Gain Strength, Feel Great, Be Powerful: How Building Muscle Will Help You Reach Your Weight Loss Goals
Is it possible to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time?
I have something very exciting to tell you about today!
This is something that is VERY near and dear to my heart because a common theme among women is the fear of "getting bulky.”
I'm here to tell you that MUSCLE IS YOUR FRIEND. It will help you reach your weight loss goals.
Understanding how we build strength and muscle is muy importante because I don't want you to be wasting your precious workout time focusing on the wrong stuff...AND I don't want all that hard work to go to waste just because you're not eating properly for recovery.
Building Lean Muscle
Building muscle is an amazing way to help you burn fat and enjoy eating some of the foods you love, guilt free. An increase in muscle mass will help you boost your metabolism so you’re burning more calories at rest and help your performance during workouts.
Plus, those benefits are truly just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re looking to get leaner, look no further and put the information below into action.
Okay yes, doughnuts may not be the first carb to go for, but you can still indulge and lose weight! That’s the benefit of muscle mass.
First of all: let's set something straight... “Lean Muscle” is a misnomer.
All muscle is fat-free tissue. So, all muscle is lean muscle. There's no need to say “lean muscle” because there is no such thing as “fat muscle.” It’s all muscle! I do have a theory though, on where this redundant phrase came from…
It can be difficult to put on muscle mass, especially for women. Since you can't just make something from nothing, you have to provide the necessary building blocks for your body to create muscle tissue.
It’s hard to put on muscle mass without also adding fat because of this need for extra calories. An unfortunate consequence of this caloric surplus is fat gain alongside the increase in muscle.
Lean Muscle vs. Lean Gains
So, when someone says they want to gain "lean muscle", typically what they really mean is that they want to gain muscle without also gaining the fat. I've never heard anyone say "I really want to build muscle and put on another five pounds of fat."
Why? Because body fat doesn't really help us. It's not really good for much (unless you’re preparing for a famine and then it's super nice to have around) and we usually prefer aesthetically to have less body fat rather than more. Most people want to build muscle while staying lean.
So, how do you build muscle while losing fat?
We have to have two things: the right ingredients and the right stimulus. Think of it like baking a cake. You can mix all of the ingredients together, but if you don’t put it in the oven, it’s never going to magically turn into a cake.
Conversely, if you put an empty cake pan in the oven and check on it an hour later, still no cake. Why should there be? You haven’t provided the materials that cake is made from. You need both.
You have to eat for it.
The ingredients needed to build muscle are mainly protein and carbs. These two macros support muscle growth and help replenish the energy we burned while those muscles were at work.
That means you’ll be needing protein and carbs to put on the strong, sculpted muscle you’re after. A low-carb diet is usually not appropriate for active individuals looking to add some muscle to their frame.
Muscle building requires eating enough and training enough to see results!
You have to train for it.
The stimulus, aka “the oven” from our cake example, is the actual workout. You have to challenge your body so that it has a reason to change.
When you workout, specifically when you engage in strength training, you cause damage to the muscle, and that damage has to be repaired. Your body gets to work repairing the damage, and tries to fortify the tissue so that’s it’s a little stronger than before.
If your workout isn’t challenging enough, it’s not going to cause much damage, and your body won’t view building muscle to be a necessary adaptation.
It's important to note here that strength training doesn't automatically mean you're using weights. Strength training is any kind of resistance training that will force the body to adapt by building strength.
You Can Gain Muscle Without Getting Bulky!
So, for all of the ladies out there that are worried that they’ll "get bulky” from strength training, you can lay those fears to rest. Unless you are eating for it AND training for it, you just won’t add much muscle, simple as that!
Additionally, as women, we do not have enough testosterone to allow us to gain muscle quickly or easily. It takes a lot of hard work to gain a visibly noticeable amount of muscle mass.
Here’s my recommendation: give strength a chance, and then see how you look and feel. If you feel you put on too much muscle or get bulky, you can stop what you’re doing and go back to different methods. Or, reach out to me via email or this quick contact form, and I can help out.
Gain Strength, Feel Great, Be Powerful.
If you want to gain strength, feel great, and be powerful (which are all amazing side effects of building muscle!) then all you have to do is make sure your workouts are adequately challenging and that you aren’t restricting your protein or carbs.
Allow your body to reap the full rewards of all the hard work you’re putting into your workouts, and embrace the strength you offer as a women.
About Ashley:
Ashley is a Pilates instructor and personal trainer in NYC who specializes in biomechanics and exercise nutrition for women. She uses the science behind exercise physiology to empower her in-person and remote clients to lead healthy, happy lives. Her passion project is sharing this information through her blog, which focuses on Lifestyle, Exercise, Active recovery, and Nutrition and serves as the backbone for her online health and fitness programs. She aims to get this information into the hands of as many women as possible so they can feel stronger and more confident in their bodies! Follow her Instagram page for daily fitness and nutrition tips!