Lose weight first then start lifting weights?
Basically I am a female is 100lbs overweight. I am 260lbs. I want to get down to at least 150lbs but I am trying to avoid loose skin. I don’t know if I should hit the gym and eat healthy with lifting weights first (because I’ve seen time and time again people get lots of loose skin from that) or if I should fast first and lose all the weight, then hit the gym and work on my body. I know fasting does not guarantee zero loose skin but from what I’ve seen it sure does help a fuck ton! I don’t know which method to use, which one do you think is best to avoid loose skin?
Your skin is already stretched out. How much it shrinks back will be determined by your genetics, how much weight you lose, how long your skin was stretched out, and age.
Some folks theorized that the rate of weight loss would affect the amount of loose skin, but scientifically that just didn’t pan out – one of those things that SOUNDS reasonable, but turns out not to be true. Mind you, there are lots of good reasons to gradually lose weight, the primary one in my opinion is making sure it is a lifestyle change and not a crash diet.
Some things may help: fasting to encourage autophagy, weight training to build muscle to fill the space (and I agree you should do BOTH from the start), etc – but even if you end up with loose skin, you’ll be better off than you are now, right? Excess skin can be removed or spanx’d, but the improvement on your health and life from the weight loss will shine through.
Best wishes on the journey!
Definitely start lifting weights (or any kind of resistance training that you find fun, such as calisthenics etc) from the get go.
Building muscle will help with fat loss, because it does increase your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) slightly meaning you burn more calories each day. Plus the act of exercising burns small amounts of calories too. There are also a lot of other benefits to resistance training such as helping to increase bone density which helps to avoid frailty as you age, to name but one advantage!
As for the kind of set/rep range etc. That will largely depend on the kind of fasting you do (OMAD/ADF/Extended Fasting/etc) and your ultimate goal with the resistance training. As a general rule, people will often cite things like 1-5 reps is for strength, 6-12 is for hypertrophy, and 15+ is endurance, but all of it will build muscle (hypertrophy) so unless you have very specific goals in mind that require specific training modalities, I wouldn’t worry too much. If your fast is under 48 hours long, personally I wouldn’t let the fact that I was fasting influence my training at all. If it was over 48 hours, then I would look to keep the intensity low but the volume high (aka lower weights but higher amounts of reps). To my knowledge there isn’t much (if any) science to back this line of thinking up, but it is more my hunch based on experience (I am a qualified Personal Training, and soon to be qualified Physiotherapist, but take everything I say with a pinch of salt, just like you should take what everyone else says with a pinch of salt; no one is perfect and we all have our biases even if we don’t realise it).
Loose skin is still not funny understood, as far as I am aware. And so I wouldn’t worry too much about that because it is impossible to say for sure if you will have any, and if you do how much or where. Best practice does seem to be to try and lose the weight as slowly as you can to allow your skin to adapt to the changes as you go. Skin is elastic, but it has its limits, and it does a better job when it only need to change small amounts at a time.
Start lifting weights. If you lose the weight first, you’ll end up with more loose skin. Lose the weight slowly. Don’t go too fast, don’t go to extremes. Get that mindset out, it won’t help you in the long run. Especially because some loose skin can take months or years to go away. What you need, is habits.
Reduce stress in your life. An absolute must, get quality sleep. Sleep is when your body does maintenance which is essential.
The muscles take up space and reduce the visibility of loose skin. They also sort of “push” the fat and distribute it better so even if you have some loose skin, they’ll help cover it.
When you lift weights, you cause stress to your body. Your body will try to repair the damage of the exercise. This is a good thing, it not only repairs but improves your body and your skin.
Eat protein to help your body repair itself better. Eat a good healthy diet with a variety of nutrients to help your body by giving it what it needs. Eat vegetables. Avoid alcohol, avoid smoking. Drink enough water, go for walks.
There are supplements that can help with loose skin such as collagen peptide. I’d also suggest creatine. Get some sunlight too, tanning can also reduce the visibility of loose skin(not that much sun that you burn yourself).
