Weight Loss and Starting Strength

[plyons72]

To preface, I’m a 23 (nearly 24) year old male with quite a bit of extra weight. In January, I started low carb, and doing some walking and jogging, and saw a drop from 380lbs to about 340lbs now. I’ve just begun the program about a week ago, and I keep hearing everyone say that lifting is a much faster, much more effective way to lose this extra weight I’ve been carrying around... I guess what I’m asking is, how? I’ve read some articles on your website, and I’ve listened to some of your podcasts... but the one thing that stood out in my mind was when you mentioned that an increase in lean muscle mass will also correspond to an increase (to some extent) of body fat.

If possible, can you elaborate a bit on this? I’m really looking to slim down while gaining muscle, but it seems counter-intuitive. Can you shed any light on the subject? Should I avoid looking at the scale while doing my lifting regiment, and at what point (if any) does weight loss begin to occur when doing starting strength? It would seem to me that building muscle while losing body fat would cause weight to stay roughly the same.

I guess what I'm really asking is: Should I stick with a cardio/low carb regiment until I've lost a bit more weight, and then begin Starting Strength, or will the weight loss I'm hoping for come with this training regiment?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject

[Mark Rippetoe]

A Clarification | Mark Rippetoe

Losing Bodyfat or Gaining Muscle Mass | Mark Rippetoe

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Lifting weights is not a weight loss activity. If you’re 340 With an extremely high BF% you need to get your weight down to a healthy level and then do the program. You should absolutely still Strength train while trying to lose weight but it’s not the priority that it might be in the future. Continue to use diet and cardio to create the caloric deficit and keep driving weight down. Strength train to try and preserve as much muscle as possible.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Andy will be writing an article about this very topic.

[FatButWeak]

At age 41 I "more or less" did the program while dieting and losing weight from 345 or so down to 220 or so over the course of a year. I say more or less only because my progress, while linear and steady, was probably slower than some fucking scrawny 18 year old twink at peak hormonal millieu who gets to chug-a-guzzle a gallon of chocolate milk per day. I on the other used 1.25 pplates to ,oad my squat and microplates on all my other lfits. Ive spent the last 6 years slowly building my muscular bodyweight back up to 275 or so. For fat fucks, such as myself and you, the Starting Strength program is an excellent adjunct to a weight loss regimen. Although the SS program is not merely exercise (it is training), it is a form of exercise. So instead of running around like an asshole, doing jogging, rowing, cycling, zumba etc., you may as well as exercise by squatting, pressing, neching deadl;ifting and powercleaning three days per week. As a fat slob, you are able to make good progress BUT you will need to make sure that your diet contains adequate animal proteins for recovery 0 200g/day is a decent target to aim for. Your caloric deficit will drive the fat loss - figure that shit out for yourself. But there is no good reason why a Fatty should NOT do the program as written. In that regard I disagree with the learned doctor Baker, supra.

Now, if your gut is so massive that it creates mechanical problems around your midsection, which complicates squatting to depth and or deadlifting with proper mechanics, you do have a bigger problem. I myself had some trouble getting into position to deadlifting until I lost enough weight.

I always thought that Rip's drawing a a distinction between training and exercise was impornant; but all productive training is exercise, as it requires one to exert oneself, and get tired and sweaty by the end of a good training session. Unlike mere exercise, however, your effort is always rewarded with new strnegth, new tissue, better posutre, greater strength, etc.

[Tony Patriarca]

Greetings:

As a now officially former fat-boy I found Starting Strength much more beneficial for weight loss than just doing cardio. According to my fancy watch weight training burns about 2-3 times as many calories as cardio. And that does not account for the fact that I spend over half of my weight lifting time sitting on the bench playing Sudoku.

You may also find that you have a lot more muscle than you think. It is one of the benefits of the fact that every time you got up from the couch you were doing a 380 pound squat.

My big suggestions are take the slow approach and only drop your calories by 100 at a time. It is enough to make you feel hungry between meals, but not enough to make you feel like God hates you. And do not look at anyone else's numbers. If a 150 pound man puts 150 pounds on his back he has 300 pounds on his feet. If you put 60 pounds on your back it is 400 pounds on the floor. So the numbers will always be skewed.