To Muscle or Not To Muscle - that is the question

[Stacy]

So I've lost 26 pounds in less than two months. I started at 385 and am down to 359. I've been getting at least 30 minutes of exercise 5-6 times a week and eating around 1,500 - 1,700 calories a day. The weight loss is going great and I'm not feeling any deprivation or discomfort with my new lifestyle. I'm loving the fresh fruits and veggies and honestly do not miss the unhealthy food (though sometimes I still crave the sweets lol).

My question is - should I be doing weight training now, or wait until after I've lost the weight? I've heard that lifting weights while trying to lose weight can make it more difficult to lose weight. Is that a myth? Is there more of a benefit to building muscle during weight loss or better to wait until after I've dropped some of the excess weight?

Would appreciate some advice. Thanks!

PS Does lifting weights help to tighten lose skin - or does it just help "fill out" lose skin with muscle?

 

[ecky1]

That's exactly the information that I wanted Stacy. I have decided to join a gym next month but don't know if I should be doing weights yet or not even though I only have a about 10 pounds left to lose. If it is going to hinder me getting rid of my last bits of fat then I would rather put it off until it is all gone.

 

[Stacy]

That's exactly the information that I wanted Stacy. I have decided to join a gym next month but don't know if I should be doing weights yet or not even though I only have a about 10 pounds left to lose. If it is going to hinder me getting rid of my last bits of fat then I would rather put it off until it is all gone.

Cool, I'm glad I'm not the only one stumped by this question. lol Hopefully we'll get some knowledgeable people to help us out and give us some answers.

By the way - I'm so jealous of you, only needing 10 more pounds to lose! That's awesome! I've got like 219 more pounds to lose. Thinking about that makes my head spin.

 

[Harold14370]

The idea of lifting weight while dieting is to try to maintain the muscle you have while losing fat. You are probably pretty strong already, just because you have to be, to carry all that weight around. It will be a lot harder to build the muscle back up after you lose it.

 

[PandaQuill]

Hmm, in my humble opinion, you should lift weights while exercising. Weight lifting and cardio go hand in hand! : D The cardio helps burn fat, the weights keep the muscles looking toned so you don't look like a limp noodle without muscles because the skin becomes rather saggy after one's lost a lot of weight in a short time. : O

If you're worried about looking manly with muscles, don't increase the weight; just do repetitions. (Speed and increasing the weight is for people who want to get bigger muscles.) Do these repetitions slowly because you're doing this for the sake of toning, not buffing it up.

Weight lifting while exercising doesn't slow down weight loss. Nothing may change on the scale, but if you look in the mirror, you might see the changes better. As you already probably know, muscle weighs more than fat so all that fat weight turns into muscle. You'll look slimmer but maybe have the same weight because of the muscles.

I think each pound of muscle burns about 50 more calories so you lose more weight!

 

[ecky1]

Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. I don't want to have big muscles but just want to tone my saggy body up as much as possible so will do as you say and do more repetitions rather than increase the weight too much.

Hmm, in my humble opinion, you should lift weights while exercising. Weight lifting and cardio go hand in hand! : D The cardio helps burn fat, the weights keep the muscles looking toned so you don't look like a limp noodle without muscles because the skin becomes rather saggy after one's lost a lot of weight in a short time. : O

If you're worried about looking manly with muscles, don't increase the weight; just do repetitions. (Speed and increasing the weight is for people who want to get bigger muscles.) Do these repetitions slowly because you're doing this for the sake of toning, not buffing it up.

Weight lifting while exercising doesn't slow down weight loss. Nothing may change on the scale, but if you look in the mirror, you might see the changes better. As you already probably know, muscle weighs more than fat so all that fat weight turns into muscle. You'll look slimmer but maybe have the same weight because of the muscles.

I think each pound of muscle burns about 50 more calories so you lose more weight!

 

[ecky1]

Stacy you have the right mind set to see this through. Have you thought about doing your ticker in stages of weight loss so that it doesn't look too daunting? Lots of people do that and then we can all celebrate with you everytime you get to the end and have to start a new ticker.
My 55lbs looked impossible to me and here I am approaching the end. Yours will take a bit longer to lose but imagine how proud you will be to be able to say that you lost over 200lbs and how fit and healthy you will feel. I can't stress enough the difference it makes to your life to get to a normal weight and not feel tired and self-conscious every minute of your life.

By the way - I'm so jealous of you, only needing 10 more pounds to lose! That's awesome! I've got like 219 more pounds to lose. Thinking about that makes my head spin.

 

[Stacy]

The idea of lifting weight while dieting is to try to maintain the muscle you have while losing fat. You are probably pretty strong already, just because you have to be, to carry all that weight around. It will be a lot harder to build the muscle back up after you lose it.

Hmm, in my humble opinion, you should lift weights while exercising. Weight lifting and cardio go hand in hand! : D The cardio helps burn fat, the weights keep the muscles looking toned so you don't look like a limp noodle without muscles because the skin becomes rather saggy after one's lost a lot of weight in a short time. : O

I think each pound of muscle burns about 50 more calories so you lose more weight!

