Wouldn't that sort of be redundant? It's a lot harder to 'lose weight' when you're gaining muscle,
The goal of simply 'losing weight' is kind of silly, don't you think.
I mean, indirectly that is what happens when you focus on more important goals like better performance, looking good, better health, etc.
And losing weight doesn't necessarily = better performance, looking good, or better health.
Fat Lazy Guy is correct above. Heavy weight training sends optimal signaling to your body 'telling it' to maintain as much muscle mass as possible while being in a caloric deficit.
A caloric deficit is required if you're dieting, right?
Adding muscle is a very intensive process, energetically speaking. While dieting, you don't have adequate energy to maintain the tissue you currently have... hence the weight loss. By adding heavy (relative to your strength) weight lifting into the mix of things... you 'persuade' where that weight loss comes from, as in, you help sway your body into losing fat instead of muscle.
In my experience, not including things such as weight training and adequate protein are what cause most people to not be content with their bodies once they reach their goal weight.
or is that only applicable to low-weight-high-rep lifting?
Gaining muscle doesn't have much of anything to do with rep ranges. It has everything to do with sufficient intensity/overload, progression, volume and calories.
I'm about 30ish lbs from my target weight and I've started heavy lifting. Generally, my weight has stayed the same for 2 months, it's hard to lose weight because you need sufficient calories to gain muscle- so you tend to overdo it on some days.
Sorry, I'm replying as I read. With this statement, you make it evident that you understand the need to eat 'enough' to gain muscle.
But it also seems you believe the only benefit associated with weight training is adding muscle. It's not.
There are numerous benefits and the one that you need to be aware of in the context of this discussion is this: It doesn't have to build muscle, it can merely maintain it as discussed above.
You're going to have a hard to reaching a goal when you're shooting at two targets simultaneously.
Reading through 'em a few times, it seems evident that I was aiming for two goals at a time when I should have been focusing on one or the other. 