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Can powerlifting make you lose weight? [Article]

Posted by Pascal Landshoeft

Jul 23, 2019 9:30:00 AM

Can powerlifting make you lose weight

Can powerlifting make you lose weight?

 
Powerlifting can’t make you lose weight. A caloric deficit does. Powerlifting can be used to bring up your energy consumption to achieve this, however, diet is the better lever to pull for quick results. Always consult a doctor before making drastic changes to your diet.
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What is your why 

 
Before we go into the details of whether Powerlifting can make you lose weight, let me ask you a couple of questions:
 
  • Why do you want to lose weight 
  • Why do you want to look different
  • What happens when you do 
  • What happens if you don’t
 
These questions are key to your personal success. Sit down and answer them in writing. At best as detailed as possible. Life will get in the way of your personal dreams and desires. You need to be sure why and how you are going to take care of losing weight if that is important to you. Otherwise, you will get distracted and not make it. Many people go about their lives like this:
 
  • What do I want 
  • How do I get it 
  • Why do I want it 
 
If you focus on what you want you will run in hundreds of directions and arrive nowhere. You will spread your resources and time thin and accomplish little to nothing. Something interesting happens when you flip the order of these questions on their head: 
 
  • Why do you want something 
  • How do you get it 
  • What needs to be done 
 
Once you start putting your why in the middle of your focus things will change. What has an impact on your life will take center stage. As a result, your actions and thoughts will become more connected and streamlined. This, in turn, will get you to your goals easier and make you feel more fulfilled. If you want to know how this works on a psychological basis read Daniel Kahneman's thinking fast and slow. Simon Sinek's Ted Talk on the golden circle will change your life. 
 

Powerlifting 

 
Powerlifting is a sport in which you aim to lift the highest amount of weight possible in the bench press, squat, and deadlift
 
To do this you have three attempts for each lift. The one with the highest amount of weight lifted for each exercise gets summed up. This firms your total and the result for your competition. 
 
The heavier you are, the easier it becomes for you to move big weights. This has to do with biological and mechanical factors. Physics dictates that a body of bigger mass will find it easier to move a body of the smaller mass set that everything else is the same. From a biological standpoint, it is also easier to lift a big weight when the contracting muscles are bigger. 
 
All of this does not set powerlifting up to be the best choice when your aim is to lose weight. Yes, powerlifting is still better than doing nothing, however other options are better to lose the maximum amount of weight in the shortest amount of time. 
 

Powerlifting programs to consider

How you lose weight 

 
The first thing to do to lose weight is to get into a caloric deficit. Please consult a doctor before making big changes to your diet. Simply put, if you stop eating you will lose weight. However, that is neither sustainable nor healthy. 
 
What helps to get into a caloric deficit, while still eating to nourish your body, is to exercise. Exercising helps to burn energy and therefore justify a higher food intake or stay at the same levels of eating while losing weight. 
 
Powerlifting is very effective in terms of calories burned per second. This is why you sometimes read that weightlifting or powerlifting are some of the best ways to lose weight.  What these articles leave out is that powerlifting is not an activity that is sustainable for a long period of time. But if calories is a function of burned calories over time. The most effective exercises for this are endurance sports for which the human body is built. You will burn more calories running for twenty minutes at a constant pace than going through a 5 sets of 5 repetitions back squat workout that arches your fitness level. If you could deadlift for twenty seconds without a break you will burn more calories than running. However o doubt you will pull that off. 
 

Can powerlifting make you lose weight 

 
Powerlifting does not make you lose weight, your body does. If you feed your body less than it needs, you will lose weight. You can bring your energy consumption up through exercise. Powerlifting is one way of doing this, but probably not the most effective one. To be successful in powerlifting you need more, not less mass. If losing weight is your priority opt for endurance sports or circuit training. Endurance training takes longer but curls less. Circuit training is quicker but sucks ass. 

Topics: Lift stronger, Fitness, Strength, Powerlifting, Diet