Is BJJ good for weight loss and muscle build up?

I currently train Muay Thai about twice a week and I'm considering doing BJJ.

I did kickboxing for a number of years and have a small experience in Kung Fu and Krav Maga. So I've mainly experience in striking.

I'd like to take up BJJ to improve my grappling and become much more well rounded as a fighter.

I had a small bit of experience with MMA at another club and I found it to be a tougher workout as you end up using your whole body.

Could this type of training be good for weight loss and muscle build up?

 

I have seen people lose a lot of weight through BJJ! For strength though you are probably better doing a S&C course at a gtym.

 

great for weight loss. for strength, for me what's been strengthened the most has been my core. sure, i've gotten leaner and somewhat stronger in upper back, shoulders, arms legs. but if you're specifically looking for strength, i think you should lift weights. you want to learn to do bjj without using strength.

 

Serious BJJ training creates a certain body type, though as Mitch rightly said without diet it's effects are limited.

In my experience a BJJ body is lean, not overly muscled, but well proportioned. Kind of long and sleek rather than heavy upper body. That comes from weights and S&C specific training.

You do seem to develop a thicker neck and face which is odd in proportion.

 

The workout you get at BJJ will not have much impact on your weight What BJJ can do however is provide additional inspiration for weight-loss in the form of weight-graded competitions.

 

I disagree. The workout from BJJ will craft a BJJ body which is in good shape. Though the amount you train and what you do when you are not training will of course be the deciding factor.

I know many people who have made life changing body shape transitions just from BJJ.

To temper that no doubt that once you have certain achievements in self image you will seek to address diet and other factors to continue the improvement.

 

Isn't Roy Nelson a BJJ blackbelt under Renzo Gracie?

 

It'll probably do one or the other but not both at the same.

 

I dunno, I noticed that I went through a whole body recomposition doing BJJ/MMA in the first year. Things leveled off after that, but I increased muscle mass and lost fat at the same time.

edit: I guess a year is a long time and I might have alternately been building mass and losing fat at different points within that interval.

 

Yeah I think you might have made some noob gains and then lost fat, or the increased muscle definition can make it look like you put on more muscle.

 

Nothing is absolute, obviously, but I know plenty of people who've lost serious weight training BJJ. If you start totally de-conditioned you can get much stronger and a lot smaller at the same time, I know I did.

The whole "weight loss happens in the kitchen" thing can be exaggerated. If you change nothing else but go from sedentary to three BJJ classes week the pure calories burned is pretty significant, let alone the muscle recovery.

 

Yes, yes and yes

 

Yeah, I was taking the proverbial a bit there.

I don't know, I guess it must be gym dependant. At my gym we do not seem to see these changes you are talking about, but then we focus on technique not conditioning. Personally I do not find BJJ or MMA anywhere near physical enough to stop my weight from ballooning. I seem to be on a perpetual diet to maintain my current weight (65kg/143lb at 5'5"). If I let my diet slip I am back at 75kg/165lb within a month or two (while training 3 x 2 hour sessions a week).

 

And what would it balloon to if you stopped training? Whether you "focus on technique" or not, rolling hard is a pretty hard workout by itself, especially when people are new and have no idea what they're doing.

 

You can't out-train a bad diet.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7562840.stm ?

 

i personally don't think the dietary aspect is exaggerated. sure, if you go from sedentary to 3xbjj, that is a pretty significant. but if you're not eating the right stuff, you're not going to lose weight, if indeed that's what you want to do. this is from my own personal experience, others may vary.

 

Yes its good for stripping weight, developing a good pull an active core, and becoming a rounded fighter.

What also helps is putting that pie down.

 

you mean like this guy? what is he here, 60's?