Can I lose weight by lifting weights only?” the answer is absolutely yes! However, it’s important to focus on both strength and fat loss while lifting. When you lift weights, your body burns calories, and with a proper diet—such as eating 5-10% less than your daily calorie maintenance—you can shed fat effectively. To build a solid routine, aim to lift three times a week at first, gradually increasing to 4 to 5 times a week as you progress. Each of these lifting sessions should last around 45 minutes.
Consistency is key. Many new users who train using strength programs like Fitbod report an average of 34% strength increase within a few months, which helps them stay motivated. If you’re already in the habit of lifting three times a week, you can start pushing towards 4-5 times a week for better results. Balancing your weight training with proper nutrition will help you maintain the results while keeping you strong and lean.
Weight Loss Overview
When you’re trying to lose weight, the key is to create a calorie deficit. This means consuming fewer calories than your body needs to burn for daily functions. Your body then taps into its own resources, like stored fat, to generate energy. As a result, you experience weight loss.
While many people focus on eating less to achieve this deficit, it’s just as important to balance this with increasing your non-exercise activity, like taking more steps throughout the day and combining this with your workouts. Engaging in regular exercise activities like weightlifting ensures you’re not only losing fat but also building muscle, which boosts your overall metabolism.
4 Ways to Create a Calorie Deficit:
Eat Less
To lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit, which means consuming fewer calories than your body uses. This forces the body to tap into its resources, such as fat, to produce energy, leading to weight loss. While many think that simply eating less will help them achieve this deficit, it’s also important to focus on increasing your overall non-exercise activity, like taking more steps during the day. By combining this with regular workouts and exercise activity, you not only burn more calories but also build muscle, which supports long-term weight management.
Increase NEAT
One way to lose weight without extra workouts is by increasing your NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). This refers to the energy your body uses throughout the day for things like standing, walking, or even fidgeting. Unlike formal exercise, NEAT includes everyday actions that are unrelated to gym sessions, such as breathing, eating, or other bodily functions like sleeping. According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), focusing on these small movements can help you burn more calories over time, especially if you stay active for a total of 110-115 hours per week outside of those structured 3-4 hours of exercise. This is an effective first step toward losing weight and maintaining an active lifestyle.
Exercise More
To lose weight, it’s essential to create a calorie deficit by focusing on lifting weights. By incorporating weight-lifting workouts at least three days a week, you can build muscle and strength, which helps prevent losing fat and muscle mass. Although these sessions may not be as calorie-burning as cardio, they are still important for fat loss and play a crucial role during this phase. Skipping cardio is fine if you stay consistent with your intense workouts.
All Of The Above
To successfully lose weight through lifting weights, you need to focus on creating a calorie deficit. This means you should eat less and increase your NEAT (non-exercise activity), which can have a significant impact on your overall calorie expenditure. Incorporating regular workouts into your daily or weekly routine is also key. Over 23-24 hours a day, these activities can help with weight loss while preserving muscle growth and retention. It’s important to follow a step-by-step guide that prioritizes these strategies to avoid the struggle of keeping off the weight long-term.
What Is the Best Workout to Lose Body Fat?
There is no one best way to lose fat, but finding workouts you enjoy is key to success. If you like what you’re doing, you’re much less likely to give up. To achieve your goals, start with a combination of strength training and cardio, as this is a proven method to lose body fat. According to Chag, focusing on both types of exercise while also eating healthy is an effective strategy. It’s really about finding what works for you and sticking with it over time.
Is It OK to Only Lift Weights to Lose Body Fat?
Yes, it’s absolutely fine to lift weights to promote fat loss. As Chag explained to POPSUGAR, if you despise running or traditional cardio, there’s no need to force it. Lifting weights alone can be a great way to burn fat and achieve your goals. However, if you’re looking to see faster results, adding some cardiovascular work and making small changes to your diet could help create a well-balanced routine. While cardio isn’t necessary, combining it with weightlifting and modifying your diet may lead to even better outcomes.
Should you lift weights or do cardio first?
This really depends on your goals. In the simplest terms, you should lift weights first if your main goal is to build muscle and get stronger. On the other hand, do cardio first if you’re aiming to improve speed or endurance. The reality is that the question of whether to do weights or cardio first requires individualized answers. You can’t go wrong with a balanced approach that includes both weights and cardio throughout the week. However, you don’t have to do both in every gym session.
