Does strength training really help lose weight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another important note: be careful not to restrict calories too much. I cannot lose weight on 1300 calories a day. I need more like 1600 calories of high quality food, otherwise my body thinks it’s in starvation mode and holds onto everything.

Starvation mode is a myth. The reasons real most people “can’t lose on 1300 calories” is because they can’t stick with it long enough to get results. After a few days you are starving and overeat. Then you go back to 1300 cal and repeat the cycle. At higher calories you lose because you can stick to that more consistently, not feel deprived and stay in a consistent deficit which is the key to fat loss. But everyone thinks if they do a crash diet they will lose weight quickly not realizing they won’t really because they will perpetuate the overly restrict overeat cycle and keep spinning their wheels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cardio burns calories (and fat) yes, but the calorie burn stops as soon as the cardio activity stops so it's not the most effective fat burning tool. With strength training you're building muscle. Muscle burns more calories while at rest because muscle increases your metabolic rate which leads to increased fat loss. Your BMR is basically the number of calories your body needs to function. So if you combine the two, you'll have a great fat burning, weight loss regimen. This is done through HIIT -high intensity interval training.

Also important is calorie restriction. Don't expect to make great progress unless you restrict your calories. I'm not talking 1000 calories a day either, so no one come after me. You need to get online and find out how many calories you need to be consuming for your age, height, and sex.

+1

Exercise to get stronger and build/maintain muscle. Diet to lose weight.

If the scale is not moving you are eating to many calories.

Yes, I know. I'm tracking my food and netting about 1200 calories a day -- absolutely no sugar, alcohol, bread/rice/pasta.

Just wondering if weight training would help speed the weight loss process.

Ok so how many calories a day are you consuming? Forget net calories and accounting for calories burned through exercise. you need to solely focus on what you are consuming as there is really no accurate way to determine calories burned.

You also don't need to cut food groups to lose weight.

For a goal weight of 140 lbs you should be consuming between 1400 and 1680 cal/day CONSISTENTLY. You need >85% consistency. This means not going over this more than 4 days/month.

MyFitnessPal is recommending 1200 calories a day. You think 1400-1680? I like your answer better, but why the difference?

Most people also usually select that they want to lose 2 lbs a week so MFP gives the lowest calories possible. 2 lbs a week is very aggressive and typically not sustainable or realistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another important note: be careful not to restrict calories too much. I cannot lose weight on 1300 calories a day. I need more like 1600 calories of high quality food, otherwise my body thinks it’s in starvation mode and holds onto everything.

Starvation mode is a myth. The reasons real most people “can’t lose on 1300 calories” is because they can’t stick with it long enough to get results. After a few days you are starving and overeat. Then you go back to 1300 cal and repeat the cycle. At higher calories you lose because you can stick to that more consistently, not feel deprived and stay in a consistent deficit which is the key to fat loss. But everyone thinks if they do a crash diet they will lose weight quickly not realizing they won’t really because they will perpetuate the overly restrict overeat cycle and keep spinning their wheels.

+1

This whole "starvation mode" idea is a myth that should have died with the Snackwells revolution in the 90's, and the idea that snacking throughout the day keeps your metabolism burning on high all day. Complete, absolute, total quack nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another important note: be careful not to restrict calories too much. I cannot lose weight on 1300 calories a day. I need more like 1600 calories of high quality food, otherwise my body thinks it’s in starvation mode and holds onto everything.

Starvation mode is a myth. The reasons real most people “can’t lose on 1300 calories” is because they can’t stick with it long enough to get results. After a few days you are starving and overeat. Then you go back to 1300 cal and repeat the cycle. At higher calories you lose because you can stick to that more consistently, not feel deprived and stay in a consistent deficit which is the key to fat loss. But everyone thinks if they do a crash diet they will lose weight quickly not realizing they won’t really because they will perpetuate the overly restrict overeat cycle and keep spinning their wheels.

+1

This whole "starvation mode" idea is a myth that should have died with the Snackwells revolution in the 90's, and the idea that snacking throughout the day keeps your metabolism burning on high all day. Complete, absolute, total quack nonsense.

I think there is much more to it than we know. I don’t know how it works, but I ate 1200-1400 calories of meticulously tracked calories a day for years and couldn’t ever lose a pound. Started working with a dietitian who slowly upped me to 1800 calories and have lost and kept off 10 pounds in the last two years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another important note: be careful not to restrict calories too much. I cannot lose weight on 1300 calories a day. I need more like 1600 calories of high quality food, otherwise my body thinks it’s in starvation mode and holds onto everything.

