Powerlifting and weight loss
Losing weight is a result of your dietary choices first and exercise regimen second. If weight loss is the main goal go with cardio instead of
powerlifting for best results.
What is your why
Before we go into the details of
powerlifting and weight loss, let me ask you a couple of questions:
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Why do you want to lose weight?
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Why do you want to change your body?
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What happens when you do?
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What happens if you don’t?
These questions will have an impact on your success and failure. Research shows that people who write down their goals and reflect on them are more likely to achieve them. When was the last time you did this? Can you even remember? If not, you might want to get out a pen and paper and start. Many people go about their lives like this:
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What Do I want
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How do I get it
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Why do I want it
This is a good way to get confused and stuck. What you want changes hundreds of times a day based on who you are with, what you do and where you are. Making this the center of attention will scatter the time between too many projects and spread your resources thin. The result will be frustration and exhaustion. Something interesting happens when you flip the running order of these questions on their head:
What is your goal
When you want to reach your goals clarity is of the utmost importance. When you want to powerlift and lose weight it is very likely that there is a lack of clarity, especially when you are a beginner.
When you want to lose weight, focus on losing weight and forget about the
powerlifting. Losing weight is mainly about your
diet. If you do everything the same way and just stop eating, you will lose weight. Rather than focusing on exercising and
diet, focus fully on
diet to improve your habits there. For example:
Those things are already a big change to your daily routine. Having to go to the gym while implementing them will just unnecessarily complicate things.
If your goal is to be strong,
diet becomes a lot less important. In fact, the bigger you are, the stronger you will be. That is why strongman competitors are huge. Same goes for Shotputters and hammer throwers. For
powerlifting your main focus will be on:
Diet only becomes more relevant when you want to compete. Usually, you just get the water out of your system to drop a weight class for better chances of winning.
Powerlifting
Powerlifting is the sport of the total. Your total consists of three lifts. These three lifts are the
bench press,
squat, and
deadlift. For each lift, you get three attempts. The best attempt for each lift will be counted towards your total. Based on your total you will be ranked against your competitors.
The big difference to lifting in the gym is that you will get judged by referees. Three officials will observe your attempts from different angles. They decide whether the lift has been performed according to the standards of the federation you are competing in. You need two out of three judges to agree for your lift to count. It is mandatory to have one qualifying attempt for each lift, otherwise, you will be disqualified.
Your total usually splits into 40/40/20. The
squat and
deadlift contribute 40% each while the
bench press adds 20%. This may vary per individual, age and gender. It is still a good outline and shows that
powerlifting really is the sport of strong legs.
Diet plays a role in
powerlifting to make your weight class. You can also work on your performance by going one weight class down and go an extreme cut. However, this area is for competitors and elite athletes. For the average joe,
powerlifting is not really the magic gate to weight loss. Cardio will usually yield better results.
Weight loss
If weight loss is your main goal you have to turn to track your
diet. Know your current weight, what you want to achieve and how much time you will let pass until reaching it.
Weight, however, is quite an arbitrary way to measure what you actually want. Wanting to lose weight is usually an expression of being unhealthy or feeling unattractive.
In terms of unhealthy, we are talking about too much weight for your height. Here it is important to make changes which will stick so you don’t get back to the old weight. Depriving yourself of entire food groups is usually not sustainable. It is preferable to work with portion control.
If you want to lose weight because you feel unattractive you might want to have a look at your perception of yourself and the standards you stress about. If you want that shredded beach look, be aware that it is usually not sustainable all year around.
Powerlifting and weight loss
Weight loss is mainly driven by your dietary choices.
Powerlifting is a sport that generally promotes consuming more than less food. A bigger individual usually lifts more.