When starting my fitness journey, I was very confused on whether I should weight train for weight loss or just do cardiovascular activity (cardio). Then when I started to weight train, I was confused how to weight train. After a decade of weight training, and most seriously the past 5 years, I couldn’t be happier I started. I’ll be sharing the best gym workout to lose weight and gain muscle.

I know in my last post, I started with saying I had ate 5 slices of pizza prior to writing the post. This time I ate 7. Also I may have ate 4 breadsticks. On top of that, half a cheesecake Crumbl Cookie. I know..I know. Listen, it’s good to enjoy yourself every once in a while, I don’t do that every day. Just every other day…just kidding lol.

Okay, stop diverting me and lets get into, should you weight train for weight loss? I think absolutely. You absolutely need to be on a caloric deficit along with that and do cardio as well. You can’t just eat whatever you want…unfortunately.

People often ask me for “weight training for weight loss female”, “weightlifting for weight loss male”, “weightlifting lifting routine for weight loss” or “how to weight train for weight loss”. Weight training for everyone is the same male, female, potato, pile of donkey doo-doo or whatever you are. I’ll share a great workout you can do.

EVERYTHING You Need to Know – Weight Train For Weight Loss

1. Calorie Restriction and Nutrition

Yes, you read that correctly. This is a post about titled “weight train for weight loss” and I’m starting off by talking about nutrition. If you read my posts, I sound like a broken record. So keep taking this in, TO LOSE WEIGHT YOU NEED TO BE IN A CALORIC DEFICIT.

You CANNOT be lifting 3 hours a day 7 days a week (that’s stupid by itself anyways) and be eating excess calories and expect to lose weight. Take that in.

You can’t out run a bad diet and you definitely can’t out train a bad diet. You need to take this in.

I wrote an amazing article that is EVERYTHING you need to know about being in a caloric deficit called Calculating Calories. I would highly recommend giving it a read. I’ll touch on a bit of the things I talk about here though.

You might be asking, how many calories do you need? Use some of the free calorie calculators online to get a rough estimate of how many calories you might need. Here are some of the ones I personally used in the past:

1.  Muscle and Strength
2. BMRCalculator.org
3. Calculator.net

I then took an average of the numbers I got and subtracted 500 calories because the number I got seemed to high to me. See what your body does when you do that. If you are losing more than 10% of your body weight per week, increase your calories by about 100-200 calories until you are only losing that much. If you are losing 10% per week, great.

If you are gaining weight after 2 or 3 weeks, decrease your calories by 100-200 calories. Don’t freak out after a week if you gain weight, your body might be adapting.

If you’re wait is doing nothing, give it 2 to 3 week as I previously said to start losing weight.

Then get in about 1 gram (g) per pound (lbs) of your body weight. I try to split my protein intake over 4 or 5 meals/snacks.

2. Cardiovascular Activity4

Well, we still aren’t at “weight train for weight loss” just yet. You’re not getting off that easy, sorry. Unfortunately, weight training itself will not help you lose weight, for the most part. I’m not saying weight training isn’t important, I believe to to be extremely important.

The thing is, weight training just doesn’t burn as much calories as cardio does. On the flip side, weight training builds muscles which makes you look better. Not only that, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn by just existing.

Anyways, back to cardio. I guess before that, the Ninja Creami is unreal. I’m not affiliated with them by any means, but oh my goodness. You can make protein ice cream to hit your calories and make it taste UNBELIVABLY good.

Ok, ok, ok I know, back to cardio lol. I’m not saying just start doing 3 hour of cardio a day every day. Not at all. Start off doing whatever you can, maybe that’s 10 minutes a day or even 5 minutes a day. Whatever you can.

Then increase your weekly cardio done by 15-30 minutes every week. In my article Fat Loss Diet Example to Lose Fat Mindlessly: Current Diet and Training Regimen 2023, I have a chart of exactly how I increased by cardio per week over my 16-week diet. I took a very slow approach.

Which form of cardio should you do?? Drum rollllll……the one you enjoy the most! That’s right. Why would you do the elliptical of treadmill if that makes you miserable? If you would rather just walk outside, do that. My article, 5 BIGGEST Things About Aerobic Training (Cardio) Everyone Trying To Lose Fat Should Know About, goes more into that. Here are some example though

• Walking in the park
• Walking away from your crush after getting rejected
• Biking
• Jogging
• Swimming
• Sports
• Exerting tremendous force while pooping (this doesn’t apply to girls because they don’t poop)

There is best cardio exercise for belly fat. Do the one you like the most.

The American Heart Association recommends all adults do at least 150 minutes of cardio per week regardless of fitness goals and I do agree with that. There are MANY benefits to it.

3. Weight Training For Weight Loss1,2,3

Weight training for weight loss, we’re finally here. Weight training not only can help you lose fat, there are so many other benefits. We will of course, just be focusing on fat loss today.

