True or False?

true but you will also lose muscle if you're just doing cardio and eating at a deficit.

i'm an easy gainer and i lift heavy weights and not gaining muscle. the reason is that i'm simply not eating enough to create bulk.

i'd think doing it your way you're being less efficient with it since you're unnecessarily breaking up your weight loss into 2 phases. why not just work on both goals at once?

but im nervous about doing weights or anything like that that will make me gain too much muscle

smh.

Do you have testicles? Or some other source of large amounts of testosterone?

I don't think you do. Stop worrying about building large amounts of muscles, because without testicles or steroids -- and without spending 3 hours a day in the gym 6 days a week, it's not going to happen to 99.99%+ of women.

It's like if a person said "You know, I really need to start playing piano a couple times a week for my health, but I really don't want to become a concert pianist". -- It's incredibly naive and insulting to the people who are actively trying and struggling to gain muscle.

" It's incredibly naive and insulting to the people who are actively trying and struggling to gain muscle."


Wow... I was never trying to offend anyone. Thanks for the advice...i guess

Don't take it personally. Women ask about this all the time, so you're just getting a bit of undeserved backlash. Here's the thing- women can't "bulk up" without steroids or an abnormally high testosterone level. He's right. There are probably a few natural female bodybuilders who have a normal amount of testosterone, but they work very, very hard to achieve those muscular physiques. For the 99.99% rest of us, its just not possible. Weight lifting preserves muscle mass and helps women lose fat more quickly, so some resistance training is beneficial for pretty much every woman. Doing cardio alone burns a ton of calories, but also burns muscle tissue in the process. Because your metabolic rate is controlled by the amount of lean muscle mass on your body, its a good idea to preserve the muscle or you will be long term slowing your metabolism as you lose weight, making it more likely that you gain the weight back on. I think that is the message that the other poster was trying to convey.

If you couldn't wear knee highs it wasn't because of muscles it was because of fat. I'm a US size 12 and just bought a pair of knee highs. My calves are pure muscle. (all the fat is in my thighs sadly)

What you see is your muscles retaining water and appearing bigger. They're not actually bigger.

So what's the true of false question?

You're a girl with an above average muscle mass. If you do cardio your leg muscles will increase, if you do weights your shoulders will. I'd be less concerned with your muscles and more concerned with your health and what's good for you.

I have some in laws that their whole family has crazy large calves, even with out a ton of exercise. They are so muscular! I think it's cool, but Whitney has to train the rest of her body to even things out. It's just genetics chick, I'd get some weight lifting in but don't go nuts, and stay with yoga to lengthen you out.

I have some in laws that their whole family has crazy large calves, even with out a ton of exercise. They are so muscular! I think it's cool, but Whitney has to train the rest of her body to even things out. It's just genetics chick, I'd get some weight lifting in but don't go nuts, and stay with yoga to lengthen you out.

you cant lengthen muscles unless you're surgically opening yourself, unattaching the muscles from where they are and reattaching them at a different location.

Here's an article on how to tone without increasing muscle mass. Some forum members acted as if this was ridiculous, but someone like you asks about this almost every day.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/593098-toning-lower-body-without-increasing-muscle-mass

you cant lengthen muscles unless you're surgically opening yourself, unattaching the muscles from where they are and reattaching them at a different location.

This.

True. That's why doing a "ballerina workout" and expecting to look like a ballerina if you weren't born with a ballerina body is nuts. I can say that exercises like the Pilates Cadillac Machine does create a feeling of having longer limbs. But that may be the result of spine decompression and not using direct resistance weights.

OP, ignore the flame posts.

The answer to your question is True. Body fat comes reduces as well as gains *uniformly*. The common phrase: "That will go strait to my thighs." is misleading and completely incorrect. Also, your ability to easily gain muscle mass is likely due to your genetics and of course, higher testosterone levels than the average woman. On another note, I forgot what else I was going to write. brb - getting coffee...