Thanks guys! This is some very good advice. I appreciate you taking the time to post a reply. As Harold pointed out, I'm already very strong. My leg muscles are insanely big (try carrying around 250 extra pounds for years and years and see how big your leg muscles get lol). I actually hope my leg muscles shrink as I do. I don't want to be down to 140 pounds and have these tree trunk muscled calves - that would just look weird. My arm muscles are also pretty strong (I can pick up my 165 pound boyfriend - it embarrasses the heck out of him so I don't do it very often lol). So not sure if I should let the arm muscles shrink too, though it is kind of nice being strong. I'm definitely not one of those girls who needs her boyfriend to carry things for her. heh I'm kind of torn on this issue. I guess I'll just wait and see and try and listen to my body's cues as to what it wants and needs when it comes to the muscles.

 

[Stacy]

Stacy you have the right mind set to see this through. Have you thought about doing your ticker in stages of weight loss so that it doesn't look too daunting? Lots of people do that and then we can all celebrate with you everytime you get to the end and have to start a new ticker.
My 55lbs looked impossible to me and here I am approaching the end. Yours will take a bit longer to lose but imagine how proud you will be to be able to say that you lost over 200lbs and how fit and healthy you will feel. I can't stress enough the difference it makes to your life to get to a normal weight and not feel tired and self-conscious every minute of your life.

That's a cool idea. Though I'm afraid if I change my ticker to reflect a smaller weight I might slack off too much. lol

 

[PandaQuill]

Oooh okay haha xD :3 I suppose it's up to you. I wish I could answer your question about tightening loose skin haha, but skin is flexible. Give it time, it will tighten up. I read around because I was also curious and it said stuff about keeping yourself and your skin moisturized. Put on lotion after showering, sunblock when going out, drinking lots of water and yeah. Never heard of lotioning.

But I know that Vitamin C is good for you. It helps collagen formation (thing that makes your skin elastic and tight), it's an antioxidant and it keeps your immune system up! Also, loofah because it promotes circulation.

 

[Stacy]

Oooh okay haha xD :3 I suppose it's up to you. I wish I could answer your question about tightening loose skin haha, but skin is flexible. Give it time, it will tighten up. I read around because I was also curious and it said stuff about keeping yourself and your skin moisturized. Put on lotion after showering, sunblock when going out, drinking lots of water and yeah. Never heard of lotioning.

But I know that Vitamin C is good for you. It helps collagen formation (thing that makes your skin elastic and tight), it's an antioxidant and it keeps your immune system up! Also, loofah because it promotes circulation.

Very cool ideas. I'm 31 and just hoping most (I'm sure can't hope for ALL) of my skin to shrink up after losing the weight. I just hope I'm not too old for my skin to have elasticity. heh Even if I could afford it (which I can't) I'm deathly scared of surgery so I'm sure surgical skin removal isn't an option for me once I reach goal weight. Hmm I hear vitamin E can help too, my mom swears by it.

 

[PandaQuill]

I'm just admiring you because you chose to exercise and diet instead of finding a way (i.e. selling one of your kidneys) to pay for surgery to lose weight :3 Believe that you can do it. And yes, Vitamin E works. It's an ingredient in a lot of lotion (OH! That explains the lotioning!) and facial wash. Hell, I pop 400IU every morning with breakfast :3

 

[ecky1]

At 53 and post-menopausal and I don't expect magical results but it would be nice if I could tighten my skin up a bit. I am putting cream on twice a day but can't see any difference yet. I'd still rather have the skin than the fat. You should do much better at your age Stacy. I really would like to tighten up my arms a bit but I think that is quite difficult even with weight lifting.

 

[Steve]

Please don't take this as nitpicking... I just want the most sound information to be provided on this board:

If you're worried about looking manly with muscles, don't increase the weight; just do repetitions.

Women don't have the hormonal profiles to fuel "manly" muscle development. Testosterone is pretty amazing in regards to it's role in muscle growth and they simply don't have enough of it.

Even a women lifting weights progressively and heavily over time won't get bulky or manly. Unless she's supplementing with anabolic steroids.

(Speed and increasing the weight is for people who want to get bigger muscles.)

Not necessarily.

Increasing weight is for anyone who's concerned with maintaining muscle and strength (or adding a little of it if you're completely untrained) while dieting.

Whether a muscle grows or doesn't depends more on your energetic state (calories) than anything else. You can train exactly how a bodybuilder would, but if you're in a caloric deficit... you're not going to realize appreciable muscle growth.

Reason being... you're body's not taking in enough energy to maintain what it has; it's not going to make matters worse by adding a bunch of metabolically costly tissue like muscle.

Hypertrophy (muscle growth) is a very intensive process, energetically speaking. By definition, during a diet you're short-changed of energy.

Do these repetitions slowly because you're doing this for the sake of toning, not buffing it up.

Rep speed doesn't influence toning.