Is it better to lift light weights or heavy weights?
This really depends on your goals. There isn’t one that’s better than the other unless you’re aiming for a very specific goal. For example, if I wanted to compete in a powerlifting competition where a barbell back squat is one of the main events, I would focus on lifting heavy most of the time. But if I wanted to run a marathon, I’d focus more on light weights with lots of reps to get my heart rate up and help my legs handle stress for longer periods. If you don’t have a specific goal in mind, you can benefit from lifting both heavy and light weights.
Can older adults lift weights?
Not only can older adults lift weights, but they should to maintain their health and fend off degenerative conditions like osteoporosis. Lifting weights in middle age and beyond can really amp up overall fitness and help combat age-related muscle loss. It also reduces the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases while helping to fend off chronic disease. Lifting weights can significantly improve the quality of life, making it a crucial activity for older adults. What’s not to like about that?
Does lifting weights help you lose weight?
Yes, any form of exercise can help you lose weight, and weightlifting is no exception. The key is to burn more calories than you consume each day to stay in a calorie deficit, which is essential to lose weight. What makes lifting weights unique is its ability to build muscle while you lose fat. Since muscle tissue is more metabolically active than fat tissue, building more muscle helps your body burn more calories at rest. This leads to a higher resting metabolic rate, meaning your metabolism is working even when you’re just sitting or sleeping.
While the increase in calories burned each day isn’t huge, it can still make a difference over time. However, despite popular myths, lifting weights alone isn’t a magic solution for weight loss. You still need to maintain a calorie deficit consistently. Lifting every day but eating more calories than you burn won’t lead to progress. The key is to combine weightlifting with a proper diet to see the results you want.
How many reps should you do when lifting weights?
The answer to how many reps you should do depends on your goals. If you’re aiming for endurance-based goals, like improving your running capacity, you should focus on more reps with lighter weights. On the other hand, if you’re pursuing strength-based goals, such as maxing out your deadlift, you’ll want to do fewer reps with heavier weights. For those with goals that combine both endurance and strength components, like running an obstacle course race, you would benefit from training with both types of reps and weights to cover all aspects of fitness.
What about women?
Many women often avoid heavy-weight training out of fear of gaining too much muscle, but this fear is largely unfounded. Women simply don’t have high enough levels of testosterone to make large muscle gains without training at an extremely high level. If you’re one of these women who want to burn fat, you’re missing out on a big opportunity. Heavy resistance training can help burn fat and transform your body into a fat-burning machine by increasing muscle quality. Yes, you may gain some muscle, but you won’t start looking like a bodybuilder. Instead, you’ll improve your natural shape without spending hours doing cardio workouts.
Increased overall metabolic rate:
When you lift weights and build muscle, you’re not just working for short-term benefits. Muscle is very energy-expensive and requires calories to maintain, unlike fat which requires no energy to store. This means that more muscular bodies naturally burn more calories, even when at rest. Once you’ve built muscle, it stays fairly stable and continues to act like a fat-burning engine, even if you’re not training as hard. This is why men, with more muscle mass, often get away with eating more calories than women without gaining much weight — their bodies are constantly burning more calories throughout the day, even when they don’t exercise.
What are your goals?
Before starting your journey to lose fat, it’s important to ask yourself why. Are you aiming for pure health benefits, or is the focus more on appearance? If you’re not interested in aesthetics, cardio is often recommended because it generally burns more calories per minute while you’re working out. However, the post-exercise calorie-burning effect of cardio is much lower. It depends on what you like — if you enjoy cardio and want the cardiovascular benefits, then it can be a good option. But if your goal is to develop a lean, slim body similar to a marathon runner or long-distance cyclist, you may need to take cardio to an extreme level to see those physical adaptations.
For many people, losing weight through diet alone can leave the body looking soft and unshapely. While the fat may be reduced, the muscles underneath remain with little tone, causing the body to appear soft or small. If your main goal is to lose fat and look more shapely, toned, and lean, then building muscle makes more sense. Muscle not only improves overall body shape, but also increases your basal metabolic rate, allowing you to burn through fat faster. Plus, having more strength and power enables you to train harder without fear of looking like a bodybuilder if you’re concerned about becoming too muscular.
