NEW and lots of questions

[laurasgoal]

Good day to everyone! I am a recently turned 39 year old female with 20+ lbs to lose. I have never been super thin, more curvy but after the birth of my now 3 year old, my body did not rebound and in fact, has forsaken me. Granted I was waiting for it to bounce back but its obvious that I need to make some major changes in order for that to happen. Most of my problem is my midsection, its like dead meat or weight there.
I want to start lifting but I have no idea how much weight to start with. I have watched videos, read blogs and I am pretty sure I know what type of exercises to do but I am not sure how much weight to start with?

I want to transform my body into the best it can be and if it takes me a year or more to do I am going to do it!

Can someone tell me where I can find out how much weight I should be lifting to build lean muscle?

Thanks!

[kjake55]

No one can tell you how much weight to lift or where to start. That's all an individual kind of thing. I would suggest you get the New Rules of Lifting for Women book, it will give you all the basics. BUT if you want to transform your body you will have to do that in the kitchen not the gym. Read the Nutrition stickies and get yourself on a good eating plan. Good luck with your goals and be well.

[laurasgoal]

No one can tell you how much weight to lift or where to start. That's all an individual kind of thing. I would suggest you get the New Rules of Lifting for Women book, it will give you all the basics. BUT if you want to transform your body you will have to do that in the kitchen not the gym. Read the Nutrition stickies and get yourself on a good eating plan. Good luck with your goals and be well.

Ok, the eating part I am aware of and that is something I still am learning about because I do not eat badly and so why I have not successfully lost this weight is leading me to believe I need to build more muscle so the fat can burn more easily. I prepare all our food here at home, I am a SAHM. Anyway, maybe I need to ask this more clearly.

Will I get the same results from lifting 25 lbs vs 100lbs. I am talking more about free weights. I have not begun yet because our weight set is missing the items to secure the weights to the bar. My man should have already picked those up but I have to remind him again. Anyway.....should the weight I lift be hard off the bat or work my way up to it?

[Rowyn]

Ok, the eating part I am aware of and that is something I still am learning about because I do not eat badly and so why I have not successfully lost this weight is leading me to believe I need to build more muscle so the fat can burn more easily. I prepare all our food here at home, I am a SAHM. Anyway, maybe I need to ask this more clearly.

Will I get the same results from lifting 25 lbs vs 100lbs. I am talking more about free weights. I have not begun yet because our weight set is missing the items to secure the weights to the bar. My man should have already picked those up but I have to remind him again. Anyway.....should the weight I lift be hard off the bat or work my way up to it?

Eating "good" or "bad" foods doesn't matter, how many calories you consume does. You can eat whole, healthy food all day long and not drop a pound if you are eating more than you "burn".

You need to pick a decent lifting program and start there. We have no idea how strong you are, so its impossible to tell you what to start with. Generally, if a program calls for doing 8-10 reps of a certain exercise, that means to choose a weight at which the 8th rep is really hard to complete and 10 might not be possible with good form. It doesn't mean that you should pick some arbitrary weight that you can easily bang out for 10 reps and put down, it needs to be challenging within that rep range. If I were told to do a 3-5 rep range, for example, I would be lifting nearly as heavy as I could lift for 3 reps. The lower the rep range, the heavier the weight. The higher the rep range, the lighter the weight for YOUR body.

You won't make much progress doing 20 lbs if you can do 100 lbs for the same exercise, no. Waste of time.