Starvation mode is a myth. The reasons real most people “can’t lose on 1300 calories” is because they can’t stick with it long enough to get results. After a few days you are starving and overeat. Then you go back to 1300 cal and repeat the cycle. At higher calories you lose because you can stick to that more consistently, not feel deprived and stay in a consistent deficit which is the key to fat loss. But everyone thinks if they do a crash diet they will lose weight quickly not realizing they won’t really because they will perpetuate the overly restrict overeat cycle and keep spinning their wheels.

+1

This whole "starvation mode" idea is a myth that should have died with the Snackwells revolution in the 90's, and the idea that snacking throughout the day keeps your metabolism burning on high all day. Complete, absolute, total quack nonsense.

I think there is much more to it than we know. I don’t know how it works, but I ate 1200-1400 calories of meticulously tracked calories a day for years and couldn’t ever lose a pound. Started working with a dietitian who slowly upped me to 1800 calories and have lost and kept off 10 pounds in the last two years.

It was likely the quality of the calories you were eating. The fact that you were working with a dietician tells me you needed help understanding proper nutrition and which foods you should be eliminating from and adding to your diet.

[Anonymous]

CPT for almost 30 years. My Masters is in Exercise Science. Strength training will help you lose weight. More importantly, it increases bone density and helps prevent injury. Everyone should be doing some kind of strength training. Weight training increases muscle efficiency allowing you to burn more calories, even at rest. Your metabolic rate stays elevated after weight training. That helps with weight loss as well.

But, you still need cardio. You’ll burn more calories during cardio than weight training. This is why programs like circuit training and Tabata are so effective. They get your heart rate up and increase your muscle mass by mixing in strength training.

Remember, all the exercise in the world won’t make much difference if your diet is crap. Abs are made in the kitchen. You can spot train, but you cannot spot reduce. In order to see those amazing muscles, you’ll have to lose weight. You need a caloric deficit if you are overweight. Eating a variety of healthy foods in reasonable portions is key. Junk food should be a rare treat. Don’t buy into any of the fad diets. Don’t eliminate carbs. They are your first source of energy. And your body needs them. Just watch the portion sizes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cardio burns calories (and fat) yes, but the calorie burn stops as soon as the cardio activity stops so it's not the most effective fat burning tool. With strength training you're building muscle. Muscle burns more calories while at rest because muscle increases your metabolic rate which leads to increased fat loss. Your BMR is basically the number of calories your body needs to function. So if you combine the two, you'll have a great fat burning, weight loss regimen. This is done through HIIT -high intensity interval training.

Also important is calorie restriction. Don't expect to make great progress unless you restrict your calories. I'm not talking 1000 calories a day either, so no one come after me. You need to get online and find out how many calories you need to be consuming for your age, height, and sex.

+1

Exercise to get stronger and build/maintain muscle. Diet to lose weight.

If the scale is not moving you are eating to many calories.

Yes, I know. I'm tracking my food and netting about 1200 calories a day -- absolutely no sugar, alcohol, bread/rice/pasta.

Just wondering if weight training would help speed the weight loss process.

There’s no way you can expect to eat 1200 calories a day and lift weights. It’s unrealistic and not sustainable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cardio burns calories (and fat) yes, but the calorie burn stops as soon as the cardio activity stops so it's not the most effective fat burning tool. With strength training you're building muscle. Muscle burns more calories while at rest because muscle increases your metabolic rate which leads to increased fat loss. Your BMR is basically the number of calories your body needs to function. So if you combine the two, you'll have a great fat burning, weight loss regimen. This is done through HIIT -high intensity interval training.

Also important is calorie restriction. Don't expect to make great progress unless you restrict your calories. I'm not talking 1000 calories a day either, so no one come after me. You need to get online and find out how many calories you need to be consuming for your age, height, and sex.

+1

Exercise to get stronger and build/maintain muscle. Diet to lose weight.

If the scale is not moving you are eating to many calories.

Yes, I know. I'm tracking my food and netting about 1200 calories a day -- absolutely no sugar, alcohol, bread/rice/pasta.

Just wondering if weight training would help speed the weight loss process.

There’s no way you can expect to eat 1200 calories a day and lift weights. It’s unrealistic and not sustainable.

Untrue. You can absolutely lift weights on a 1200 calorie a day diet. You just need to eat a lot of protein, watch your sugar intake, stay hydrated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cardio burns calories (and fat) yes, but the calorie burn stops as soon as the cardio activity stops so it's not the most effective fat burning tool. With strength training you're building muscle. Muscle burns more calories while at rest because muscle increases your metabolic rate which leads to increased fat loss. Your BMR is basically the number of calories your body needs to function. So if you combine the two, you'll have a great fat burning, weight loss regimen. This is done through HIIT -high intensity interval training.

Also important is calorie restriction. Don't expect to make great progress unless you restrict your calories. I'm not talking 1000 calories a day either, so no one come after me. You need to get online and find out how many calories you need to be consuming for your age, height, and sex.

