Lift Heavy Sh*t, Eat More, and Lose Weight

Your guide on how you can weight lift, eat a lot of food, and still lose weight.

It was December 2023…. I had just purchased new scrubs in October…. I was getting dressed for work one day, doing the little jump maneuver we all do to get our pants over our hips and I heard it… snap! The threads on my waistband were breaking because I was growing out of them! And not the good kind of “growing out” either.

So I was faced with a decision. Either I spend another small fortune for new scrubs in a bigger size….. Or I need to make some changes in my diet and exercise.

I chose the latter, mostly because I hate clothes shopping and just thinking about going out and buying all new clothes made me grumpy. But I also chose diet and exercise because I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could actually lose a few pounds.

I am happy to report I was successful in achieving my goal weight! Now I am here to tell you that you can also achieve your goals by lifting weight and eating a lot of nutritious food.

Muscle Mass and Metabolism

“I don’t want to lift weights because I don’t want to look bulky.” GET OUT OF HERE WITH THAT BS!

I am not even going to entertain people who think that way because it’s simply not true. To get “bulky” you have to lift insane amounts of weight over a long period of time, like many years. Also, don’t believe what you see on social media. A lot of fitness influencers (men and women) are also juicing, they just don’t want to tell you that…. and no I am not talking about fruit juice 😉.

So getting into factual based knowledge…. Your basal metabolic rate is the amount of energy you need in order to just be alive. These are calories your body burns just by maintaining your body temp in normal range; breaking down and building new bone cells, muscle tissue, etc; and regulating your hormones. Lean muscle mass requires more energy to maintain than fat mass (Metabolism, n.d.). Read that again.

So I am telling you that you can burn more calories at rest by just increasing your muscle mass. How freaking fantastic is that?!

Alright, march your tush to your local gym and go lift some stuff! If you are new to weight lifting, start light and go slow. There are a plethora of beginner weight lifting videos online, pick one and stick to it. I DO NOT want you doom scrolling on YouTube trying to find the perfect beginner video. However, I do want you to find a reliable source of information. I don’t need anyone getting hurt because they didn’t use proper body mechanics when lifting.

Eat More

Now that you are hard at work making that muscle, you need to find a way to maintain it. Food! Eat food and lots of it! Just make sure it’s not BS processed foods.

Priority one is finding out how many calories you need to maintain, gain, and lose weight. Also find out how many grams of protein, carbs, and fats you need per day, those are your macros (macronutrients). When I did my own calculations, I was pleasantly surprised at how much food I could actually eat and still lose weight. I’m talking like 3 meals and 2 snack per day. It was almost too much food, honestly.

Besides when I would get sugar cravings, I never really got hungry. Sugar is a talk for another day. Just know that I also cut out a significant amount of added sugar in my diet during this time.

Here: https://www.calculator.net/macro-calculator.html

That is a link to a calorie and macro calculator. I have zero affiliations with this website, I just searched “calorie and macro calculator” and that was the first non sponsored website to appear in results. You have to fill in the required info and your weight goal, and this handy tool will tell you how many calories to eat, but more specifically, how many of those calories should come from protein, carbs, and fats.

The most challenging part of the diet is planning out your meals to fit in those macros. But, I have a short cut for you because life is hard, and we don’t need to make it harder if we don’t have to. My secret….. use AI 😯.

The Future is Here… Artificial Intelligence

When I started this macro counting business back in January, I downloaded the free version of chatGPT (still use it too). I had the AI assistant plan my meals and it was stupid easy. I am not affiliated with chatGPT. I’m just a fellow human sharing what I did to achieve my goals, hoping someone else will see this and achieve their own goals.

So, I typed into chatGPT, “make a 1600 calorie meal plan for me that includes X grams of protein, Y grams of carbohydrates, and Z grams of fat. (Of course, you will fill in your own personalized numbers.) And in just a few seconds I had one day’s worth of meals planned out to the exact calorie. Next, ask your AI assistant to plan out a week’s worth of meals to fit your macro limits. Now all you have to do is actually follow the plan.

TIP: If you don’t like a food item AI recommends, just ask it for a substitute. Easy peasy!

Lose Weight

For four months, I let AI make my meal plans, I followed those plans, exercised, and lost weight.

I also ate more food in those four months, than I had in the many months prior and still lost weight! This goes to show that it isn’t the amount of food we are necessarily eating, it’s the quality of that food.

I had great success in losing weight by eating A LOT of whole, unprocessed foods and building muscle mass.

For those of you who are wanting more specifics, I lost 14 lbs in 16 weeks. That’s about 1 lb a week, which is considered healthy weight loss. I engaged in HIIT cardio 3 days per week and 30 mins of moderate intensity cardio 1-2 times per week. I weight lifted 5 days per week following an alternating schedule of upper body one day, the next day lower body, and repeating. Lastly, I did yoga 1-2 times per week.

I chose to take active rest days. This means that on my off days from lifting, I instead did some cardio or yoga. And I chose to do HIIT cardio more often because then I could get my cardio over in 10-15 mins, instead of 30 mins.

Cheat Meals

I love all foods, healthy and unhealthy… I love it all. As a nurse, I know what foods I should be eating, but as a human, I know that sometimes we need to feed the soul. That’s where cheat meals come in to play!

Be kind to yourself once a week. You’ve been working hard on this diet and exercise thing, reward yourself with one meal and a dessert of your choosing. You will not ruin your progress by eating one meal that doesn’t fit into your macros.

However, I do recommend that you look ahead at your week and plan when your cheat meal will be. For example, I wouldn’t plan my cheat meal for Friday evening if I have a wedding on Saturday where they are serving fried chicken and cake….. Get what I’m saying? 😋

Also, having a high carb meal can feed and help recover all that muscle tissue you’re building. I feel so strong in the gym when I lift after a high carb day.

Final Thoughts

I’ll leave you with this….. There are alternative ways to lose weight than spending an hour on the treadmill and crash dieting or fasting. And if you are doing those things and not seeing the progress you want, maybe switch it up.

I increased my weight lifting, added a few mins of intense cardio, fed my body the adequate nutrition it needs, and I saw results. I reached my goal.

The progress was not overnight. But I didn’t go into it thinking I wanted fast results. I wanted results that would last.

For the past two months I’ve been loosely counting my macros, eating 3 cheat meals a week, keeping the same exercise routine I previously mentioned, and I haven’t gained a single pound back. Take that last statement with a grain of salt, as they say. I can’t guarantee the same results for everyone when they have achieved their goal weight. This is just what is working for me at the moment.

So good luck to you! Stay strong! You can do it too! Once you start to see the results, the routine will become addicting.

Also, do you need guidance on how to build the confidence to lift weights at the gym? I gotchu. https://wellnesswithcheyenne.com/lift-weights-with-confidence/. Read my post on how to lift weights like a boss.

Disclaimer: The health and wellness advice provided on this platform is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the guidance of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read here. 

References:

Metabolism. (n.d.).Better Health Channel. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/metabolism#