But just keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat.
No, sorry. This is a common misconception but muscle does not weigh more than fat. Fat takes up a great deal more space than muscle, but a pound of one is a pound of the other.
I can't post links as I am still new, but I found a great article about this topic on MSN Health. I have copied an interesting tidbit below:
Why Doesn’t Exercise Always Affect Body Weight?
If someone is working out and not losing weight, or not losing as much as they want—or if they’re actually gaining weight—the first place to look is the type and amount of exercise.
Weight loss boils down to burning more calories than you normally use in a day. Cardio exercise burns more calories than muscle-toning or the average resistance-training workout. So dialing down the stretching and core work to just once or twice a week, and replacing it with more cardio should produce more weight loss. And the more minutes the better when it comes to weight loss: An hour to 90 minutes of aerobic activity per day on most days of the week will affect body weight.
Some people get overly obsessed about numbers on the scale. If you are happy with the way you look and feel, and you feel like you are improving your fitness and strength, then continue doing what you are doing. Exercise works, and every minute of movement helps your health in some way. Weight loss through working out may be slower than you want, but it’s likely to be longer term solution and a healthier way to trim down and shape up, or at the very least to stave off weight gain over the years.
"No, sorry. This is a common misconception but muscle does not weigh more than fat. Fat takes up a great deal more space than muscle, but a pound of one is a pound of the other."
I think that when most people say "Muscle weighs more than fat," it's just a short cut for "A given volume of muscle weighs more than the same volume of fat," rather than a misconception. I guess it would be even terser to just say "Muscle is denser than fat," but folks are usually talking about weight.
To the strength training ladies reading this thread... do you work out at home or go to a gym? I have a few dumbells but I have not been able to stick with using them at home.
I'd really like to know what strength training exercises you guys do. I have posted in the exercise forum, but I feel like a bit of a newbie in there and am not really sure what anyone is talking about a lot of the time.
I tend to do squats and lunges with a weighted bar across my shoulders. Dead-weight lifts, although they never seem to feel like they're doing anything.
And then for my arms I basically have no idea what to do other than lifting the weights to my shoulders by bending my elbows.
Is this what everyone else is doing? If there are some strength exercises that would boost my workout I'd love to know them. I never come away from strength training feeling like I've achieved much.
Last edited by dayoneagain; 05-05-2010 at 05:13 AM.
Re "muscle weighing more than fat" ... it's true that muscle is denser than fat, so an equal volume of fat and muscle have different weights, just like feathers and lead.
The problem is that people like to say that the scale goes up when someone starts to exercise because "muscle weighs more than fat". They're not talking about volume or density when they make that statement. No, what they're trying to do is make sense out of a scale increase by saying that muscle has some magical power that makes it heavier than fat or water or any of the other things that cause a scale increase. And it doesn't.
If you add a pound of muscle (yay!), then the scale goes up a pound. Not two pounds or five pounds. If you lose a pound of fat, the scale goes down a pound. If you retain a pound of water, the scale goes up a pound. If you have a big water dump, the scale goes down. The scale measures pounds of weight, not density, so as far as the scale is concerned -- a pound is a pound is a pound. The density of muscle doesn't have anything to do with what the scale says.
However, the density of muscle does mean that someone will be several sizes smaller and much tighter if they have a high muscle mass. And that's a very good thing!
But please don't worry about that muscle is somehow heavier than fat! If you add a pound of muscle, the scale will only go up a pound -- no more, I promise! And since that pound of muscle is going to increase your metabolic rate, you'll end up seeing the fat disappear faster.
I'd really like to know what strength training exercises you guys do. I have posted in the exercise forum, but I feel like a bit of a newbie in there and am not really sure what anyone is talking about a lot of the time.
I tend to do squats and lunges with a weighted bar across my shoulders. Dead-weight lifts, although they never seem to feel like they're doing anything.
And then for my arms I basically have no idea what to do other than lifting the weights to my shoulders by bending my elbows.
Is this what everyone else is doing? If there are some strength exercises that would boost my workout I'd love to know them. I never come away from strength training feeling like I've achieved much.
Do you have an exercise ball? I love to use a ball as my weight bench. If you have one, you can lay your head/neck on the ball, supporting yourself with the legs. Just doing this works the legs.
Then take the dumb bells, hold them up toward the ceiling so that the ends of the dumbbells face each other (palms facing up/forward) and lower to the chest and up again to the ceiling 10 times.
Next set, turn the palms inward facing each other and press out to the sides (fly) 10 times.
Next bring the dumbbells together (palms still facing each other) and press back up to the ceiling 10 times.
I do three sets of this combination and I feel it!
You can also do pelvic lifts at the same time if you so desire.
Squats can be done with the ball also.
Another favorite ball exercise of mine is to do leg lifts. Lay on your back with the ball between your feet and with straight legs, lift the ball to the ceiling. It works the thighs a little as you squeeze the ball and the abs ALOT. Also hold the ball up toward the ceiling and then lower it just a little. Envision kicking the heels into the a corner of the wall, concentrating on the heels, not the toes. It's a harder move. Do ten of those and then hold the ball out to that corner of the ceiling for as long as you can with straight legs.