The first thing to cover, muscle does burn more calorie than fat by you just existing. Now, the thing is, it’s not as much as you may thing. Muscle burns about 5-6 calories per pound at rest. That means if you put on 10 pounds of muscle, you’ll be burning around 50-60 extra calories. For 20 pounds of muscle, potentially 100-120 extra calories

When you are exercising, the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn as well compared to if you didn’t have as much muscle mass. There isn’t an exact number I could find, but it will depend on the intensity of which you weight train at. You might burn maybe 100-200 calories more. That can add up.

Now, having more muscle will also allow you to look more “toned”. You’ll have more muscle and look overall healthier.

For me, initially and until this day, weight training had made my weight loss journey so much better. Instead of looking “skinny fat”, I had a build from the muscle I have packed on. Wanting to see the muscle only made me want to do more cardio.

Utilizing diet, weight training and cardio, I initially lost 50 pounds at the beginning of my fitness journey. Since then, I’ve lost weight time and time again when I needed to. I lost 30 pounds recently as well. Learn from my mistakes and keep cardio in your routine at all time. Try to eat as healthy as possible and weight train.

So, while weight loss through weight lifting might be tough, if you utilize a caloric deficit and cardio with it, you can absolutely lose weight. You’ll get a workout routine to build muscle and lose weight.

Also, if anyone give a “workout routine to burn belly fat”, “stomach fat burning workout”, “stomach fat burning workout”, “abdominal fat exercise” run away from them. You CANNOT target where your body loses fat from.

4. Bonus Section – Weight Training Regimen

This is the current regimen I use. I do an upper body day and lower body twice each week. So, I’m weightlifting 4 days a week. Here is the workout routine, it’s from my previous post.

This is an easy workout routine to lose weight ALONG with a caloric deficit and cardio.

If you want on another workout to build muscle and lose weight (along with a caloric deficit and cardio, I say this over and over) that you only have to do 2-3 times a week, check out my post Weight Gain Workout: 3 Critical Things Everyone Should Know About.

Upper Body Day ( I do this twice a week)
Exercise	Exercise Name	Sets and Repetitions (Reps)	Notes
1	Dumbbell Bench Press	Set 1: 15 Set 2: 12 Set 3: 10-12 Set 4: 8-12
2	Chest Supported Machine Row	Set 1: 15-20 Set 2: 15 Set 3: 12-15	Superset with dumbbell press: Do these between your sets of Dumbbell Press. This is known as a “superset”
3	Lat Pull Down Machine	Set 1: 15 Set 2: 10-12 Set 3: 10-12 Set 4: 10-12
4	Dumbbell Shoulder Press	Set 1: 15-20 Set 2: 12-15 Set 3: 12-15	Superset these with Lat Pull Down Machine
5	Straight Arm Pushdown	Set 1: 12-15 Set 2: 10-12
6	Triceps Pushdown With V-bar attachment	Set 1: 12-15 Set 2: 10-12	Superset these with straight arm pushdown
7	Dumbbell Shrugs	Set 1: 15-20
8	Barbell Row	Set 1: 15 Set 2: 12 Set 3: 10-12
9	Cable Crunches/hanging raises/crunch machine	Set 1: 15 Set 2: 12-15 Set 3: 12-15	If I have time, I’ll do two of these. Otherwise, I usually try to do at least one.

Lower Body Day (I do this twice a week)
Exercise	Exercise Name	Sets and Repetitions (Reps)	Notes
1	Leg Press	Set 1: 15 Set 2: 1 Set 3: 10-12 Set 4: 10-12
2	EZ Bar Curls	Set 1: 15-20 Set 2: 12-15 Set 3: 8-12	Superset with leg press
3	Smith Machine Squats	Set 1: 15 Set 2: 10-12 Set 3: 10-12 Set 4: 8-12
4	Incline dumbbell Curls	Set 1: 15-20 Set 2: 12-15 Set 3: 12-15	Superset these with smith machine squats
5	Leg Extensions	Set 1: 15-20 Set 2: 12-15
6	Seated Hamstring Curls	Set 1: 15-20 Set 2: 12-15	Superset these with straight arm pushdown
7	Seated Calf Raises/Calf press machine	Set 1: 15-20
8	Abductor Machine	Set 1: 15-20 Set 2: 12-15
9	Adductor Machine	Set 1: 15-20 Set 2: 12-15
10	Cable Crunches/Hanging raises/Crunch machine	Set 1: 15 Set 2: 12-15 Set 3: 12-15	If I have time, I’ll do two of these. Otherwise, I usually try to do at least one.

So while you can weight training for weight loss, it won’t be effective by itself. Paired with a proper diet and cardio, you will have a fantastic weight loss routine and be well on your way to losing lots of weight.

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.

Other Posts You May Like

1. Fat Loss Diet Example to Lose Fat Mindlessly: Current Diet and Training Regimen 2023

2.Physical Fitness: 6 Things Everyone Needs to Know To Lose Stubborn and Unwanted Fat

3.Everything About HIIT Cardio and Weight/Fat Loss

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