Does Weight Lifting Slow Weight Loss

[Towhee]

Hi Everyone! I'm new to fitbit, but not new to My Fitness Pal. I've had a steady workout routine for about 5 months but have only been counting calories since January. 

I've only lost a total of about 6-8 lbs (give or take the day, water, and meal) but I'm frustrated that I'm not losing more. I follow my reccomended calorie intake diligently (1200 calories/day - eating back some of the calories I burn with exercising).

Sometimes I burn up to 700/800 calories in a workout. All of my workouts contain at least 45 min of weight lifting heavy.

My pants are getting a little looser, but I'm not seeing the solid 1.5-2lbs/week loss that Fitbit and My Fitness Pal projects. I eat healthy, lots of whole foods and veggies. I don't drink any sodas or rarely eat sugar. 

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM!?!?

Should I not be eating back the calories I burn like the apps say (even though eating them back  STILL keeps me under or at 1200/day?)

Maybe I'm just being very impatient.

Any advice welcomed.

Here's an example of my muscle growth so far, but it can't honestly be so much that it affects my weight.

Aug 2015:

Feb 2016:

 

[JohnRi]

While putting on muscle mass is always good, losing weight and gaining muscle are hard to do at the same time.  Not impossible, but hard.  And weight training usually will not cause a lot of fat loss over the short term.  Long term, yes, but not short term.  You can lose fat by lifting, but it takes a long time to do it.  Months, years even depending on how much fat you want to burn. 

Are you only doing weight training?  Are you doing any cardio work?  Biking, Walking, Running, Swiming, Cardio Class?

Cardio activities help you lose weight the fastest.  But remember any exercise program is only at best 20% of your weight loss. 

What you eat is 80%, when you eat, the fat %, protein %, and Carbs.  I'm sure the other users on here will have more input. If you want to use weight training to lose weight, I'd up the protein to build muscles, and cut the fat.

And putting on muscle mass is good for weight loss.  Muscle mass burns more calories.  But Muscle mass also adds weight.  Which is why weight loss and muscle building are tough if you are concentrating on weight loss.

You said one very important thing.  "My pants are getting a little looser".  A pound of muscle weights the same as a pound of fat.  But a pound of muscle is denser, and takes up less room than a pound of fat. 

Since your clothes are loose, I suspect you have lost more fat weight than you think, but you have gained muscle weight making it hard to tell.

Personally, if you happy with the weight training, and aren't too concerned with your actual weight, then keep at it as you are doing.  Take measurements of your hips, waist, etc. How your clothes fit, and the sizes of your clothes, are better indicators than just a scale.  With muscle building, that's the more important indicator than the scale.

But if you want to lose more weight, swap out some of the weight sessions, for cardiio activities.

These are my suggestions?  What do the rest of you say?

Unless you are very tall, I wouldn't suggest going under 1300 calories a day, unless you want to try fasting.  But fasting and weight training, not sure that would work too well..

Good luck, and keep at it!

[Mukluk4]

Let's get back to square one here:

What is your goal?

Definition?  - You are totally on track with what you are doing.

Weight loss? - Then I would not add back the calories.

You really can't do both at the same time as they will contradict eachother.  Your best bet is to do a combination where you swap between bulking and cutting.  Google or working with a personal trainer would be the ideal next steps.

[KlutzyK]

Are you taking measurements as well?  When I shifted to more strength training, the scale slowed down.  However, I lost more in inches than pounds.  I'm not overly complicated with it.  On my weigh-in day each week I take the tape measure and notebook (I'm old school) and measure chest, waist, abdomen, hips, mid-thigh, mid-calf, and bicep.  And I've learned to completely ignore both my weight and measurements at certain times during my cycle because my body goes a little haywire. 

[Towhee]

Hi John! Thank you for your reply. 

To answer a few questions- 

1. I'm eating more than 1200 calories a day, yes. But I mean that it always stays UNDER 1200 if you count the calories I burn from exericse, does that make sense? NOT counting exercise burn, I average about 1400 cal a day, which is still pretty low I think ! 

2. Yes, I am doing cardio. Most days I do about 25 min of cardio before weight lifting, but some days (maybe 1-2 days a week) I only lift. I work out 5 days a week in total, taking 2 rest days. This has been consistent since January. I use the Arc Trainer - with my weight (174) plus the resistance, incline and speed I go at it esitmates about a 350 calorie burn for the 25 min each time. Sometimes more, so I think I'm doing alright. 

3. I eat about 80g of protein a day - ususally I have to supplement with either a protein shake, bar or something. But I get there! MyFitnessPal actually tracks macros for protein, fat and carbs. I always stay within the recommended ratios. 

I feel like I should be dropping more weight, all things considered! Am I not doing the right stuff!?

[Towhee]

I actually JUST started taking measurements. I dont know what I was at last year, so its hard to tell how far I've come there yet. 😞

I know that muscle weighs more and that inches matter more than lbs, and overall I do feel pretty happy with my body (when I look in the mirror) but 174lbs is still 174lbs and according to everyone (doctors, websites, BMI) I should be weighing more like 130-140! So in some ways, I feel like the scale matters??? Maybe?

[Atomicjoe]

I've personally lost 98lbs on keto in 9 months my advice is keep at the lifting.

