bit of a noob looking for advice

whippet

apologies if i come across as totally naive but I am somewhat confused and conflicted as to what I should be doing.

After years of amateur football i finished playing a few years back and as what happens with many I let my self go .. pilled on the weight and fell out of most forms of exercise.

I tried a few things .. joined gyms, swimming, cycling etc ..never got going at all until about 12 months ago I started a Kettlebell class .. quickly became somewhat addicted to it and found the benefits straightaway. I dropped weight fairly easily (without too much effort around food) .. but still have a long way to go.

As part of the Kettlebell classes i started doing some weight training .. mainly deadlifting and par for the course this is something that has really captured my imagination and now is something that I am looking to pursue further - however, I am somewhat unsure as to how to go about this.

I am in my late thirties, 5"6 currently weigh 108kg (down from about 119kg a year ago). Ideally i'd love to get down to under 90kg .. so a fair bit to go.

I hear conflicting advise from everywhere as to strength training and weightloss .. even so far as someone telling me to give up on the strength training until the weight is off - however, I have finally found a discipline that I love doing, and rather than look for an excuse not to go I will ensure that I never miss any of the three classes a week I am doing - I don't want to give up on that.

I really feel physically stronger than I did 12 months ago and last week I tested my personal best on a deadlift and managed to pull 220kg which really surprised me ... sort of knowing that I could lift a fair bit more with more specific training. This has given me urge to really look in to starting powerlifting properly.

I suppose my question is two fold:

- Can I start power lifting while the primary goal is weight loss?
- How does one go about proper power lifting?

My diet is much better in the last couple of month .. when I started seeing results with the kettlebells .. I made conscious changes to my food intake .. minimal breads, spuds, white rice etc .. plenty of fish and lean meats with veg. I am a very occasional drinker and have cut out most junk (the very odd treat with the kids on a special weekend etc).

sorry for the rambling post .. but I am mad confused looking for information myself !

aaakev

You can definitely loose fat and strength train, the more muscle you build the more fat you will burn. I wouldn't fixate so much on the weight but more so the body fat.

Credit where it's due too man because a 220kg deadlift is impressive enough on its own despite the fact your not training long at lifting so fair play!

whippet

cheers for the reply

aaakev wrote: »

You can definitely loose fat and strength train, the more muscle you build the more fat you will burn. I wouldn't fixate so much on the weight but more so the body fat.

I suppose it is totally counter intuitive to what I would have thought, part of me wants to do the quick weight loss craic .. but most people who go for the quick route end up putting it back on when out of the 'crash diet' phase. I'm sure a lifestyle change will mean a slow, steady decrease with better chances of maintaining a decent weight.

aaakev wrote: »

Credit where it's due too man because a 220kg deadlift is impressive enough on its own despite the fact your not training long at lifting so fair play!

It surprised me and my trainer .. he reckons with a proper program I could easily get that weight up to 250kg in a relatively short period of time - then again weightloss will affect the weight that can be lifted !