How to get lean and NOT look like a body builder?

strickland8052

After four solid months of healthy diet and exercise, I just keep getting bigger and bigger muscles but am not losing fat... I want to be lean and small! What can I do to get that? I currently do a lot of jogging (3-5 times a week) and various Jillian Michaels workouts 5 times a week. I eat about 1400 calories a day plus exercise calories.

Should I be eating more or less of a particular thing? Should I do more cardio? Bump up the jogs to a faster pace (I am focusing on distance.. not speed)? What am I doing wrong?

lcvaughn520

Try interval cardio workouts. They burn more fat than steady-state cardio.

deksgrl

If that is you in your profile pic, then it is clearly visible that you have lost fat. If you are eating at a calorie deficit, your muscles are not "getting bigger", you have just melted the fat off of them so you can actually see them.

billsica

Time to start lifting heavy. You won't bulk up.

billsica

duplicate post.

ami5000psu

With that calorie deficit your muscles are not getting bigger. They appear bigger because there isn't as much fat surrounding the muscle that was already there. You're not going to "look like a body builder" unless you're a genetic anomaly or taking massive amounts of supplements. It just doesn't work that way for women. So lift heavy and eat at a slightly smaller deficit. Good luck!

da_bears10089

Have you done measurements to confirm that your muscles are really getting bigger? Often it happens where you lose fat, and the muscles are more visable, but not actually bigger.

TavistockToad

After four solid months of healthy diet and exercise, I just keep getting bigger and bigger muscles but am not losing fat... I want to be lean and small! What can I do to get that? I currently do a lot of jogging (3-5 times a week) and various Jillian Michaels workouts 5 times a week. I eat about 1400 calories a day plus exercise calories.

Should I be eating more or less of a particular thing? Should I do more cardio? Bump up the jogs to a faster pace (I am focusing on distance.. not speed)? What am I doing wrong?

you're not building muscle eating 1400 cals and doing cardio workouts....

MattChurchill

Sounds like you're doing the correct things already. Try circuit training, you don't need heavy weights (sorry billsica). High intensity, lots of reps and varied activity. All stuff you can do in your own home/garage/garden if you are willing to be adventurous

DanielleJoy129

edit: someone already asked you, sorry for the dup. post

Have you ever taken measurements to confirm that you're actually getting bigger?
You look a lot leaner to me...

LoraF83

After four solid months of healthy diet and exercise, I just keep getting bigger and bigger muscles but am not losing fat... I want to be lean and small! What can I do to get that? I currently do a lot of jogging (3-5 times a week) and various Jillian Michaels workouts 5 times a week. I eat about 1400 calories a day plus exercise calories.

Should I be eating more or less of a particular thing? Should I do more cardio? Bump up the jogs to a faster pace (I am focusing on distance.. not speed)? What am I doing wrong?

you're not building muscle eating 1400 cals and doing cardio workouts....

Agreed. And your profile pic only shows someone who is getting smaller, not bigger.

3foldchord

If that is you in your profile pic, then it is clearly visible that you have lost fat. If you are eating at a calorie deficit, your muscles are not "getting bigger", you have just melted the fat off of them so you can actually see them.

DITTO.

Bekahmardis

Interval training would probably work well. I like "Sprint 8's" where you run (or cycle or swim, etc) flat out for 30 seconds at a time throughout a 20 minute workout. Between those 30 second sprints, you walk or leisurely bring your heart rate back down, then shoot it up again with another sprint. It takes you into anerobic rather than aerobic training and takes your body into a whole new level.

contingencyplan

This has got to be a troll post...

goldfinger88

When you say "losing fat" do you mean losing scale weight? It's good to make muscle and have no fear, no chance you'll look like a bodybuilder. (I'm assuming you're a female.) Muscle weighs more than fat. If you're gaining muscle as you say you are, you're losing fat. You measure fat with calipers or, at least, with a body fat scale (they're not too accurate but they're something to go by.) Scale weight tells you absolutely nothing.

If you're gaining muscle, you're lucky and you're doing the right things. Muscle and fat do not use up the same space. So, more muscle means less fat.

ZoeLifts

you're not building muscle eating 1400 cals and doing cardio workouts....

^QFT. You have to actually lift weights and intend to build muscle in order to even remotely come close to looking like a body builder. Along with that also comes eating a lot more than you are and lifting heavy weights.

billsica

Sounds like you're doing the correct things already. Try circuit training, you don't need heavy weights (sorry billsica). High intensity, lots of reps and varied activity. All stuff you can do in your own home/garage/garden if you are willing to be adventurous

No offense taken. There isn't one right answer. I'd just suggest that high reps low weigh is just adding more cardio in a different form.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

How do you figure your muscles are getting bigger?

