuilding just don't look very fit and healthy to me on the the cardio equipment ?

 

[Goldfish]

good post ... just one query though, based on my observations

have seen most of the guys at gym who do heavy weights (mainly bodybuilding) have much difficulty on the cardio machines (the few who do occasionally venture onto the machines) ....

why then if they have so much muscle, are they unable to last even 5 minutes on the cycle, and they puff and pant?

most probably a dumb question, but I have seen this time and time again ....

somehow, the guys doing bodybuilding just don't look very fit and healthy to me on the the cardio equipment ?

Because muscular strength =/= cardiovascular endurance. They're almost polar opposites in terms of fitness. Strength does give you a base to improve ALL areas of fitness with, but you still have to train those areas of fitness to be good at them. Sometimes, it's also exercise-specific. Someone might be great at rowing but terrible at running, and vice versa. It also depends on the intensity the do the exercise at, or the training method they use. Someone doing Tabata training on the bike will be getting off the bike in 4 min, just about ready to collapse, because of how exhaustive it is.

Either way, it's irrelevant to the immediate issue of weight and body composition. Calories in vs calories out determines whether you will gain, maintain or lose weight. Stimulation to maintain or grow muscles will largely determine lean body mass within the context of growth/maintenance/weight loss, and will therefore affect whether you gain/maintain/lose fat. You can go about it in a very healthy manner, and supplementing strength training with some cardio while eating wholesome, nutritious meals is a good way to do that. But body composition =/= health, and you can look good without being generally fit or healthy. Back in his fighting days, Mohamed Ali was at his weakest, least healthy state when he visually looked his best.

(On a side note, the "bodybuilding" types you refer to probably aren't bodybuilders, they're probably just super chunky bros; just an observation.)

 

[IronRose83]

I'd have to ask what your goals are.

If you're just looking to lose weight, then cardio will do you right. But if you want to firm up and build a little muscle and curvature as well, than you'll need some weight training as well.

One thing I always tell my friends when they're starting out, is to find a physical activity they love. this will keep you in the gym, and build up positive reinforcement so that you stay in the gym.

Here's what I've been doing that works.

I train 4 days a week in the gym. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I run, and on Saturdays I engage in 2 to 3 solid hours of Muay Thai.

Mondays - Legs and Glutes
Wednesday - Back and Biceps
Friday - Core and Tricepts
Sunday - Shoulders

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I take advantage of the hour lunch break I get and run for 20 minutes. either on a treadmill, or I make use of the ellipticals on the Hill Intervals setting.

I'm not sure why everyone is recommending so much cardio, as anything more than 20-30 minutes tends to eat away at muscle and can be counterproductive. If you plan on keeping the musculature you develop, I'd recommend doing only 20 minutes a day of light to medium stress cardio.

Do your weight training first. by lifting first, you tell your body you need to build. And in doing your cardio second, you burn off the excess fat, you're already warmed up, and you tell your body what you're training for.

One key thing I also remind my friends and workout partners. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. Women do not have the genetics or the amount of testosterone required to bulk up like men do (provided you're not taking steroids). Don't be afraid to lift heavy, you'll only tighten up what you already have.

Hope this helps

 

[SXIPro]

Everyone should do strength training/resistance training. Regardless of your goals. Everyone.