Are Deadlifts Good for Weight Loss
Is deadlift fat loss for real? The answer is yes. Usually, people think that the deadlift is only for powerlifters, bodybuilders, or muscle-building fanatics. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But the truth is that the deadlift is fantastic for you to shred fat fast. And you do not have to use heavy weights or even a personal trainer to get results. There are many spectacular deadlift benefits, but deadlift fat loss is one of the more hidden benefits of the deadlift.
When I was hovering at 275 pounds, I never dreamed that I would deadlift. I didn’t even know what the deadlift was.
I knew about the free weight area of the gym, but steered clear of it and instead worked out on the machines. I was desperate to lose weight, take off the pounds, and for every diet and exercise program I heard about, I tried it.
Chief among those strategies to lose weight was starvation, not eating.
That never works out well, because by the time evening rolls around, you might find yourself so hungry that you pack in way too many calories for the day. If you are struggling with losing weight, you know the vicious cycle of starving and bingeing.
You cannot start a beginner deadlift program for fitness or powerlifting if you are currently too big or too large.
However, I am going to walk you through the steps to take so you can get motivated to start deadlifting. You will transform your body to the point that even you will not believe the fantastic results.
1. Body transformation
You have to get your weight down. You might have to lose 75 or 100 pounds ( I did and so can you ).
Or, you might have to lose 10 or 20 pounds. Whatever the number of pounds that you need to lose, the simple steps for
- fat loss,
- building muscle, and
- body transformation
is what I call the Fit Apprentice plan.
Here is the simple secret of how to lose enough weight so that you will be able to start to deadlift and reclaim your health and fitness.
- First, stop eating processed foods.
- To repeat, you must stop eating processed foods.
- Number two, start eating more vegetables with your meals.
Some key goals to achieve are:
- target a loss of one pound of fat per week.
- have three meals a day consisting of three major food types, specifically a raw and cooked vegetable, a carb, and a protein.
- and up to two snacks per day composed of two major food types, specifically fruit and a protein like yogurt or nuts/nut butter.
2. Deadlifting for fat loss
Once you have lost enough weight that you can see your shoes again, I think you will be ready to start deadlifting. The deadlift will help put you into fat-burning mode.
The deadlift will help you to change your physique from jello (flabby and out of shape and invisible to the world) to hello! (lean and fit, and people are more likely to acknowledge you and want to spend more time with you).
The deadlift will help change your body and mind because you will gain more confidence as you get stronger.
3. Why the deadlift?
Why deadlift when you want to lose weight and get into shape? And why is the deadlift so effective for fat loss and changing your body shape?
The reason is that the deadlift is one of the best compound exercises on the planet. It works more major muscle groups than most other strength training exercises. For example, if you go to the gym and sit in a machine to do bicep curls, how many muscles do you think that you are working on?
You are only working your biceps while you sit comfortably in the bicep curl machine.
So, if you do a thirty-minute workout on that machine, or the biceps machine and the triceps pushdown machine, you have just worked your arms. But, what about your lower body?
Instead, if you spend thirty minutes doing a deadlift workout routine, you will be working hundreds of muscles. You will be strengthening the massive muscles of your lower and upper body, your legs, back, arms, literally from your feet to the nape of your neck.
Wouldn’t you rather spend thirty minutes in the gym and train your entire body? The vast number of muscles targeted is why it is much more powerful to deadlift for fat loss than it is to do bicep curls for fat loss.
Also, while curls work your mirror muscles, deadlifts will build overall strength and muscle growth for your much ignored posterior chain. The posterior chain muscles are those on the back half of your body, the ones you cannot see in the mirror, but they are massive and important for overall health. For example, your latissimus dorsi muscles, trapezius muscles, erector spinae, and gluteus maximus are all part of your posterior chain.
4. Build Strength and muscle mass – lose body fat
Cardio alone will, yes, burn calories, but will not maintain your muscle mass. When you want to get lean, you must keep your muscle mass, and the best way of maintaining and building lean muscle is by weight training.
One of the best, if not the best exercises is the deadlift. Of course, the squat is not far behind, and some would say that a squat workout is the best weight training exercise for fat loss.
