A lot of women are still concerned about heavy weight training.
Sure, they know that cardio isn't the answer – it hasn't gotten them the results they want yet… but in the past when they've lifted heavy, they've bulked up!
And the standard trainer response is – "That's impossible! Women don't bulk up with weight lifting!"
But what happens if that's actually happened to you?
Here is what to do:
First – Master Scale Weight
Scale weight is simple:
• More Calories Consumed = Heavier Scale Weight
• Less Calories Consumed = Lower Scale Weight
If you think it is anything other than that, you have been watching too many commercials for the Açai Diet Cleansing Scam.
Seriously, don't complicate scale weight, scale weight is simple.
The Calories of Muscle And Fat
I know this is a gross oversimplification, but deal with it:
3500 calories = 1 pound of fat
or
3500 calories = 1 pound of muscle
It requires the same calories either way.
and 5lbs of fat is bigger in size than 5lbs of muscle
That means that if you were weight training and built some muscle, and your diet remained exactly the same… you'd actually get smaller.
Whoa! That's Freakin Mind Blowing! Say It Again!
1.) It requires the same calories for a pound of muscle or a pound of fat.
2.) A pound of fat is bigger
3.) A pound of muscle is smaller
4.) If your diet stayed the same, and you started weight training and "building muscle" you'd get smaller because muscle is smaller than fat.
That Doesn't Make Sense! Why Do I Bulk Up?
Well… you have to sustain that fat right?
If you don't keep feeding your fat, it goes away.
You feed it with calories.
So to add muscle… you have to add calories.
The way a girl bulks up is by feeding the muscle… and feeding the fat.
Basically you work out and you start eating more.
But I Deserve More Food Because I Worked Out!
Studies have shown that women are more likely than men to justify eating more because they worked out.
When the craving for some crap food kicks in, you let yourself off the hook because you got in a good workout.
"I deserve it!"
or
"I'll just work out more tomorrow!"
or
"I can just have a little more!"
are all things we tell ourselves that keep us fat.
And make no mistake – it's the FAT, not the MUSCLE – that has us feel bulky.
What You Really Want
You really want muscle instead of fat.
But you bulk up when you get muscle on top of fat.
So don't feed the fat.
Stop justifying eating crap.
Lets Review
If you feel bulky: It's because of fat, not muscle.
Feeling bulky as a female is ALWAYS a food issue.
Feeling bulky is NEVER a workout issue.
A little muscle isn't a bad thing – the picture to the right illustrates muscle without fat.
Stop feeding your fat.
Your fat is like a stray dog, it'll leave if you just stop feeding it.
The reason that men and women in my Platinum Coaching Club are getting stronger and LEANER is because they are coached, and they are accountable to their FOOD and they're WORKOUTS.
Josh Hillis
Dear Josh,
I am a 19-year-old girl who has been working hard for the last 4 years to slim down from my chubby child days. I am almost there. Although my weight has steadily risen, I am much slimmer and more muscular, which I love. (Who are these muscle-fearing women you keep writing about?). I don’t have a gym so I just run in the summer and do what I guess you call circuit training indoors when it gets too cold. Variations on exercises like (prepared to be surprised) push-ups, tricep dips, jumping jacks, squats and lunges make up the majority of my workouts. My previously short and stubby legs, while still short, (I’m only 5’1) now look much longer due to the loss of fat and the gain of muscle tone. I also eat well (fresh fruits, cooked vegetables, and lean meats) 90% of the time, as recorded in my daily food journal.
However, there is some flab covering the bottom part of my upper arm that I have never been able to get rid of. Although my arms are strong (I can manage 50 consecutive push-ups and plan to keep going to until I can do 100) they still look large and shapeless when I rest them at my sides. Do you have any advice on what to do about it?
Thanks.
I’m obviously not Josh, but from what I’ve learned by reading this blog, the pushups you’re doing are becoming a lot like long slow cardio. You can do so many that it’s now more about endurance than strength. I know there’s other -harder- pushup variations mentioned on this site, so searching some of those up and incorporating them might help. If this is totally useless, my bad, and ignore it.
Like Kat said below, it’s time to change it up. 50 consecutive pushups is A LOT OF PUSHUPS!
You get a double high five! I’m sure that took some serious work! But now it’s time to work on a different adaptation for a little while.
If your only option is bodyweight, then I recommend getting The Naked Warrior from http://www.dragondoorkettlebells.com. If you’re willing to invest in just one piece of equipment, I’d get a 26lb kettlebell.
It sounds like you’ve actually been getting great results from your food and workouts. Double high five!
If you want to take your leanness to the next level, you are going to have to either step up A.) Your workouts, or B.) Your food.
I would definitely change up your workouts (not that it’s wrong, clearly your workouts rock, it’s just time for a change) and I’d take another look at your food to see if there are any opportunities there also.
You are exactly right!
One gram of fat yields 9 calories of energy. A calorie is the energy needed to raise temperature one degree. 453.59 grams to a pound = 4077. It’s true one pound of fat is 3500, but since it’s a living organism it needs energy of its own so that’s where the extra 577 goes to. The same is true of muscle or protein. Protein is 4 calories per gram, it’s less dense then fat. So to gain one pound of muscle or protein it takes (453.59 grams times 4) = 1814 protein calories. Your blog explains that it is very difficult to gain muscle, but if you don’t use the protein to build cells like hair or muscle, then it goes straight to the liver and is converted to fat. I disagree with your thesis that you need over 100 grams of protein a day in order to gain muscle. The RDA requirement for protein is about 40-50 grams, and there is strong evidence that extra protein can be damaging to the body.
I never said you need 100 grams of protein to build muscle.
In fact, I never really talk about muscle gain at all.
The RDA is the bare minimum amount required for survival for a sedentary individual. Less than that is a deficiency.
Being on the edge of deficiency is not optimal nutrition and will not make you rockstar hot.
I think it has to do with how you define bulky. Women who feel bulky aren’t necessarily really feeling fat, they just have a skewed idea of what “bulk” means. Someone women consider the Oxygen cover models as bulky and if they get that amount of muscle they freak out. Leigh Peele did an excellent blog on this a while back: http://www.leighpeele.com/bulky-muscles-and-training-females-the-definition
A lot of women were surveyed and 36% of them thought Jessica Biel was BULKY, lol. She’s not fat – they were clearly referring to her state of muscularity. So it’s really in the eye (or bicep) of the beholder.
Off-topic, perhaps: who is the model in that photograph? She is gorgeous. I’ve never seen her before.
In your opinion what is “to few calories” Keep hearing
“starvation mode” “not losing weight because you don’t eat enough”
Someone not losing weight because they eat too little calories is actually extremely rare. I’ve only seen it once ever in six years.
99% of the time, the problem is too many calories.
That being said, anything below 1200 calories for a female is definitely too low.
Oh that is an AWESOME article by Leigh Peele, I love everything Leigh writes.
That being said, I’ve NEVER met a woman who felt too bulky and looked like Jessica Biel.
The women I’ve met in the gym that feel too bulky are, without exception, always over 26% bodyfat.
Case in point – it’s easy to wake up one day and accidentally not be lean. It’s very rare to wake up one day and accidentally look like Jessica Biel.
I don’t know who the model is. I purchased the picture from iStockPhoto.com