Weight training for beginners can be a very confusing time. There is so much information on the internet, what should you focus on? There’s so many exercises out there! We’ll talk about that and much more! 

My sister just made brownies and I ate a bunch of them, but they were so good! I can’t help myself. Oh well, I’ll get it together tomorrow. Other than that, I have been on point with my meals for today.

Alrighty, enough about my food addiction. I’m trying so hard not to go to the kitchen and get more brownies lol.

Here are some commonly searched things, “weight training for beginners female”, “beginner weight lifting routine”, “weight lifting for beginners male” or “best weight training for beginners”.

For starters, there is no ideal workout routine. There are exercises better than others, but it’s also about what you enjoy and are able to do. Also, men and women can do the same exercises. If you’re a women, you won’t look like a man from lifting weights, unless you decide to take drugs.

What about which weight lifting exercises should you do? How much do you need to eat lose fat or gain weight? How much weight training should I do? We’ll be answering these questions in this post!

Most Important Tips For Weight Training For Beginners

This post is going to a combination of a lot of my past posts. If you’re new to the website, it’ll be a great read. If you’re not, it’ll still be a great refresher and you should pick up more details.

1. How Many Calories Should You Eat?

You saw that right, bucko, we’ll be starting off by talking about diet. I start off talking about this in so many of my posts #sorry #notsorry. If you’re trying to gain weight, you’ll need to eat a surplus of calories. If you’re trying to lose fat, you’ll need to eat in a deficit of calories.

You can’t just randomly decide how many calories you’ll be eating, you’ll first need to figure out what your maintenance calories are and then adjust them according to your goals.

Here is a list of a few websites I’ve used to get an idea of what my maintenance calories might be:

• https://www.muscleandstrength.com/tools/bmr-calculator
• https://www.bmrcalculator.org/
• https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html?ctype=standard&cage=29&csex=m&cheightfeet=5&cheightinch=10.5&cpound=195&cheightmeter=180&ckg=60&cmop=0&coutunit=c&cformula=m&cfatpct=20&x=84&y=27

I took the average of the values I got from these websites and then subtracted 500 as it seemed too high. My goal was usually to lose weight and it took my body THREE TO FOUR WEEKS, yes, read that gain, to start losing weight even on a deficit initially. So don’t just keep decreasing your calories like crazy, be patient and see what happens.

That was for when you initially start. Now let’s move onto when you’ve started to lose weight and are into the diet.

If stop losing weight or start gaining weight, decrease your calories by about 200 calories and see what happens over the next week or two. Keep decreasing your calories as needed.

The goal should be to lose 0.5% to 1% of your body weight per week. So, for something starting off weighing 200 pounds, that would be 1-2 pounds a week. The slower you go, the easier it is. That just means the more you can eat.

If you’re losing more than this a week, consider increasing your calories by 100-200.

Your body is smart, as you decrease your calories, your metabolism can decrease so your body needs less calories. Don’t be over restrictive right away, take your time.

If your goal is to gain weight, also gain the weight slowly if possible. Don’t just start eating an arbitrary number of calories per day. I did that and gained 30 pounds (lbs) in a matter of 3 months, most of it being fat. Be methodical.

Though, if you’re completely new to weightlifting, you can gain muscle by being a caloric deficit because weightlifting is completely new to your body.

2. What Should I Eat?1,2

I don’t like restricting myself from anything, I eat whatever I want as long it fits my calories. I just make sure to get at least 1 gram (g)/lb of body weight in protein. The goal is to maintain or grow as much muscle as possible.

I don’t cut carbs of fats. I’ve lost weight eating both. IT’S ALL ABOUT CALORIES IN AND CALORIES OUT.

The caveat here is, different macronutrients do burn different amounts of calories while being digested. 20-30% of the calories of the protein you consume is used to digest it. It’s only at 5-10% for carbohydrates (carbs) and 3% of less for fats.

So consuming more protein, could help you lose more weight over carbs and fats.

Need an example diet? I go through my exact diet in my article, Fat Loss Diet Example to Lose Fat Mindlessly: Current Diet and Training Regimen 2023. It also contains a list of weight lifting exercises that I’m doing at the time of writing this article. It’s ALL COMPLETELY FREE.

