Advice on Weight Lifting

I am a 32 year old female with about 50 more pounds to lose (already lost 25). My exercise of choice has always been weight lifting, benching and squats of 90 pounds (arm curls only around 30). But when i lift, my weight goes through the roof because of the extra muscle i'm gaining. And of course there's this layer of fat over the muscles so it looks like more fat than muscle.

Any ideas of workouts to keep lifting and building muscle, but also tone and melt that yucky fat away?

Thanks for your tips!

Disclaimer: I reserve the right to mispell, bring up old threads, change my mind, change my underwear, and enjoy alcohol....so please no personal attacks for it!

Fri. Sep 21, 10:04am

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Wow! I think I've been waiting for this post my whole life, lol.

First, congrats on your loss AND your approach. I've been doing the same thing for the past year and feel that not only is it healthy and effective, but lifting heavy weights makes me feel awesome, sexy, and has given my body a great new shape.

Okay. So, when I realized that my muscles were great but obscured by fat, I realized that what I needed was an effective fat burning plan that did not waste my muscles away. After some research and the reading of several female weight lifter fitnessy blogs, I ended up with the Turbulence Training program by Craig Ballentyne. Okay, so I paid $70 bucks or so for the full manual set, but only after trying the free sample program first and feeling that 1) I liked it, 2) felt the approach was smart, and 3) that it could work for me. I've posted the link to the free trial below. It is a pdf file.

ALso, for info on others who are using a similar approach and have had success, try the following:
www.sqwigg.com
www.maggiewang.com
www.turbulencetraining.com

So, I'm about to finish the first month of the beginner program from the manual that I paid for. I'm gonna move to intermediate next month, figure something else from the manual out for the rest of the year, then go back to my weightlifting program in the spring. Then in late spring I'll work again on fat loss for the summer. I came up with this plan last night while on my run, so it is still in progress. fyi. I have seen slow, but consistent changes in my body, and have received more comments this past month on my weight loss than in the 4 months previous. Though from what I've read, most of the real dramatic changes with TT happen at the 8 week mark or so. I'm looking forward to them.

Part of the process is also modifying your eating habits, which I am doing slowly. I eat clean and whole foods in general, but like good food and cocktails. This doesn't help with fat loss, but I'm sure I can figure out a way to find a good personal balance.

Okay, so, if you have any questions, I'm dawfit and my log is public. If you are serious about this OP, I'd love to chat more or even get a group going with you.

Dawfit

Link

Friday, September 21, 2007, 11:23 AM

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I absolutely want to talk with you. NO female I know likes to lift weights, but I have a very large musculoskelital system and why not take advantage of it and built those muscles the way I want to look!

are you on a team that i can join to chat with you?

Friday, September 21, 2007, 11:35 AM

Great! I just started a public team called Lifting Ladies. Please sign up and we can talk more about this. If others join, great. If not, that is okay too.

dawfit

Friday, September 21, 2007, 11:46 AM

OP - love your disclaimer :)

Weight lifting is what I do 75% of the time - it's definitely my preferred workout. Since you've got your workouts down, I say pay more attention to your diet. I like the pps comment about eating more whole foods - it's hard to go wrong with whole grains (although, they can be very high in calories - just watch out!), fruits, vegetables, etc. I think calorie awarenes is important, just b/c it's so easy (for me) to overeat if I don't keep track, but I'm down to my goal weight so I have very little wiggle room. Not everyone agrees, though. And if you're losing weight w/o having to keep track of calories - more power to you! Just keep it in the back of your mind if you're eating well, but not losing.

Hope you hook up with a good group - it makes a difference! :)

Friday, September 21, 2007, 2:06 PM

Speaking from experience as someone who used to heavily weight train and now is more into endurance sports, I found if you really wanna see that definition, especially as a woman, you are just going to have to introduce more cardio. It was not until I really stepped up the cardio in combo with the diet, did I get to see the muscles under there! Diet is essential, but if the fat is already there dieting will only go so far. Cardio is necessary to get rid of the excess first. Once the excess body fat is off diet keeps it off.

For all of those who want to argue, this is purely from my experience and I'm not saying it is universally true.

Friday, September 21, 2007, 4:02 PM

I don't want to argue 4:02 - I don't understand the logic - fat is lost by using up more calories than you burn - so if you eat less then you use - you'll lose the fat. I actually cut way down on cardio to do more resistance training - nothing crazy hitting the weights 30 minutes 4x a week - with a 15 minute cardio warm up. I also watched my diet very closely - lost 20 pounds in about 3 months. One didn't have to come before the other.

Friday, September 21, 2007, 4:25 PM

Hi, This is 4:02. Like I said, this was my experience and thereby implied it wasn't universally true, but to defend the "logic" of my explanation I think people need to think beyond simple weight loss sitiuations and theories.

So yeah, in theory you lose fat by burning more calories than you consume. It works and holds true most of the time. But like any theory, the underlying assumptions must be maintained for the theory to hold. In dynamic systems like our bodies, conditions are constantly changing and that makes it so theories doesn't always work as expected. What also makes this particular situation different is two fold. First, normally when people talk about weight loss and strength training, it is to get people to add strength training into their exercise regime that probably previously was more cardio. This means they need to build musccle to burn the fat. When you come from the other direction, more strength training than cardio it's kinda different. You've already built that muscle, so it's already burning off excess fat and calories for you. For the remaining fat, it helps to work on it differently. This brings up the second difference in this situation that makes it not necessarily fit within the conditions of that theory. Muscle will burn fat for you but when you get close to your ideal body fat composition and then below that if you want to show definition, you are taking your body into places it doesn't want to go; that changes how it reacts, and one must adjust. That adjustment is different for everyone and it's about finding the right balance. That's why I said this is just my experince. I also know people who have done it in the more traditional manner and in even more different ways. Part of why fitness and weight loss is so hard is because different workouts work differently on everyone; it is about finding what works for you.

Friday, September 21, 2007, 5:27 PM

I've been using the treadmill at the and only recenlty started the weight machines. I can't figure them out. I feel like I am always hurting myself during it. Afterwards I don't feel the "burn" I hope to feel. I don't have the $50 for a personal trainer to help me at the gym./ Any suggestions? Should I use the free weights instead?

Friday, September 21, 2007, 11:26 PM

11:26, I would highly recommend that you peruse the following website. Every thing you need to know about free weights and more. There is a ton of information at this website.

Link

Friday, September 21, 2007, 11:58 PM

WOW! That link is amazing! Thank you for sharing!!!

Monday, September 24, 2007, 11:16 AM

Thanks everyone for your advice! Lots of it.

And i'm glad you enjoyed my disclaimer ;)

Monday, September 24, 2007, 11:31 AM

If you belong to a gym, you can always ask someone who works there (a trainer, someone behind the desk, etc.) the proper way to use a specific machine. It doesn't have to be during a $50 Personal Training session. Of course, you'll have to select the machine that you want to learn about, but if you do that a few times, you should be able to use the machines no problem. It's different than a personal training session, b/c in a pt session, the trainer is developing a routine for you to use, geared towards your abilities and goals. Proper machine usage instructions will be included with your membership, b/c if they don't show you, and you do it improperly and hurt yourself, the gym will be liable.

Don't be afraid to ask for help!

Monday, September 24, 2007, 3:56 PM

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