Another factor to consider is that muscle has the capacity to store intramuscular fat, meaning that it acts like a sponge for both fat and water. The bigger your muscles, the bigger the sponge, allowing you to soak up more fat before it’s stored in less desirable places like the belly. The more muscular your body, the more places there are to spread the fat, which can lead to a more balanced and toned appearance.
Think about hormones
When doing high-rep or short-rest exercises, especially repetitive exercises like steady-state cardio, your body mainly works out the slow-twitch muscle fibers. This can stress the body and cause the release of cortisol, a hormone that can actually suppress the release of both testosterone and growth hormone. These two hormones are strong fat burners, and without them, your body won’t naturally burn fat as easily. On the other hand, lifting heavy weights with a maximum of 12 reps per set and allowing for adequate recovery has the opposite effect — it helps boost testosterone and growth hormones, turning your body into a fat-burning machine.
If you’re looking to really reduce your body fat percentage, combining heavy weightlifting with dietary improvements will yield the best results compared to any form of exercise. It’s important to remember that losing fat without improving muscle tone or size may lead to less-than-desirable results, especially from an aesthetic point of view. Lifting weights not only helps with fat loss but also improves the overall shape and tone of your body, giving you better long-term outcomes.
Can You Lose Weight Just By Lifting Weights?
Yes, you can lose weight just by lifting weights, but for most people, it may not be the best long-term solution for weight loss. While lifting weights is effective, many people find it’s important to also prioritize eating less and increasing NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) for sustainable results. If you start lifting weights but don’t change your calorie intake, there’s still a possibility you could lose weight if the amount of exercise outweighs the amount you’re consuming. Some people even notice that when they start exercising, they naturally make better nutritional decisions, causing them to eat fewer calories without consciously trying.
However, this strategy doesn’t work for everyone and likely isn’t a long-term fix to keep the weight off. Over time, your body will eventually adjust to your exercise routine and become more efficient, meaning it will burn fewer calories than it did initially. If you really want to lose weight and keep it off, you should focus on a combination of strength training, monitoring your calorie intake, and increasing NEAT. One study found that people who weight-trained three times a week and ate less were able to preserve lean body mass (muscle) without negatively affecting their resting metabolic rate.
This means that those who regularly strength train and monitor their food intake have an easier time losing weight compared to those who don’t. People who diet without weight training often lose muscle, which leads to burning fewer calories per day. So, incorporating weightlifting into your routine not only helps you shed fat but also preserves your muscle, which is key for long-term fat loss.
How To Lose Weight By Lifting Weights
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to lose weight by lifting weights, which is the same process I use with many of my clients and even myself during a fat-loss phase. Whether you’re more advanced or just starting, the same steps can be followed. You may enter at a different point or need to spend more time in one phase than another, but the key is to stay consistent. By sticking to this process, you can effectively lose weight and build muscle at the same time.
Step 1: Lift Weights 2-3x Per Week
If you’re serious about losing weight and want to build strength, lifting weights regularly is key. As an absolute beginner, you should aim for lifting at least twice per week—this is the bare minimum that will allow your body to start adapting. Lifting weights even twice a week can help target the major muscle groups like your legs, chest, back, and shoulders. However, if you’re ready to commit more, try to lift three times per week. This not only increases your training volume but also helps you establish better habits for your fitness journey. Additionally, regular lifting provides a constant source of muscular stress, which is essential for muscle growth and fat loss. As you progress, you can focus on increasing your workout frequency and add other forms of exercise, like NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis), to enhance your overall routine.
Step 2: Increase Your NEAT
To increase your overall movement, focus on boosting your NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis). This includes small activities like standing, moving more during the day, or even parking further away from your destination. A good starting point is aiming for 6-8k steps per day, and eventually building up to 10k steps. Simple changes like taking a long walk or tracking your daily step count can make a big difference in how active you are without needing a formal workout.
Step 3: Track Your Daily Calorie and Macronutrient Intakes
When it comes to fitness, combining walking throughout the day with weight training 2-3 times per week can help you stay active. At the same time, tracking your calorie intake is key to getting a clear picture of how many calories you consume daily. Knowing the right balance of carbs, fats, and protein will help you understand if you’re eating for maintenance or aiming to lose weight. Don’t get discouraged if progress feels slow—just commit to the process and avoid looking for shortcuts.
