Order of Operations and some Advice

[okay]

Hi, I'm 50m and need to lose about 25 lbs. For the past two months, I've been running about 2m daily (M - Fri) and lifting weights/doing bodyweight exercises three days weekly (Mon - Chest/Back; Weds - Arms; Fri - Legs; Tues/Thurs - Abs). I've lost very little weight this way, although I feel physically better and see gains in my running and amount of weight used.

I'm noticing that I'm really slowing down on my weightlifting days because I always go for my run first. As my run speed/mileage increases ever so slightly, I wind up more exhausted and my ability to push myself on my M/W/F workout days decreases. So I was considering completely dropping the running on M/W/F to focus down on lifting hard, and continue running on only T/Th/S for weight loss.

Yes, I'd like to gain muscle mass, which I realize in turn helps to burn calories, but my #1 top goal at my age is weight loss and cardiovascular health. Am I making a good choice by dropping running and focusing on weightlifting?

Thanks for any (kind/helpful/patient) thoughts or advice you have on the topic!

 

[psalmist_j]

@okay You need to just focus more on your diet for weight loss. If you have been maintaining weight for the last while, figure out a way to remove about 300-500cal from your diet each day. You should be losing .5-1lbs per week like that, if you aren’t, remove more calories.

 

[okay]

@psalmist_j I eat about 1500/day, well under what I need to maintain my current weight. It might even be considered slightly low. No luck. Though I admit that I overdo it some weekends on my cheat day — a little hard to believe, but that one day might be bouncing me back up every week to where I was before I lost that week’s weight?

 

[psalmist_j]

@okay I kind of doubt your cheat day could do that. Maybe I guess, but I suspect your diet just isn’t what you think it is. 1500cal should get you down in weight, but it isn’t, so you just gotta go lower. You really can’t just exercise away the fat. A hard run is what 400 calories? That’s less than one beer.

 

[okay]

@psalmist_j A) it sounds like you're telling me to starve myself. I'm using the "LoseIt!" app, on which I track every tiny thing I eat, and have done every day since Aug 1. My recommended daily intake for weight loss is 1750/day, and I'm eating 1500. I probably shoulnd't eat much less if I want to be healthy and keep any of the muscle I'm building!

B) nobody's answering the question I came here with, which was about dropping my running to focus on weightlifting. I think the go-to answer for newbies is "you just don't understand how to count calories!" but the only reason I'm posting here is because r/fitness literally doesn't allow a person to ask advice anymore. I get how to count my calories and I get calorie deficit for weight loss. Do you have any advice on my original question, besides to eat fewer calories?

 

[psalmist_j]

@okay 1) Ok I don’t know man. I’m not trying to be a jerk here, but you have a certain activity level and you have a certain calorie intake and somehow you aren’t losing weight. So I guess you either aren’t burning as many calories as you think or you are eat more calories than you think. That’s just kinda the physics of it.

2) You are telling people your top goal is weight loss, so people are picking up in that and focusing on it. You can stop most cardio and focus on lifting and still lose weight.