Fasting is a really good tool for loose skin, but it’s not the only one. There’s a lot of things you need to watch out for. I think the best part about fasting is that it resets your body.
You don’t become fat in a day, so don’t expect to lose all the extra weight in a day.
I lost 80lb. You’d have to focus on my lower stomach to see the loose skin.
If the goal is weight loss, you could do this.
Aim for no more than a loss of 1% body weight per week, and this should help you avoid the skin flab.
This will burn fat, improve cardiovascular health and get your body and mind used to lifting for when you hit a goal weight and can then move to a maintenance or slightly above maintenance diet and more strength training. I’d say this is a good plan if you your 1st desire is a fitter and “hotter” look.
It goes without saying that this is my opinion, and there are many ways to approach your goals. Best wishes.
Losing weight while putting on muscle is very challenging and you’ll be fighting cravings more than if you simply lost weight first
Unfortunately I don’t know anything about the loose skin issue. Maybe someone else does
Loose skin is entirely based on how quickly fat is lost, leaving less space to cause resistance on the skin to stretch. You can leave less space by building muscle, while losing fat as quickly as you’d like. Even if you do get loose skin, it will eventually adapt to your new size just the same as only losing the fat (though your skin will indeed be more firm with muscle, as there is more mass below the skin). Your body is simply adapting, and your answer depends on how quickly you force your skin to adapt, and muscle can help that. Good luck :)
Depends on your goals but lifting as soon as you can helps to keep around your lean muscle as you diet, also important on days you are eating to eat at least .7-1g of protein per pound of body weight to boot.
Do it all simultaneously, that’s what I did and haven’t had any issues with skin. I also incorporate cardio most days and try to walk 10k steps when possible. You will drop weight quickly if you do all those things and make sure you’re eating Whole Foods only.
I worked out fasted (cardio/weights) and it worked very well for me in losing fat. It wasn’t until I was at a desired % of body fat that made me eat in a surplus to start growing muscle mass. Everyone’s body is a little different but I dont think anyone should avoid weight training. Good luck and have fun while you do it!
I don’t think it makes that much of a difference in the end, but I’d recommend exercising from the start. The most important thing for skin is to do extended fasting, not just short daily 16:8 or whatever. Lifting during the weight loss process is hard because it can make you hungrier, but you don’t have to do it too intensely, especially in the beginning. You’re already carrying 100 pounds of extra weight, so just moving your body is actually a lot of exercise. The benefit is potentially faster fat burn and also nothing feels better than seeing fat go away to reveal a nicer shape from muscles underneath.
when I was at my highest weight (220 5’9) I got so sick of it and I also got super busy with school that I basically did omad for a few months and dropped 45 pounds. Then intermittently I would go to the gym for a month get burned out, and then start fasting again or eating less. Now I’m down to 135.
Now I’m finally starting to go to the gym regularly. I don’t have a lot of loose skin, I have enough that I am getting Morpheus8 treatments, but it’s not sagging skin or loose skin like you see, and would recognize in photos. like literally I’m the only one who notices it lol. So fasting to lose the bulk of the weight and then going to the gym to weight lift is what worked for me. I also have a collagen mutation (EDS) so for me to not have the sagging, loose skin that you see on people with similar loss is actually insane. I am also big on my vitamins and hydration so as long as you got that down, I think that that is the way to go from my personal experience!
I’ve never really been overweight but I have cycled through phases of doing different exercise, including plenty of lifting weights at one point. I would think really light cardio might be a more natural place to start, starting with walking or riding a stationary bike. Lifting is ok too but light cardio builds up a different functional capacity, and is good for pushing metabolism. A little would go a long way while not eating though; muscle repair recovery might be impacted.
Walking is underrated; it takes time but it’s fine for activity. Yoga is better than it sounds, great for increasing flexibility and building functional muscle, but some yoga styles and class environments might not feel like a good fit.