Sis-science?

Is there a female version of broscience? There must because there is a common myth among women that claims they get all big and muscley when they lift weights. Whenever I talk to a woman about weight loss/ fitness etc they usually say - "but I can't do weights. I don't want to get all big and muscley". If this were true then women must present some special growth hormone that men don't as there a lot of skinny guys at the gym lifting weights making minimal gains (mostly as their technique is crap).


The truth is, for weight loss, resistance training is as effective as cardio. Depending on the type of resistance training you do, you can burn more calories and increase your muscle mass so that you burn more calories than you normally would when you aren't even at the gym. If you lift weights for the first time then you may experience some growth but this is just your existing muscles pumping up.

By increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat you don't really notice a size increase in say, your arms. In the rather crude diagram on the right I have demonstrated how by decreasing fat and increasing muscle you can stay relatively the same (depending on how much fat loss is required of course). The result is that you are left with more muscle which is the most metabolically active tissue in your body. 


Losing weight isn't necessarily the wisest goal to reach for because weight loss can mean fat loss and/or muscle loss. By increasing your lean muscle mass and decreasing body fat you may put on weight but the results will speak for themselves.
Yo-yo dieters, over time tend to get bigger and bigger because with each diet the weight they lose includes muscle loss. So when they go back to their normal eating habits they have less muscle to burn fat. With every diet they are actually decreasing their metabolism.


-Lucas