The solution is to do both barbell squats and deadlifts for fat loss. In any case, the point here is that the deadlift is one of the most effective weight training exercises to build muscle.
More muscle mass means more calories burned every day, even at rest.
The estimates are that a pound of muscle can burn up to 50 to 100 calories a day, while a pound of fat requires your body to burn about a calorie a day to maintain itself.
You want more muscle, and through the deadlift, you can build more muscle all over your body.
5. The deadlift calorie deficit
The deadlift can burn plenty of calories. In a study of exercise and calorie expenditure, the number of calories burned by a 200-pound man deadlifting can reach 300 in only 30 minutes.¹
The same applies to other powerlifting exercises like the squat and the bench press. You do not need much more than 30 minutes to get the incredible benefits of deadlifts, squats, or the bench press.
You might think that the only way to create a calorie deficit is to run a few miles, not so, you can deadlift for weight loss as well. Start deadlifting and watch your fat melt away!
6. Lose more fat deadlifting than running
Not only can you burn more calories than you knew weight training, but did you know you can lose more fat? Alwyn Cosgrove, a fitness trainer, and author says that in a study between diet-only, diet plus cardio, and diet plus weights, these were the results:
- Over 12 weeks, the diet-only group lost 14.6 pounds of fat.
- The diet plus cardio group lost 15.6 pounds of fat.
- But, the weight training group lost 21.1 pounds of fat!
- If you want to torch your fat, start powerlifting for fitness.
Diet alone or diet plus cardio cannot match the effectiveness of weight training for fat loss.
7. Deadlift for Fat Loss – Summary
Do you want to:
- Change your body from flab to fab?
- Spend the minimum time necessary to achieve your body transformation?
- Improve your mental strength to cope with the crisis of divorce or any other loss/trauma?
- Find a full-body high-intensity exercise that
- builds muscle,
- raises your heart rate, and
- shreds body fat at the same time?
Then you want to start a 12-week beginner deadlift program or 3×5 workout plan. You do not need as many deadlift reps for fat loss as you might think. Even one or two sets of 5 deadlift reps per week are enough to kickstart your body transformation.
These are the most straightforward strategies to get lean and muscular. It took you years to get out of shape. But, you can get into incredible shape over six months to a year, that is not a long time! Slow and steady, and you will achieve amazing results.
Follow the essential Fit Apprentice Training formula:
- Eat real food.
- Eat when hungry.
- Never get too hungry.
- Do squats for fat loss and mental strength.
- Do pushups for fat loss and mental strength.
- Last, but not least, deadlift for fat loss and mental strength.
Watch this video from Buff Dudes that will help you prevent the most common deadlift mistakes. Also, at the end of the video is an excellent section on how to deadlift with proper form.
What’s Next
Get more details about how the deadlift targets many different muscle groups to understand its power and efficiency for strength training.
If you need to lose weight, read and start this simple weight loss program to lose 20 pounds in 3 months.
I struggled with obesity for many years until I changed the quality of my food and started walking and some minimum strength training, like squats, deadlifts, and pushups.
You can transform your body from fat to fit. Don’t give up. As always, consult with your doctor before engaging in a new nutrition and exercise program.
For example, you should be able to answer NO to every question on the CSEP PAR Q – Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire before starting an exercise program.
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- Sumo Deadlift vs Conventional: Which Is Better for You?
- The Obesity Code Summary Can Spark Your Weight Loss Success
- 7 Most Important Deadlift Muscles Worked To Change Your Life
- How to Deadlift Like a Boss In 5 Simple Steps
- 37 Great Benefits of Deadlifts to Unleash Your Fitness Fast
- 12 Week Deadlift Exercise Program for Beginners in Fitness or Powerlifting
- One Great Beginner Deadlift Routine for Weight Loss, Fitness, and Powerlifting
- 5 Best Deadlift Shin Guards on the Market Today in 2021
- Hugh Jackman Deadlift: How He Got Ripped For ‘Wolverine’
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Footnotes:
¹ Source: Ainsworth BE, Haskell WL, Whitt MC, et al. Compendium of physical activities: an update of activity codes and MET intensities. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 32, No. 9, Suppl., pp. S498–S516, 2000.
Rich is a NASM-CPT (Certified Personal Trainer), an