For triceps, grab a bench or chair. Standing on the floor, lean forward resting the left hand on the chair/bench for support. Hold a dumbbell in the right hand and bring the elbow up and back.
Push ups are awesome.
Planks are great!! For a plank, position yourself like a pushup but instead of being on your hands, lower yourself to rest on your forearms and elbows. Hold this as long as you can. 60 seconds is a terrific. Increase your time as you improve.
Eliana,
Thanks for answering dayoneagain's question, especially as I have the same question. I work with resistance bands and a stretchy band. I want to do more but I am just lost. Tonight I am going to try the exercises you describe.
What size weights do you use? I have wondered if my 5 and 8 pound weights are enough. Should I be working up to 25 or 50 pound weights?
Lastly, can anyone recommend a DVD? I am such a visual person that working along with a DVD really helps me.
Cheryl, I think lighter weights are fine with higher reps. You may not feel the first ten, but I bet you'll feel the third set of ten. I'm up to 12 pounds and feel like that's pretty darn good. I mess with the reps for instance:
Set 1: 10 reps
Set 2: 12 reps
Set 3: 15 reps
OR
Set 1: 20 reps
Set 2: 17 reps
Set 3: 15 reps
OR
Set 1: 8 lbs 10 reps
Set 2: 10 lbs 10 reps
Set 3: 12 lbs 10 reps
OR
Set 1: 12 lbs 20 reps
Set 2: 10 lbs 17 reps
Set 3: 8 lbs 15 reps
I'm not a big DVD person, but I'm sure there are some out there. I know there are some folks who swear by them. I'm not knocking them, I just like flexibility and the ability to change things up.
I can't recommend strength training highly enough, but expect a slow down. I tend to lose big one week per month and stall the rest. BUT, I get comments all the time on how much smaller I look, just from week to the next.
This. Strength training is awesome for you. But you have to take a longer-term view than many of us are used to. When you add strength training to your regimen you can't use week-to-week numbers on the scale as a guide of how it's helping you. Use month-to-month numbers instead, or even more than that how your body looks and feels in your clothes.
It won't "cause you to gain weight" in any meaningful way - you aren't going to bulk up like Ahnold or come out looking like a 'roid-amped bodybuilder, that's just not physically possible.
But it will cause you to retain fluid as your muscles adjust to the extra load - and you may be surprised by how much fluid weight you retain. When I am training hard my fluid swings can be as much as 4 pounds. I prepare for this and know I will see it the day after I work out so it simply does not faze me. I weigh every day to get a sense of my body's patterns, but it's really only the progress over the course of a month or more that makes a difference to me.
It will also, as others have mentioned, make you hungry. Don't be frightened of this - if you're hungry, eat. Eat protein. It will take a couple of weeks for your body to adjust to the new training. But a few weeks of eating at maintenance level of calories is totally, totally worth the benefits of strength training.
I work out at home although I initially started in a gym. I recommend "The New Rules of Lifting for Women" although I'm thinking I'm going to start focusing on Crossfit Workouts of the Day (WOD). http://www.crossfit.com/
That is what I did this morning, which was this workout. My last set I used 2 25 lb dumbbells.
Five rounds of:
5 Dumbbell deadlifts
5 Dumbbell hang cleans
5 Dumbbell push presses
5 Dumbbell squats
Increase the load each round. Rest as necessary between rounds.
I second what Nelie says about The New Rules of Lifting for Women, it's a great book with tons of exercises in it and a great program to follow. Most of the exercises are highly modifiable.
I am also soon to receive from Amazon The Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove (a trainer who is the wife and business partner of Alwyn Cosgrove, who wrote the workouts for NROLW) which is supposed to have 16 weeks of workouts which includes resistance band work. So I don't know how the book is yet, but I'm expecting good things from it.
I really love bodyweight exercises like squats and pushups. Most bodyweight exercises can be modified to make them harder, or you can add weights. At some point I want to get a pullup bar for home so that I can work on those, too. When you are just starting out, bodyweight exercises are plenty challenging enough. And, they can really make a difference in your strength and functioning, within just a month of regular training.
i also recommend NROLFW-- great intro to lifting. You can also do the original NROL.
Google Full Body Strngth training routines for fat loss./ It will give you lots of ideas for exercises.
ANd stop worrying about the scale. Muscle mass/lean body mass makes all the difference.
I am 5 4 and tipping the scales at 133-137, BUT i wear a size 2 and xtra small in clothing, because i have so much lean mass and so little fat..... it is DEFINITELY possible to get into a size 8 long beofre you reach your scale "goal weight"
I am 5 4 and tipping the scales at 133-137, BUT i wear a size 2 and xtra small in clothing, because i have so much lean mass and so little fat..... it is DEFINITELY possible to get into a size 8 long beofre you reach your scale "goal weight"
This is SO going to be me!! I have of late been setting my goal to get to a size 6 rather than my original goal of 135 pounds because I just keep dropping inches without the pounds. I was assuming I'd be a size 8 at 135 pounds, but the way it's going, I don't think that's quite how it's going to level out. Time will tell. And I have all the time in the world!
I need a cheerleader saying "Yay"!