+1

Exercise to get stronger and build/maintain muscle. Diet to lose weight.

If the scale is not moving you are eating to many calories.

Yes, I know. I'm tracking my food and netting about 1200 calories a day -- absolutely no sugar, alcohol, bread/rice/pasta.

Just wondering if weight training would help speed the weight loss process.

There’s no way you can expect to eat 1200 calories a day and lift weights. It’s unrealistic and not sustainable.

Untrue. You can absolutely lift weights on a 1200 calorie a day diet. You just need to eat a lot of protein, watch your sugar intake, stay hydrated.

I’m the CPT PP. I would not train someone who was restricting to 1200 calories unless they were working with a doctor. Restriction like that without medical supervision is not safe or healthy. And it’s a huge red flag - It looks like disordered eating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another important note: be careful not to restrict calories too much. I cannot lose weight on 1300 calories a day. I need more like 1600 calories of high quality food, otherwise my body thinks it’s in starvation mode and holds onto everything.

Starvation mode is a myth. The reasons real most people “can’t lose on 1300 calories” is because they can’t stick with it long enough to get results. After a few days you are starving and overeat. Then you go back to 1300 cal and repeat the cycle. At higher calories you lose because you can stick to that more consistently, not feel deprived and stay in a consistent deficit which is the key to fat loss. But everyone thinks if they do a crash diet they will lose weight quickly not realizing they won’t really because they will perpetuate the overly restrict overeat cycle and keep spinning their wheels.

+1

This whole "starvation mode" idea is a myth that should have died with the Snackwells revolution in the 90's, and the idea that snacking throughout the day keeps your metabolism burning on high all day. Complete, absolute, total quack nonsense.

I think there is much more to it than we know. I don’t know how it works, but I ate 1200-1400 calories of meticulously tracked calories a day for years and couldn’t ever lose a pound. Started working with a dietitian who slowly upped me to 1800 calories and have lost and kept off 10 pounds in the last two years.

Really? You ate 1200-1400/day 365 days/year for years and didn't lose weight. I am calling BS on that. Unless you weigh 100 lbs there is no way you didn't lose weight. which means you were not really only eating 1200-1400 cal/day. Eating so few calories is pretty damn hard. Doing it for "years" is even more difficult.

I would bet you overly restricted for periods/enough time for it to feel really hard and like you were only eating 1200 cal but then overate at other times. This is the consistency piece of weight loss. Many people are not consistent. If you are 70% consistent in eating in a deficit then you will feel like you are working really hard to lose weight because 4-5 days a week you are, but then the other 2-3 days you undo what you did those other 5 days and stay in the cycle of not making progress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cardio burns calories (and fat) yes, but the calorie burn stops as soon as the cardio activity stops so it's not the most effective fat burning tool. With strength training you're building muscle. Muscle burns more calories while at rest because muscle increases your metabolic rate which leads to increased fat loss. Your BMR is basically the number of calories your body needs to function. So if you combine the two, you'll have a great fat burning, weight loss regimen. This is done through HIIT -high intensity interval training.

Also important is calorie restriction. Don't expect to make great progress unless you restrict your calories. I'm not talking 1000 calories a day either, so no one come after me. You need to get online and find out how many calories you need to be consuming for your age, height, and sex.

+1

Exercise to get stronger and build/maintain muscle. Diet to lose weight.

If the scale is not moving you are eating to many calories.

Yes, I know. I'm tracking my food and netting about 1200 calories a day -- absolutely no sugar, alcohol, bread/rice/pasta.

Just wondering if weight training would help speed the weight loss process.

There’s no way you can expect to eat 1200 calories a day and lift weights. It’s unrealistic and not sustainable.

Untrue. You can absolutely lift weights on a 1200 calorie a day diet. You just need to eat a lot of protein, watch your sugar intake, stay hydrated.

I’m the CPT PP. I would not train someone who was restricting to 1200 calories unless they were working with a doctor. Restriction like that without medical supervision is not safe or healthy. And it’s a huge red flag - It looks like disordered eating.

Really?

I skip breakfast. Yesterday for lunch I had a very big salad with a small portion of dressing, the salad included black beans, chicken, tomatoes. Then for dinner I had a sizable portion of chicken breast and a side of steamed vegetables. I also had a mid-day snack of 100 calorie yogurt, fruit, and a small portion of keto-friendly granola. That totaled about 1200 calories. The seems both safe and healthy if I'm trying to lose weight. I also did 30 minutes of Peloton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cardio burns calories (and fat) yes, but the calorie burn stops as soon as the cardio activity stops so it's not the most effective fat burning tool. With strength training you're building muscle. Muscle burns more calories while at rest because muscle increases your metabolic rate which leads to increased fat loss. Your BMR is basically the number of calories your body needs to function. So if you combine the two, you'll have a great fat burning, weight loss regimen. This is done through HIIT -high intensity interval training.