This is only partially true. We have no control over where we gain or reduce fat, but it does not always happen uniformly. It can be uniform, or it cannot. If we gained and lost fat uniformly women wouldn't tend to gain in their hips and chest. I don't know about men, maybe you do gain evenly. But everyone's body packs on pounds uniquely- I gain and lose around my hips and stomach first, other women gain and lose their boobs first. You'll see tons of threads about unhappy women losing their boobs and not their guts. For the most part, we already have all the fat cells that our body uses to store fat. They're like deflated balloons, and they expand as they fill up. After puberty, they are where they are on our bodies. The only way to adjust this is to have liposuction and physically remove fat cells- which may or may not work long term. The only exception is when all of your fat cells fill up, for obese people, the fat cells can divide and create new fat cells- which is generally bad news. The only avenue of attack we have to reduce any one area is to reduce overall body fat, and keep at it until the inflated balloons in an area become deflated balloons again.

This is only partially true. We have no control over where we gain or reduce fat, but it does not always happen uniformly. It can be uniform, or it cannot. If we gained and lost fat uniformly women wouldn't tend to gain in their hips and chest. I don't know about men, maybe you do gain evenly. But everyone's body packs on pounds uniquely- I gain and lose around my hips and stomach first, other women gain and lose their boobs first. You'll see tons of threads about unhappy women losing their boobs and not their guts. For the most part, we already have all the fat cells that our body uses to store fat. They're like deflated balloons, and they expand as they fill up. After puberty, they are where they are on our bodies. The only way to adjust this is to have liposuction and physically remove fat cells- which may or may not work long term. The only exception is when all of your fat cells fill up, for obese people, the fat cells can divide and create new fat cells- which is generally bad news. The only avenue of attack we have to reduce any one area is to reduce overall body fat, and keep at it until the inflated balloons in an area become deflated balloons again.

You are correct. Body fat is not dispersed over the entire body uniformly. However, your body does not "target" where the fat loss occurs. If you need energy from your fat stores, you take it from your body uniformly. Depending on how your body has your fat cells located - for example, a lot of fat in your breasts compared to the rest of your body - you will of course notice a decrease in your bust. Your body doesn't request fat specifically from your bust, your back, your glutes, or your thighs.

Thanks for pointing that out by the way. I didn't attempt to be misleading or spread misinformation. :flowerforyou:

Ok so give all the above posts, I have another question. Is kickboxing a good strength-training-meets-cardio workout or would it be considered strictly cardio? I have some small weights at home but am curious about fun things I could do besides going to a gym and simply lifting weights in order to get that strength training

Are you wrestling or picking up weighted bags and throwing them down in those sessions? I know it's a fantastic endurance workout, but I've never heard of it being used as strength training.

I'm not trying to be argumentative or snarky really, but still it's not quite true. You don't only lose in you r breasts because that's where the most fat is, it's a hormonally driven order and it's not always uniform. I have large breasts, and they mostly stay the same size whether I'm heavy or thinner. I'm lucky in that sense. Your body *does* selectively choose where to gain or lose fat from- because it's stored in individual holding cells, there is no other way possible to do it. It's not like the fat is in one uniform layer where you can pull from and it will redistribute to fill the space. But either way, I think the point you're trying to make is that it's pointless to worry about, because there is no way to control it and selectively spot reduce, which is true. For now. Until some bright scientist figures out the hormones involved. (they're probably on the right track with cortisol, though not there yet).

I know, I didn't assume you were - but I figured I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I'm going to do more research on how the body does in fact "choose" where to pull it's energy from. But hey, at least you understood what I was trying to say: "Don't worry about it."

Interesting article: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa94.htm

Moreover the selection process of the body happens in the reverse order, fat is used first from the places where it is stored last, that's why when you first start to exercise you rings, watches become loose, neck seems longer etc; and if you have a tendency to gain weight first on the hips I'm afraid, that's where you will lose it from the last!

If you are doing lots of cardio, you may be burning more calories than when you were active in sports. Also, i would guess that your view of your body is that you are bulkier than you really are.