I’m here to tell you, you will not look ripped or buff unless you want to. Even then, it’s really hard to get that muscular look on a woman and that’s mostly a genetics thing, which kind of sucks because I’m a woman and I do want to get ripped and look muscular, but it’s super hard to get there.
A lot of women I know are all about losing weight, and by weight, I mean fat. Let’s take this one point at a time, shall we?
Losing weight does not always equal losing fat.
To lose weight, you must be in a calorie deficit. It’s just math, right? No really, it’s just math. There was this guy, a scientist guy (and I’ll post the link and source and everything) who was like “All you need is a calorie deficit to lose weight and I’ll prove it by eating really unhealthy foods, but it’ll be in a calorie deficit and I’ll still lose weight” and he did. So why should we focus on what we eat rather than how much we eat? Well that’s an excellent question, and highlights my main argument here. When you don’t eat the right stuff, you don’t just lose fat, you lose muscle too. But if you don’t want to look buff what’s the big deal? Another great question and it brings me to my second point.
Muscle mass helps you lose fat!
Wait… gaining weight in muscle helps you lose weight? What? YES. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. That means it’s burning calories all the time. Even when you’re not using them. The more calories your body burns, the more your body will tap into fat stores for those calories (providing you’re in a deficit). Okay so how can we be in a calorie deficit… but also gain weight in muscle? Wow, you’re asking all the right questions and I love this for you.
PROTEIN
Yeah I know. Protein. Evil evil protein. (Okay I love protein tbh but it’s hard to get my girlfriend to eat enough protein but I’m hoping this post might change her mind a bit on it). What is protein? At the molecular level, proteins are made up of amino acids. Your body is able to synthesize some amino acids, but not all of them. Some need to come from your diet. Where do we get these amino acids? You guessed it. Protein rich foods. These are items like meat, dairy, eggs, lentils, beans, fish, etc. So you need to eat enough protein for your metabolism to be like “Oooooh look at all this extra protein we have. What ever will we do with it?” And then you combine that with strength training so your muscles reply “Oh we are hurt and injured. We need that extra protein to heal up and build more muscle so we can move these heavy things.” So as you train, you actually end up tearing your muscles. These are called microtears and they’re totally fine, nothing to worry about. These goal is to allow your muscles to repair the microtears by adding more muscle. So, a calorie deficit + lots of protein = fat loss and muscle growth. This is known as body recomposition. If you’re building muscle, the deficit doesn’t even have to be super big for you to start noticing looser pants or some changes to your belt notch. Try to aim for 0.8-1g of protein per pound of your goal weight for muscle building. It’s rough but possible.
But Beck… if I gain muscle, I’m gaining weight.
Yes, that is correct. Muscle tissue is way more dense than adipose (or fat) tissue. Consider the pound of lead vs a pound of cotton. A pound of lead takes up a lot less space than a pound of cotton. That’s a lot of cotton. I actually can’t even picture how much cotton you would need to make a pound. Okay let’s switch to… water. A pound of water is about 2 cups, or 450mL. A pound of lead would be about 40mL. The water in this scenario is fat, and the lead is muscle. The bottom line is don’t rely too much on the scale to see your progress. The numbers might not even move much at first because you’ll be losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time. But it'll be good in the long run because when you gain a pound of muscle, it will take up much less space on your body than a pound of fat will!
If that doesn’t convince you to lift weights, then consider these other positives:
- Strength training can help you keep bone density as you get older
- Strength training can help with symptoms of menopause
- Strength training does help you burn fat
- Can improve mood
- Can improve sleep
- Can keep/make your joints strong
- Back exercises can help with posture (check out the specific exercises cited below)
- Helps control blood sugar (diabetes is a huge problem these days so this can help!)
The bottom line is that moving and strength training is incredibly beneficial. Cardio is too, don't get me wrong, and don't skip cardio either. Just change it up everyday. One day, do weights. The next day, do cardio. If you must do both in one day, it's better to do cardio AFTER lifting as it can reduce injuries and fatigue while lifting.
As always, I'm Beck, and thanks for reading. Now, get a move on!
Citations*
Muscle is metabolically active tissue -- more muscle = higher resting metabolic rate: https://www.massgeneral.org/news/article/why-muscle-mass-matters-and-how-to-keep-it
Twinkie Diet guy: https://www.acsh.org/news/2010/11/09/food-for-thought-twinkie-diet-helps-nutrition-professor-lose-weight
Ways strength training can help women: https://www.uchealth.org/today/what-women-need-to-know-about-strength-training/ , https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/11/1236791784/strength-resistance-weight-training-longevity-aging-heart-disease
Back exercises for posture: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/posture-exercises
*these are citations that have cited other studies. I did not link the actual study publications here as I am trying to make everything accessible and easier to digest for people
Comments
Post a Comment