Also important is calorie restriction. Don't expect to make great progress unless you restrict your calories. I'm not talking 1000 calories a day either, so no one come after me. You need to get online and find out how many calories you need to be consuming for your age, height, and sex.

+1

Exercise to get stronger and build/maintain muscle. Diet to lose weight.

If the scale is not moving you are eating to many calories.

Yes, I know. I'm tracking my food and netting about 1200 calories a day -- absolutely no sugar, alcohol, bread/rice/pasta.

Just wondering if weight training would help speed the weight loss process.

There’s no way you can expect to eat 1200 calories a day and lift weights. It’s unrealistic and not sustainable.

Untrue. You can absolutely lift weights on a 1200 calorie a day diet. You just need to eat a lot of protein, watch your sugar intake, stay hydrated.

I’m the CPT PP. I would not train someone who was restricting to 1200 calories unless they were working with a doctor. Restriction like that without medical supervision is not safe or healthy. And it’s a huge red flag - It looks like disordered eating.

Registered dietitians tell people to eat at 1200 calories a day all the time. That's not under doctor supervision. I saw one last year and a 1200 calories a day diet is exactly what she said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cardio burns calories (and fat) yes, but the calorie burn stops as soon as the cardio activity stops so it's not the most effective fat burning tool. With strength training you're building muscle. Muscle burns more calories while at rest because muscle increases your metabolic rate which leads to increased fat loss. Your BMR is basically the number of calories your body needs to function. So if you combine the two, you'll have a great fat burning, weight loss regimen. This is done through HIIT -high intensity interval training.

Also important is calorie restriction. Don't expect to make great progress unless you restrict your calories. I'm not talking 1000 calories a day either, so no one come after me. You need to get online and find out how many calories you need to be consuming for your age, height, and sex.

+1

Exercise to get stronger and build/maintain muscle. Diet to lose weight.

If the scale is not moving you are eating to many calories.

Yes, I know. I'm tracking my food and netting about 1200 calories a day -- absolutely no sugar, alcohol, bread/rice/pasta.

Just wondering if weight training would help speed the weight loss process.

There’s no way you can expect to eat 1200 calories a day and lift weights. It’s unrealistic and not sustainable.

Untrue. You can absolutely lift weights on a 1200 calorie a day diet. You just need to eat a lot of protein, watch your sugar intake, stay hydrated.

I’m the CPT PP. I would not train someone who was restricting to 1200 calories unless they were working with a doctor. Restriction like that without medical supervision is not safe or healthy. And it’s a huge red flag - It looks like disordered eating.

Registered dietitians tell people to eat at 1200 calories a day all the time. That's not under doctor supervision. I saw one last year and a 1200 calories a day diet is exactly what she said.

I dunno I'm with her. I started lifting the last few month and I'm starving all the time. I don't count calories but I KNOW I'm not eating anything like 1200 calories a day. And when I don't eat enough these days I start seeing stars. I did a crap ton of cardio before and ate less and felt fine. There is something specific about the lifting where my body is CLEARLY requesting more fuel.

[Anonymous]

Throw away your scale. Don’t be obsessed with a number that tells absolutely nothing about your overall health.

Eat all things in moderation and eat only when you feel hungry, not when you’re bored. Move your body. Find a form of exercise you enjoy and can do every day, like walking.

How do your clothes fit? Too tight today - cut back on food. Feeling loose - go ahead and have dessert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CPT for almost 30 years. My Masters is in Exercise Science. Strength training will help you lose weight. More importantly, it increases bone density and helps prevent injury. Everyone should be doing some kind of strength training. Weight training increases muscle efficiency allowing you to burn more calories, even at rest. Your metabolic rate stays elevated after weight training. That helps with weight loss as well.

But, you still need cardio. You’ll burn more calories during cardio than weight training. This is why programs like circuit training and Tabata are so effective. They get your heart rate up and increase your muscle mass by mixing in strength training.

Remember, all the exercise in the world won’t make much difference if your diet is crap. Abs are made in the kitchen. You can spot train, but you cannot spot reduce. In order to see those amazing muscles, you’ll have to lose weight. You need a caloric deficit if you are overweight. Eating a variety of healthy foods in reasonable portions is key. Junk food should be a rare treat. Don’t buy into any of the fad diets. Don’t eliminate carbs. They are your first source of energy. And your body needs them. Just watch the portion sizes.

What are your thoughts on PP's claim, "Don’t ever use machines. They are the lazy person’s way. You gain strength from using core and other stabilizing motions needed when you do free weights"

Thanks!