Step 4: Decrease Your Calories
To manage your calories effectively for maintenance or fat loss, aim to decrease your calorie intake by 10-15% over the course of two weeks. During this time, your body may fluctuate in weight due to changes in water, food, and waste. Focus on keeping your protein intake high, around .8-1.2g per pound of body weight. For someone who weighs 180 lbs, that’s around 144-216 grams of protein per day. The remaining calories should be split between carbs and fats based on your activity level and personal preferences. For carbs, aim for 1-2g per pound, which is about 180-360 grams of carbs for a 180lb person, depending on how active you are. Finally, allocate the rest to fats, knowing that 1g of fat equals 9 calories.
Step 5: Increase Your Stp Count (if applicable)
To stay active, it’s important to focus on increasing your daily step count. If you’re already hitting around 10k steps per day, try to aim for 12-15k to see more improvement. Walking consistently throughout the day can improve routines and help you maintain better health. Research shows that there’s a dose-response relationship, meaning more steps can lead to more benefits, but the effects start to flatten between 8-12k steps. Pairing this with weight training will provide even greater results.
Step 6: Increase Your Workout Frequency (if applicable)
If you’re struggling to lose weight sustainably, try to increase your workout frequency. Adding an extra weight training session per week can help you lose about .25-.5% of your body weight per week while also helping to preserve lean muscle mass. If you’re currently doing 1-2 workouts, consider increasing it to around 6 sessions to boost your energy expenditure and reshape your physique, especially if you’re dealing with a skinny fat look.
Step 7: Adjust Your Intake As Necessary
To support an active lifestyle and make progress while working with weights multiple days per week, it’s important to adjust your calorie intake. If you’re losing weight at a steady pace, you may want to decrease your intake by a consistent 5-10% to continue making progress. Also, maintain a healthy protein intake of .8-1.2g per pound of body weight to preserve muscle while shedding fat. This balance helps ensure that you’re on track and not losing too quickly or too slowly.
Step 8: Remain Consistent 8-12 More Consecutive Weeks
To make real progress, you need to focus on staying consistent with steps 1-7 for at least 8-12 weeks. This final step may seem time-consuming, but it’s crucial for long-term success. By consistently doing the first seven steps over extended periods, you’ll see significant improvements in your physique. In reality, to lose weight and maintain it, many people need to commit to tracking their intake, doing cardio, and training hard. Stick with it, and be prepared to repeat this cycle to achieve your goals.
What To Do If You’re Not Losing Weight While Lifting Weights:
Adjust Your Calorie Intake
When it comes to weight management, it’s essential to cut back on calorie intake by about 5-10% to create a deficit for losing weight. For example, if you’re eating around 2000 calories per day consistently and not seeing results, try reducing it to around 1800-1900 calories to maintain that deficit. If your calorie intake is too aggressive, and you’re finding it hard to stick to it, try a more moderate deficit to stay consistent. Avoid the trap of eating 1200 calories Monday-Friday but then 3000+ calories on the weekend, as this disrupts the deficit and slows down progress.
Get More Steps in Your Day
To boost weight loss, one strategy is increasing your NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) by adding more movement throughout the day. Aiming for a minimum of 8,000 steps per day is a great starting point, not including workout steps or other intense activities. For many of my clients, the goal is to hit 12,000 steps per day to see significant progress. If you’re not getting at least 8,000 steps a day, it’s an issue that needs to be addressed. Once you reach 12,000 steps, instead of pushing further, consider adjusting your diet and making sure your workouts are consistent.
Reevaluate Your Rate of Weight Loss
When it comes to weight loss, it’s common for people to feel impatient, thinking they aren’t losing weight fast enough. It’s important to be realistic about the rate of loss. If you lose weight too quickly, you may also lose muscle. A healthy rate is around .5-1% per week, which helps with muscle retention. If you’re losing more than 1% of your body weight per week, it’s considered an aggressive rate, and it may be unsustainable. In that case, try slowing down. On the other hand, if you’re losing slower than .25% per week, focus on improving your eating habits, increasing your NEAT, and following the right steps to boost your progress.
Address Your Lack of Discipline and Consistency
The reality is that if you say you’re doing things all the time but not seeing the results, something might be off. The harsh reality is that losing weight is tough and it takes time. If you’re not making progress, it’s likely because you’re not as consistent as you think. Taking weekends off, indulging in cheat meals every week, or snacking regularly could be the real reason for a lack of success. Staying disciplined and sticking to the plan consistently is key to achieving your goals.