Lifting weight while cutting is not about extra caloiers to burn more fat, it about maintaining the lean weight you have. If you don't lift then your body will burn the muscle, since it doesn't need it and muscle is more expensive to maintain than fat. You'll drop 25-30% of the weight as muscle if you don't lift and just do cardio.

You'll lose weight slower but you are keeping more lean weight, and dropping fat. The goal here is fat loss not weight loss. What lifting program are you following? If you are a newbie to lifting you can gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. 

[Dominique]

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@Towhee wrote:

Sometimes I burn up to 700/800 calories in a workout.

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800 calories sounds high to me. What is the total duration of such a workout, and what’s the split between resistance training and cardio (if any)?

[Towhee]

Thanks for all the responses!

I am a newbie to lifting - and had a lot of muscle to gain, I was a softy all around. Never lifted or had strong upper body muscles before in my life! 

As far as the 700 cal burn, it's an estimate of course, and probably and over estimation by a little but I'm still on the Arc Trainer for anywhere from 25-35 min at a time keeping my heart rate up in peak cardio burning 350-400 or more depending. 

And then I strength train, lifting as heavy as I can go in the free weight room doing super sets and small exercises inbetween to keep my heart rate up for an average of 60 min.  

[Dominique]

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@Towhee wrote:

I am a newbie to lifting - and had a lot of muscle to gain.  

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Remember also that weight lifting may increase the strength of your existing muscle (even if you think you didn’t have much muscle when you started), before increasing actual muscle mass. You should be able to see this comparing what you are able to benchpress now, compared to then (if you have been logging your sessions).

Adding a lot of muscle mass is harder for a woman (or for an older guy, like me), and it’s also harder in a caloric deficit. But gaining strength is perfectly possible.

This article gives some clues about muscle gains one can expect, depending on experience with proper weight lifting (and gender). 

[Urchin]

There could be a couple of things at play here.

The first is that weight lifting can cause inflammation and water retention as your muscles heal after a good workout, that may be skewing the actual amount of fat you've lost...and we all know, muscle weighs more than fat, so that could be making it appear as though your weigh is not dropping.

Secondly, if you are closer to a healthy weight and don't have a lot to lose, it is going to take much, much longer to lose weight.

Another thing is that perhaps you are not calculating things just right in terms of calories burned or calories eaten. If you're using exercise equiptment, do not use the "calories burned" numbers on the machine, as they often over estimate the actual number. I like to take an average of a few sources online to determine what I am burning.
With food, make sure you are measuring things accurately. It's easy to under estimate or even over estimate what you're eating if you don't measure properly.

The last thing that I find important is how many calories you are eating. You say no more than 1200 cals per day, but believe it or not, that may be too little. I know for me, and many other people, if I dont eat enough my weight loss would slow or stop. 
Calculate your BMR and make sure your weight loss goal isn't too high and that you're eating enough. That may be the boost you need to amp things up!
http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/fitness/bmr_meal_calculator.php

Good luck, and nice job at what you have accomplished so far! 

[bcalvanese]

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@Towhee wrote:

Hi Everyone! I'm new to fitbit, but not new to My Fitness Pal. I've had a steady workout routine for about 5 months but have only been counting calories since January. 

I've only lost a total of about 6-8 lbs (give or take the day, water, and meal) but I'm frustrated that I'm not losing more. I follow my reccomended calorie intake diligently (1200 calories/day - eating back some of the calories I burn with exercising).

Sometimes I burn up to 700/800 calories in a workout. All of my workouts contain at least 45 min of weight lifting heavy.

My pants are getting a little looser, but I'm not seeing the solid 1.5-2lbs/week loss that Fitbit and My Fitness Pal projects. I eat healthy, lots of whole foods and veggies. I don't drink any sodas or rarely eat sugar. 

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM!?!?

Should I not be eating back the calories I burn like the apps say (even though eating them back  STILL keeps me under or at 1200/day?)

Maybe I'm just being very impatient.

Any advice welcomed.

Here's an example of my muscle growth so far, but it can't honestly be so much that it affects my weight.

Aug 2015:

Feb 2016:

 

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If you are trying to lose weight I would recommend adding steady state cardio as your primary exercise, and muscular exercise secondary.

As mentioned by  @Dominique , you can tone your exhisting muscle, but it will be hard to build new muscle while dieting. Steady state cardio will allow you to lose weight faster and increase your cardio endurance at the same time.

1 lb. per week is usually a good healthy goal, and good luck.

[SandyM01]

Compound exercise get you best result, like deadlifts, squats, When i started my workout back in September 26, 2018, My weight was 217 Pounds, but i always wanted to lose fat, i wasn`t concerned on weight loss factor, Today my weight is 198.41 pound, & 172cm tall. I did only weight training but high intense training, Like Weight squats, Deadlifts, Presses & more, When you are focusing on weight training, You intend to lose fat instead of weight training because you are adding up muscle mass at same time losing fat. Sometime intermittent fasting also helps. So my suggestion is if you are doing weight training just focus on fat loss, increase protein intake & low carbs, Load carbs before workout atleast before 1-2hrs. Stay focused, sometime body takes time to understand what exactly you want from it. 🙂