Weight lifting REQUIRED for weight loss? (vegetables, doctors, stomach, carbs)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm an 18 year old male who weighs 168 lbs at 5"10.5'. My weight makes me sound fairly fit (I'm about 17-18% body fat), however, since dropping from 186 in the last 2 months, not many people have told me I look much skinnier, and frankly, I have a long way to go.
My guess is I'd look good at 155-150 pounds.
Anyway, my method has been eating somewhere from 1500-1700 calories a days and doing cardio 3 times a week. This has worked really well so far, but recently people have been telling me I should eat more ( I eat 1550 most days).
I'm ok with eating less, but people (people being fitness trainer at local gym and my dad, who is an athlete of sorts) are also telling me that cardio is useless and I should do weight lifting. Well, as an artist, I don't get a lot of time to exercise and I never have enough energy for weight lifting, so I'd rather stick to cardio. I know it might be more beneficial, but I really can't do it.
Anyway, people have demotivated me from doing cardio and eating less so now I feel like eating more and exercising, so what do you recommend?
My recommendation would be to not worry much about calories but to cut down a lot on carbs... both sugar and grains. Eat lots of protein and lots of vegetables but go very easy on fruits.
And people are giving you good advice about cardio. Studies have shown that weight training is much more helpful than cardio when you're trying to lose weight. Cardio certainly has benefits but it doesn't particularly help with weight loss. I would ditch the cardio and switch to weight training (or keep some cardio if you have time and it makes you feel good, but add in weight training).
First of all, it's great that you're doing something to get your health back on track and at such a young age. To answer your question up front, weight lifting isn't required for weight loss. However, weightlifting is a great way to lose fat. There's a huge difference which I'll get into some more in a bit.
Also, while 150lbs is still in the range of "normal" for being 5'10''/5'11'', you can see two guys at 5'8'' 150lbs :
As I said, both are 5'8'' and look pretty good at 150. 3 more inches on them at that weight would like skinny. What you need to look at is your body fat percentage again; are you sure that's what it is? If so, that's still high and prioritizing fat loss over weight loss is how you look good. You could weigh 168lbs at 10% body fat and look like a completely different person.
Unfortunately, the trainer and your dad are right. Yes, you can absolutely lose weight by doing cardio and eating well. However, it's not the most effective, most efficient or long term way to do so. Most people I work with did cardio in the their teens and twenties and are finding it difficult to keep the weight off as they progress into their thirties and beyond. That is for the simple reason that their body doesn't have much muscle mass, so it stops burning as many calories and then weight gain starts becoming a real problem. Cardio is fantastic for all sorts of reasons: heart rate, blood sugar, blood pressure, etc. It is, however, terrible for fat loss.
When we do cardio, we lose weight. However, the big question is "how much of that weight was fat and how much was muscle?" If we lose 10lbs, but lose 5lbs of muscle with that 10lbs, we look exactly the same as we did 10lbs heavier, but just as a slightly smaller version of ourselves. To achieve the "toned" or "ripped" look, we have to lose fat while preserving or increasing our muscle mass.
Cardio alone burns both fat and muscle so we always look soft if that's all we do. This is exactly why people haven't mentioned anything about your weight; you look pretty much the same, just a little smaller.
The best metaphor is we want our body to be like a muscle car vs a prius. Muscle cars burn lots of gas and really waste a lot of energy. Muscles in our body do the same thing.
You should be eating 2000-2500 calories a day. Cutting your calories back and increasing your activity levels always works great at first because some change is always going to cause a change to your body. However, eating filling, whole and nutritious foods means your body get's what it needs. More importantly, it get's what it needs while keeping your body healthy, energetic and, even better, you still lose weight. 2000 calories of lean beef, spinach and quinoa is much different than 1500 calories of pb&j and cereal (not to say that's what you're eating). You'll see much better results with eating more food at a high quality.
Lastly, you say you have no time or energy for weight training...but you have time and energy for cardio? I feel something else is at play here be it fear of looking weak or foolish, fear of bulking up, a simple unwillingness to commit to it or whatever it might be. You should look within yourself to see what the real reason behind your hesitancy is.
Also, weight training could also be bodyweight stuff, which might fit you better.
