Have you ever heard a woman say that she has goals to look “fit” but also that she doesn't want to get “too bulky”?
As a sort of “calm down we aren't discriminating” disclaimer… I might add that this is likely an issue that primarily affects women as men typically ARE wanting to look bulky! So, the same mentality doesn't often apply and you won’t typically see men hesitant to pick up weights… I use the term “typically” because there are always exceptions to this, however, if we are looking at the majority, women will struggle more often than men with this issue.
An extremely common weight loss mistake is the thought that to get smaller you MUST burn ALL the calories ALL the time and the ONLY way to do this is through hours and hours of endless cardio. (On a closely related subject, check out this previously published article!) Of course most everyone knows that if you want bigger biceps, strength training is absolutely essential to making this happen. But, what if you aren’t trying to max out your muscle size, or you aren’t interested in deadlifting twice your bodyweight, rather, you just want to look more fit, improve your health or drop those last stubborn 10lbs to reach your goal weight? Yes friend, strength training might still be the best way to reach these goals!!
The truth is just merely dropping weight by means of a prolonged calorie deficit will likely lead you to a smaller version of your current self, same shape, less mass. And in the process you’ll likely burn away more precious muscle mass along with fat and this, in the long term, can be damaging to any long term progress of actually maintaining this smaller version of you. On the contrary, building lean muscle mass AND losing fat will lead you to a whole new shape with an improved body composition and in turn, improved health all around from looking better to feeling better to lower chances of developing many cancers, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and even Type II diabetes. Improving your body composition along with other lifestyle improvements may even have the potential to reverse many of these health issues if they are already present.
Okay, but, “I don’t want to look manly or like a bodybuilder!!” said all females ever…
Listen up, "A lot of people believe that if they don't want to look like a bodybuilder, they shouldn't perform resistance training," says Michael Rebold, director of integrative exercise sciences at Hiram College in Ohio. "So the only form of exercise they do is aerobic – and then they wonder why they are having trouble making significant improvements in their health," he explains.
Plus, building muscle bulk requires very specialized and extremely intense training and nutrition regimens, and it doesn't happen on accident or by doing bicep curls with 10lb dumbbells.
While cardio exercise can stimulate muscle growth to some degree, (this is especially true in individuals going from completely sedentary to active through cardio exercise), ultimately, the effect isn’t as pronounced as it would be with strength training. This MATTERS!! As you increase your metabolic rate with higher muscle mass, your body burns more calories at rest.
Contrarily, the more you increase your cardio time and thus increasing the calorie demands for energy, the more muscle mass you are going to burn and yes, this means consequently losing it, the slower your metabolic rate can get. The result leads to a big risk of a weight-loss plateau. Or worse yet is the risk of regaining the weight and then some!
After all, do you really want to lose “weight” or do you want to firm up the squish and tame the jiggle?
> Prolonged bouts of cardio has a time and place, sure!
> High Intensity cardio sessions have a time and place, absolutely!
Mostly, these play into specific sports training.
> But when it comes to sustainably decreasing fat mass and maintaining this loss, primarily strength & resistance training is what is going to accomplish this.
References
“11 Benefits Of Strength Training.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, health.usnews.com/wellness/fitness/articles/2018-03-23/11-benefits-of-strength-training-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-muscle-size.
“3 Reasons Strength Training Helps You Lose Weight: Fitness: MyFitnessPal.” Under Armour, 23 Aug. 2019, blog.myfitnesspal.com/3-reasons-strength-training-helps-you-lose-weight/?otm_medium=onespot&otm_source=onsite&otm_content=article-page%3Aarticle-footer-unit&otm_click_id=7faef599-956c-49fc-a4ec-efc6f011f489.
“Experts Debate: Is Cardio or Strength Training Better for Weight Loss?: Weight Loss: MyFitnessPal.” Under Armour, 16 July 2019, blog.myfitnesspal.com/experts-debate-is-cardio-or-strength-training-better-for-weight-loss/?otm_medium=onespot&otm_source=onsite&otm_content=article-page%3Ainline-unit-text&otm_click_id=cbc8259e-898b-49fd-aa4a-d2e02bed50af.
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