Do you really think bodybuilders get there accidentally?

kdiamond

AGREE with all!!! You look smaller to me, and leaner.

Jillian Michaels and cardio will not make you bigger.

ggxx100

Trust me on this one: you won't look like a manly body builder. You've heard it before, women don't have nearly enough testosterone, yadda yadda. It's all true.

It'd be nearly impossible to weight train on a calorie deficit and simply gain muscle and keep the fat. Putting on muscle raises your ability to metabolize fat and what you put into your body.

I completely ditched cardio (probably not recommended for all, but worked for me) and went from 140s (highest 158) to 98 pounds with ONLY WEIGHTs. I know eat around 1800 calories, which is far more than I ever did, even at my highest weight. What does that tell you about building muscle? It will only improve your appearance and help your fat loss, not make you look manly.

So take it from someone whose weight trained for a while now and has yet to look like a body builder. Eventually I want to be a fitness model, but haven't upped the workouts enough yet.

Morninglory81

The only way you will look like a bodybuilder is if you eat like a bodybuilder 1400 cal won't do it no matter what kind of weightlifting you do.

strickland8052

Thanks everyone! Yes, the profile picture is me, but the "after" picture was taken two months ago so it isn't exactly recent. I've been measuring my waist and that does show a decrease in inches, but it is actually my legs and arms that seem to be getting bigger. (Not measuring.. but it just seems like it. ha!) My dad has freakishly big legs and I have inherited that gene!

I haven't been doing intervals lately, so I'll start that again. Any suggestions on good interval training for someone trying to build their mileage from a 5k to a 10k? Thanks so much! I look at that picture and I can't tell a dang thing has changed, so I'm happy to hear you guys see the second pic as being leaner.

LoraF83

Thanks everyone! Yes, the profile picture is me, but the "after" picture was taken two months ago so it isn't exactly recent. I've been measuring my waist and that does show a decrease in inches, but it is actually my legs and arms that seem to be getting bigger. (Not measuring.. but it just seems like it. ha!) My dad has freakishly big legs and I have inherited that gene!

I haven't been doing intervals lately, so I'll start that again. Any suggestions on good interval training for someone trying to build their mileage from a 5k to a 10k? Thanks so much! I look at that picture and I can't tell a dang thing has changed, so I'm happy to hear you guys see the second pic as being leaner.

If you're not measuring, then you can't actually know if they are getting bigger or not.

My guess is that you're losing body fat, which makes your muscles SEEM larger, but in fact, your appendages are shrinking.

PS - your legs are not freakishly large. You need to change your internal dialogue about how you see yourself.

jpolinisse

Sounds like you're doing the correct things already. Try circuit training, you don't need heavy weights (sorry billsica). High intensity, lots of reps and varied activity. All stuff you can do in your own home/garage/garden if you are willing to be adventurous

I agree with this.

FrostyBev

Since you have mentioned a specific running distance try looking at this:

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51122/10K-Novice-Training-Program ...

It is an easy to follow schedule that won't have you over training in one thing or another.

To address your interval questions I would suggest reading the following:

The how and why of interval training.
http://www.active.com/running/Articles/Use_interval_training_to_hit_your_5K_and_10K_potential as it explains it better then most.

The what of interval training
http://www.active.com/running/Articles/3-Interval-Training-Plans-to-Build-Fitness-Fast.htm

I also try to go by the 2 to 1 guideline.
Example: 1 minutes at 7 mph (2 mph faster then my 10k pace), 2 minute at 4 mph (slower then 10k pace for active recovery)
It allows me to train at a faster pace then I would be able to sustain with my current fitness level. It also allowed me to run a faster 5k then I have previously. I have fellow MFPers that do run/walks for marathon distances. It works!

2 min (recovery) to 1 min (fast)

Edited for clairty

contingencyplan

Training to get big requires working out at a level of intensity that JM workouts don't take it to while eating at a calorie surplus. You're not getting big. You're just losing fat, which is making the muscle you HAVE become more pronounced.

DrMAvDPhD

Female, 1400 calories, and growing huge muscles? Pics or it didn't happen. Actually, it didn't happen no matter what pics you decide to throw around. Start taking measurements.

ninerbuff

Not what I'm seeing. Trust me when I say that putting on muscle isn't that easy.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

DavPul

IN for pictures of the OP with bigger muscles and looking like a bodybuilder (because they aren't in her profile)

Yanicka1

I had to work very hard to gain just a few pounds of muscle. It does not happen on 1400 calories and cardio.

Brownsbacker4evr

Just don't lift heavy, stick with body weight exercises and cardio.