Toning is a function of losing as much fat as possible while maximizing as much muscle mass as possible.

As I recently said in another thread:

The biggest takeaway should be toning isn't a verb. It should be an adjective, as in toned, which happens when fat loss reveals the muscles you've worked to maintain.

Weight lifting while exercising doesn't slow down weight loss.

It actually can. Someone completely new to weight lifting who's fat has a good chance of adding a bit of muscle at first... even in the face of a caloric deficit. This is a good thing; they're fortunate. Weight lifting can also screw with water flux... temporarily increasing water/glycogen storage.

The important thing to consider though, is none of this is bad. You, the OP, or anyone else (outside of athletes trying to make weight) are concerned about weight. Rather, we're concerned about losing fat. That's an important distinction.

As you already probably know, muscle weighs more than fat so all that fat weight turns into muscle.

It actually doesn't. A pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of stone. It's just that one is denser than the other which means a pound of stone takes up less space than a pound of feathers.

The same can be said for fat compared to muscles.

I think each pound of muscle burns about 50 more calories so you lose more weight!

Not even close, unfortunately. It's more like 6 or so calories per pound if memory serves me right.

 

[Steve]

Stacy... I highly suggest reading this article series written by a friend of mine who happens to be a phenomenal researcher and author. I think it'll shed a lot of light on things for you:













It's a long series but well worth the read if you have the time.

 

[PandaQuill]

Women don't have the hormonal profiles to fuel "manly" muscle development. Testosterone is pretty amazing in regards to it's role in muscle growth and they simply don't have enough of it.

Even a women lifting weights progressively and heavily over time won't get bulky or manly. Unless she's supplementing with anabolic steroids.

I think she meant she'll get a BIT buffer (like the new muscle will push the fats out), but not in a body builder kind of way. Manly there was used like the word bulky, not really like a real man.

Rep speed doesn't influence toning.

Toning is a function of losing as much fat as possible while maximizing as much muscle mass as possible.

As I recently said in another thread:

The biggest takeaway should be toning isn't a verb. It should be an adjective, as in toned, which happens when fat loss reveals the muscles you've worked to maintain.

Sorry about that word. My definition of toning is making it pleasantly bigger and not flat so I was going by that. I guess that's building the muscle, not making cuts and stuff?? So if you go slower when you raise barbels, you put more strain on the muscle. Strain is a bad word for it. Put more work in the muscle. Unlike when you pump the weights fast like 2 lifts per second the muscles don't really feel the burn, and it's actually more tiring.

It actually can. Someone completely new to weight lifting who's fat has a good chance of adding a bit of muscle at first... even in the face of a caloric deficit. This is a good thing; they're fortunate. Weight lifting can also screw with water flux... temporarily increasing water/glycogen storage.

The important thing to consider though, is none of this is bad. You, the OP, or anyone else (outside of athletes trying to make weight) are concerned about weight. Rather, we're concerned about losing fat. That's an important distinction.

Oh, I understand this part now. Didn't know it slows down on bigger people. :3

It actually doesn't. A pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of stone. It's just that one is denser than the other which means a pound of stone takes up less space than a pound of feathers.

The same can be said for fat compared to muscles.

I meant one cubic centimeter of fat weights less than one cubic centimeter of muscle. Dx

Not even close, unfortunately. It's more like 6 or so calories per pound if memory serves me right.

Searched it. You're right. Oops.

 

[Steve]

I think she meant she'll get a BIT buffer (like the new muscle will push the fats out), but not in a body builder kind of way. Manly there was used like the word bulky, not really like a real man.

And that's fine. We have to remember that there's many people reading threads like this one so clarifications are a good thing to ensure adequate understanding/learning.

The fact remains that you're not going to build enough muscle to push the fat out noticeably when you're obese while dieting for the reasons I discussed in my previous post.

Sorry about that word. My definition of toning is making it pleasantly bigger and not flat so I was going by that. I guess that's building the muscle, not making cuts and stuff??

Gotcha. Yea, generally speaking toning is something folks misguidedly use to describe how you get lean.

So if you go slower when you raise barbels, you put more strain on the muscle. Strain is a bad word for it. Put more work in the muscle.

Actually no, that's not accurate. If you go slow, by definition, you're required to use less weight. Less weight means the muscle needs to generate less mechanical force to overcome the external load (the barbell for instance).

Unlike when you pump the weights fast like 2 lifts per second the muscles don't really feel the burn, and it's actually more tiring.

Feeling the burn and making it tired are not indicative of quality and benefits that will be derived. They're simply offsets of what's happening physiologically with metabolic byproducts that accompany long-duration reps or sets.

 

[PandaQuill]

Fione. I'm trying to toughen up my arms or as how I would used to call them "tone" them. My muscles have gotten smaller since I stopped going to the gym in the summer but I need to keep them strong because of my sports. So I'm not actually doing anything good when I move my arms around with 3 lbs barbels? Think of it as soft ballet movements except I'm holding weights. I need to get them hard by Saturday morning or I'm dead.