dont want muscle!

reminds me of a customer saying "but i want to lose weight, not body fat"

LOL

No, adding muscle does not mean looking like a man. You can build muscle while toning and still looking like a girl. I would suggest getting a few personal training sessions with a trainer at the gym to show you the exercises to do to get the tone you want without the bulk that most men go for.

I've been working out for over two months now. I lift weights and do resistance training 2x a week. I do not look like a man. My arms and legs have more tone to them, and are getting towards that sexy tone that I am aiming for.

Putting on muscle is ok. Not only is it ok, it's recommended and is a good thing.

Look at this difference in my before and during picture. I'm showing you just the back picture because it's the one that really shows off the difference in muscle tone.


That's a 21 pound difference, in about a 2 month period. My waistline and thighs getting smaller, I can attribute to my cardio..but my back, shoulders and arms... that's mostly from weight/resistance training!

Don't be afraid of weights. Building lean muscle is so good and so healthy for you!!!


God bless!

Without muscle, you're going to look fat. Muscle is what makes you look leaner.

Everybody has muscle. If you don't have enough of it, it's not a good look.

Your mother is right. Muscle burns fat. Light strength training is good for you.

Heavy strength training is even better.

To the OP: Don't start out with heavy strength training. Start out slow and low - move up gradually as you get comfortable. Heading right to the heavy weights when you haven't done any training can lead to injury.

It takes time & intense training to get your muscles to bulk-up & also it requires lifting heavier weights that you can only last for 6-8 reps to have a body builder look so if you only lift a light dumbbells that you can manage w/ 15 reps or more then it is unlikely you get bulk-up. Also strength training is very important so as to sculpt your body & decrease body fat%, something that cardio cannot do.[/quite]

No, no, no, no. Doing 'Barbie' weights is almost as bad as not doing weights at all! Even doing heavy weights will not make you bulk up, unless you're taking steroids. Even men need to work for hours.

Start low but if you're doing 15 reps with ease you need to lift heavier!

The secret is toning exercises as opposed to strength building. For example, If you can do 4 sets of 20 on a 20 lbs weights as opposed to 1 of the 45, the 20 will build a better tone and definition, where the 45 will build muscles. Just an example, but you get the idea

What is the physiological difference between building "tone and definition" and building muscle?

Which one would you guess she did? http://nerdfitness.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Screen-Shot-2011-07-21-at-9.23.11-AM.jpg (sorry don't know how to resize photos in a post and it is too big)

for every 3 lbs of muscle an extra 120 calories a day is burned without doing a thing

This is simply not true. I believe it comes to 6 calories extra per pound if I recall correctly. Here is the article http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/16/health/la-he-fitness-muscle-myth-20110516

To the OP, muscle will not make you look like a man because unless you are going to take steroids your body simply does not have the hormone to do so except for a small percent of women. On the other hand the muscle will make you look more tone and healthy while at the same time you will be nice and lean.

BodyBuilding.com
Another extremely important aspect of fat loss that occurs from training with weights is adding leas muscle to your body. Lean muscle is "metabolically active", i.e., muscle burns calories even while doing nothing. So, the more lean muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolism and the more calories you burn each day while doing nothing.

Studies have estimated that for each pound of muscle that you add to your body, you burn another 35 to 50 calories per day. So, an extra 10 pounds of muscle will burn approximately 350 to 500 calories a day, or an extra pound of fat every 7 to 10 days, without making any other changes.

1lb = 35 to 50 calories per day
3lbs = ??? 3X that amount? (Sorry, I'm not a math person - but it's around 120 calories per day!)

for every 3 lbs of muscle an extra 120 calories a day is burned without doing a thing

This is simply not true. I believe it comes to 6 calories extra per pound if I recall correctly. Here is the article http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/16/health/la-he-fitness-muscle-myth-20110516

To the OP, muscle will not make you look like a man because unless you are going to take steroids your body simply does not have the hormone to do so except for a small percent of women. On the other hand the muscle will make you look more tone and healthy while at the same time you will be nice and lean.

BodyBuilding.com
Another extremely important aspect of fat loss that occurs from training with weights is adding leas muscle to your body. Lean muscle is "metabolically active", i.e., muscle burns calories even while doing nothing. So, the more lean muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolism and the more calories you burn each day while doing nothing.

Studies have estimated that for each pound of muscle that you add to your body, you burn another 35 to 50 calories per day. So, an extra 10 pounds of muscle will burn approximately 350 to 500 calories a day, or an extra pound of fat every 7 to 10 days, without making any other changes.

1lb = 35 to 50 calories per day
3lbs = ??? 3X that amount? (Sorry, I'm not a math person - but it's around 120 calories per day!)

I have heard and see the 35-50 calories a pound, the problem is it simply is not the case. I wish it was, but the reality is that your muscle metabolic activity is only a small percent of your total metabolic activity. I don't know if you bothered to read the article I linked, but it actually quotes people who study metabolism for a living. It is not 35-50 calories a pound of muscle.

Unless you start taking steriods or testosterone boosters, you can't bulk up. I can do bicep curls with 40lbs and i lift weights 5 days a week; trust me-it gives you a very feminine shape. I have never looked better than when i started getting striations and defenition. Building muscle will help you streamline much, much faster!