I personally believe one needs a bit of both. But a good, condensed weight training session using compound exercises can literally blast your fat. When I was a young woman, I kept my weight down solely through running, and eating small portions. Today I am in my 60s, and I do only small amounts of cardio (leisurely biking and belly dancing) but do kettlebell workouts at the gym, and OMG, the fat is melting off. I really don't have much weight to lose, one of my doctors already called me "skinny" the other day (as in he says I don't have much body fat) At my age the only place I have fat left is on my stomach and I am sure that will eventually disappear (but I don't want to lose too much weight, just keep building muscle)
Right now you are young, but keep the muscle up, that is way more important. Do small amounts of cardio - even a daily 30 minute walk is enough for that. Pick up some dumbbells or kettlebells or even do some old-fashioned body-weight exercises. It does a body good!
I think your eating habit is more important. Take a proper amount of calories and eat more fresh vegetables and fruits. Exercise is also equally important for the fit body. You can do any exercise according to your body type and which gives good results.
I'm an 18 year old male who weighs 168 lbs at 5"10.5'. My weight makes me sound fairly fit (I'm about 17-18% body fat), however, since dropping from 186 in the last 2 months, not many people have told me I look much skinnier, and frankly, I have a long way to go.
My guess is I'd look good at 155-150 pounds.
Anyway, my method has been eating somewhere from 1500-1700 calories a days and doing cardio 3 times a week. This has worked really well so far, but recently people have been telling me I should eat more ( I eat 1550 most days).
I'm ok with eating less, but people (people being fitness trainer at local gym and my dad, who is an athlete of sorts) are also telling me that cardio is useless and I should do weight lifting. Well, as an artist, I don't get a lot of time to exercise and I never have enough energy for weight lifting, so I'd rather stick to cardio. I know it might be more beneficial, but I really can't do it.
Anyway, people have demotivated me from doing cardio and eating less so now I feel like eating more and exercising, so what do you recommend?
Cardio isn't useless, but weight lifting will get you better returns. You mentioned that time is an issue, but you might be surprised how little time weightlifting actually takes. They've probably told you this already, but if you stick to "compound" exercises, you don't need to do that many. You could get by with only:
Bench press
Pull ups/pull downs
Squats
Deadlifts
And you could knock them all out before you'd be done with a 30 minute session on an elliptical or whatever.
Re: eating. I don't know you, and I'm just some guy on the Internet....but I think you're not eating enough. As a young guy with a healthy metabolism, at your weight, I'd think you should be eating closer to 1800-2000 calories. As you said, 17-18% bf is reasonably healthy, and 168 on a 5'10.5" frame is a little small imo. You'd be a skeleton at 150-155.
If I were you (which just means this is what I would do in your shoes, not necessarily saying you should), I'd start eating like 2250/day and trying to put on muscle. Then, when I got closer to 190-200 pounds, start a cutting diet of more like 1600-1800/day, low-carb, high protein, and get back down to like 180. You'd look really good at 5'10.5, 180 pounds at like 13-15% bf.
My recommendation would be to not worry much about calories but to cut down a lot on carbs... both sugar and grains. Eat lots of protein and lots of vegetables but go very easy on fruits.
And people are giving you good advice about cardio. Studies have shown that weight training is much more helpful than cardio when you're trying to lose weight. Cardio certainly has benefits but it doesn't particularly help with weight loss. I would ditch the cardio and switch to weight training (or keep some cardio if you have time and it makes you feel good, but add in weight training).
It depends on how you want your body to look. I don't know if you want to be muscular or "toned" at all, but that's usually why men do weightlifting. Weight lifting helps more than cardio in that you will be boosting your metabolism in such a way that you will be burning more calories even during the times you don't exercise, which won't happen with cardio. If you can't get yourself motivated to do weight lifting, though, it will be a lost cause because you won't stick to it.
Also, a young man of your age could definitely do with more calories, as long as they are less carbs and more protein. It is easier at your age to keep the weight off than it will be when you hit your thirties (as someone else on this thread already mentioned) so keep in mind what you will want to do in your future for your optimum body as well as what you're willing to do right now.
From an experienced point of view,both. I was lifting regularly,but that dont shred you up unless you cut calories. I cut calories according to my BMR,started doing HIIT(High intensity interval training) ,both in the gym and cardio.Maybe 15-20 HIIT cardio and 40 Min HIIT weightlifting.I shredded up,abs starting popping out.Your looking for the ab look right?
If your just startting out in a fat loss regimens,start cutting calories first with 45 min of cardio,and weights. Once your body starts to adapt,start the HIIT. Add a thermogenic,some egcg,cayenne pepper. If you wan more advice just ask. I actually thought about being a personal trainer,maybe I can start here.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
