Moving out of weightlifting

[BountyMultipack]

Hello

Last year I wanted to lose weight (was 116 KG) and started working with a PT to do so. He put me on weightlifting 3x a week, 10K steps everyday and a controlled meal plan- ( 2000, then 1850kcal)

Over the year, I’ve lost about 25KGs and it has worked.

A year in though and I don’t really see any more changes. I haven’t lost any real weight since over 2 months and I find myself cheating on the meal plan quite abit ( always seem to be hungry).

Also- I looked very fit a few months ago and even though my weight has remained the same I don’t look the same. I seem to have lost some muscle and gained fat.
At the gym I don’t seem to have enough energy and am constantly struggling.

I was thinking if maybe my body has had enough of weight lifting and I should perhaps try other exercises now?

So you think that keeping my steps and my meal plan, if I switched my exercise to Pilates and started doing body strength training videos online - would that still count as ‘strength training’. Would it be as effective as weight training 3x a week?

thanks!
BM

Pilates focuses on the 'core' muscles - not just the abs, but the deep core, low back, hips etc, the stabilising muscles. General weightlifting strengthens the 'big' external muscles more, i.e. the arms, legs, chest, back. It's good to mix things up to challenge the body. Pilates may also help with the weightlifting. Pilates isn't easy, there's nothing like it to strengthen and tighten the core.

Frankly no, it wouldn't. You're moving from the newbie gains to the plateau of a beginner-intermediate lifter. The changes will be slower but they will still happen.

Pilates is not weight training.

How heavy were you lifting? Were you doing squats, deadlifts & bench? and at decent percentages of your body weight?

Have you been lifting progressively higher weights?

There seems to be a real lifting vs Pilates narrative at the moment it’s weird. They complement one another if you have time for both.

Honestly it sounds like you’ve hit a plateau and that you probably could do with more calories in order to lift heavier. This is what I would do but I have have also done Pilates for over a decade.

But it’s also perfectly possible to fall out of love with a sport - perhaps you could drop a weights session a week and do something wise? Pilates if you’re interested in it. Perhaps you find joy in finding a new skill.

@BountyMultipack buy a solid programme. MindPump programmes are amazing and will be 60% off on Black Friday.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

The PT keeps a track the weights for each exercise and machine but I do know he adds to it every week.

I have a ganglion which makes push ups very difficult and a very weak lower back which we try to work on weekly too.

I do squats, deadlifts & bench.

i do think I'm not enjoying it as much as I used to but I really want to become stronger and lose more weight too!

i used to feel good training earlier, even though I couldn’t do much I still felt strong- now I’ve just been feeling weak and tired!

I think the simplest question here is, are you actually eating enough to "fuel" your workouts? And what sort of weights are you moving?

I do a body weight traing which I love and low level weight training. To me Pilates feels like a waste of time - takes an hour to work the core less hard than 10 mins of body weight core.

You could try a really good yoga class - choose one where the teacher was trained in India - where it's not half chat about lululemon. A good yoga class works core harder than any other fitness I've tried, and keeps you supple too. But lots of yoga classes are not great. You have to try to find one that suits you.

I do Pilates, ballet and lifting very heavy weights. They complement each other but they’re not the same. Ballet or Pilates would never make me strong enough to deadlift 100 kilos!

It sounds like you’re in a typical plateau with lifting. You’ve had the maxing gains (“newbie gains”) and now it’s the grind. But the grind pays off. It took me almost 2 years to get my deadlift from 85 to 100 kgs and another 6 months to get over 100 after that. And at the moment I’ve not been doing as much lifting so 90k feels heavy at the moment.

But I’m still getting stronger and fitter even at 65! And training always goes up and down. After the first burst of newbie gains, it’s not linear.

And I rarely train my core as such: braving in squats and doing press ups and pull ups (with bands) trains it for me to the extent that holding a plank for a minute with a 20 kilo weight on my back is a nice finisher.

But for a really tough core exercise and great prep for pull ups as well as a substitute for press ups, try doing a hollow hold. Start at 10 seconds and build up from there. It’s the toughest core exercise I know.

On this board are advocates of strength training - myself included.

From what you have written it sounds as if your trainer is a general fitness trainer and you have made great progress. One option for you is to lean more heavily into strength training rather than moving away from it. To my mind this looks like finding a strength coach, and adapting your training and nutrition accordingly. I guess you have to think carefully about what your next goals are. It does sound as if you have reached a plateau so definitely don’t beat yourself up if progress has stalled and motivation is lacking.

I would not advocate further calorie restriction and more cardio; instead consider moving away from machines to free weights and a different training approach. One advantage of this is it sounds as if you have a good fitness base to build from. Maybe your body has not had enough of strength training and the opposite it true. You need a new training stimulus and challenge. There are loads of options and if strength training is not a good fit for you there are many other avenues: climbing, martial arts, others have mentioned bodyweight training or other approaches.

I agree @erinaceus - once you get past the newbie gains (Oh I miss those days when almost every session was a PB!) you often plateau. It can be dispiriting - I'm always moaning to my PT about plateaux.

So if you want to just keep up the consistency. It will feel like a grind, but that's when you add in Pilates - but add, not substitute.

If you keep going, you'll see - you'll be hitting new PBs. It just takes longer - strength training is not linear, even when you follow the gospel of progressive overload!

Thanks everyone

Agree with pp - you can't get the benefits of heavy weights low reps by doing other things (tho they may be valuable and enjoyable in their own right)! Stick with the heavy weights but maybe switch trainer. Or ask as pp have said for more free weights (back etc permitting).

After a couple of years of weights, I got into calisthenics - where you use your bodyweight- if there are any classes or centres round you you could look at that. I now do a mixture and have also done some boxing.

But if you are tried and feeling weak, I would address that first. Are you overtraining (have a google)? Sleeping well? Enjoying life outside the gym? Could you be anaemic? I know you want to lose weight but perhaps lose the meal plan for a bit, focus on a healthy diet and regaining your energy and see what that looks like? I don't know how much most PTs know about weight loss and women tbh. I lose weight when I walk more (10000 an absolute minimum for me unless I'm ill) and lift heavy, but I eat plenty and my main aim is not to gain and to be strong and healthy.