3. How Do I Track What I’m Eating?

Track your meals. In my article, 4 Must Have Fitness Equipment/Tools That Will Make it Much Easier To Lose Stubborn Fat, I go over the food scale and app I use to track my calories. Yes, that’s a bit tedious and requires effort. Being overweight or underweight is hard too, choose your hard (I’m not talking about choose between being underweight or overweight, I mean either of those or tracking your food, sheesh).

Don’t just use random teaspoon, tablespoon or cup measurements. You might be eating more than you think. Also, track any oils you use. Those calories don’t just magically disappear, unfortunately.

4. Weight Training For Beginners – How Many Days A Week Do I Need To Workout?

Finally into actually weight training for beginners. You definitely don’t have to workout 3 hours a day and 7 days a week. You can even weightlift 2-3 times a week if you’re that busy. It’s what is also recommended for beginners.

It’s recommended to workout each body part at least twice a week. You can do a full body workout 2-3 times a week. Don’t workout two days in a row if you’re doing this. My article, Weightlifting, contains yet another COMPLETELY FREE workout regimen. This time, it’s a full body routine.

You can also elect to do a upper and lower body split. This is where you workout your upper body twice per week and lower body twice per week.

You can do legs/push/pull each twice a week. This is what’s included in that weight training regimen:

1. Legs: Workout your legs. I do biceps on this day too
2. Push: Chest, shoulders and triceps
3. Pull: Back

This weight training routine is recommended more for advanced weightlifters.

A good rule is to get at anywhere between 10-20 sets of exercises for each muscles group per week.

5.Weight Training For Beginners – What Exercises Should I Do?

I linked two entire workouts in previous sections, so you can take a look at those. If you’re just super short on time and want exercises to really focus on, focus on compound exercises. These are some of the best weight training exercises for beginners, or anyone really.  I always start my workouts with compound exercises.

Compound exercises are exercises that workout multiple muscles at the same time. Here is a list these exercises

• Bench press (this makes all the bros happy)
• Deadlift
• Squat
• Overhead/Military press
• Barbell rows
• Pull-up
• Dips

My article, 7 BEST Weight Training Exercises EVERY Beginner Should Be Doing To Build Strength, Muscle and Lose Fat goes over these in more detail. I have videos linked of how to perform them too!

6. What Supplements Do I Need To Use?

None if you don’t want to, that’s why they are called supplements and not requirements. I use protein powder and a supplement called creatine MONOHYDRATE on a daily basis.

Creatine MONOHYDRATE is very well studied. It helps in energy production for explosive movements, such as weightlifting. For you science people, it aids in the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)

It’s a fine white powder, you don’t need to snort it like your cocaine though. I just dry scoop it and drink some water with it. You can mix it into a drink though. Tastes awful, just an fyi.

You only need to take 3 to 5 grams per day.

You can get it by just eating food, but you’d have to consume a lot of meat to get 3 to 5 grams per day (ex) 2.5 pounds of beef or salmon a day).

It can cause water retention, so if gain some weight when you take it, don’t freak out that you’re gaining weight.

If you want to learn more about it, you can read by article Everything You Need to Know About Creatine (I know, I’m sorry, I keep linking other articles. I just want you lead you in the right direction if you want further information).

7. Final Thoughts

It’s all about consistency. Losing fat or gaining muscle isn’t a linear process, you’ll have amazing times in your journey and some not so good times.

Sometimes you won’t feel like going to the gym, but you have to be disciplined enough to keep going. I’ve been working out for almost 12 years and consistently for the past 4-5 years and I still don’t want to go many times. I’m almost always happy I went though.

You need to get in there and just workout. Have fun with it, maybe try different exercises to see the ones you really enjoy. I know I said compound movements are the best, but if you don’t enjoy them or can’t perform them for some reason, there’s no rule saying you HAVE to do them.

If anyone tells you that you HAVE to do a certain exercise or HAVE to eat or avoid certain foods, they are spewing nonsense.

This everything you needed to know about weigh training for beginners!!

Disclaimer: I’m not your doctor. Please consult your doctor, nutritionist or any health care professional before making any changes in your own lifestyle. These blogs are just me sharing my knowledge for you reading entertainment purpose only. None of this is medical advice.

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