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Let's debunk some myths, and clarify some things around lifting weights as a woman! If you've been a cardio bunny who is afraid of "getting bulky", are new to lifting weights, or maybe someone who is currently lifting and not seeing body recomposition like you'd hoped, this is the episode for you!
Episode Mentioned:
Possible Reasons You're Not Losing Weight Episode - With Coach Kristen
To try a free week of my signature Fit for Hiking program to get you fit from the trails (gym AND at-home options) start HERE.
Episode Mentioned:
Possible Reasons You're Not Losing Weight Episode - With Coach Kristen
To try a free week of my signature Fit for Hiking program to get you fit from the trails (gym AND at-home options) start HERE.
For next level fat loss strategies, hormone/gut health help, serious performance goals and unparalleled support, apply for Mountain Metabolic coaching. Learn more HERE.
For more free wellness resources, hiking/travel guides, and other blog posts, check out my website HERE.
What is Fit for Hiking?
Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!
Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a longtime fitness professional in Midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. In combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. 2s Hi friends, welcome back to the fit for hiking podcast. This is your host Brady. And today we are going to be digging into the topic of lifting weights as women, really dispelling some of the myths around like, does lifting weights make us bulky? We get bigger. Do we gain weight when we lift weights? All of these different things. And after working in fitness for a decade now, I've definitely heard the sentiment many times over that lifting too heavy as a woman leads to what we think of as a bulky look. You know, images of crossfitters or bodybuilders may even come to mind when we think about the body type of a woman who lifts weights regularly. So maybe we even know other women who lived and they might not have your ideal body type. Maybe they look a little bit bulkier than how you would want to look. So there's all these different types of things that we might think of when we think of women who lift weights, especially if it's not something that you're currently doing. So I definitely understand that it can feel daunting when you're told to lift weights to achieve certain body composition or health results. So today we're going to be unpacking this concept of lifting and getting bulky and what truth and mist there are within that. I also want to share that I too used to kind of fall victim to this mindset. There's a lot of predatory marketing that's done towards women in the fitness space. So if you've ever seen ads that are for. Workouts like Pilates or yoga, and they're described as lengthening or toning or slimming, then you have also been a target. These things are so subtle, and they're all around us that we might not even notice how predatory they are. But there's definitely certain types of workouts that are marketed more towards women and use the words like lengthening, toning, slimming all these words that try to kind of play at our insecurities of wanting to be smaller or feeling like we need to be smaller in order to be fit in the way that a woman is, quote unquote, supposed to be fit. Right? So this idea that certain exercises tone and then some bulk. So I want to kind of first start by breaking down that myth of toning versus bulking, because this is something that I think there's a lot of confusion around. And unfortunately, a lot of people are putting out false information that just perpetuates this because they're trying to sell something to you. So when we think of toning, we often think about a lean individual who has, you know, defined muscle but is still fairly thin and small in general. Right. That's kind of what we think of when we think of someone who's quote unquote toned. A common misconception is that you can tone a muscle versus bulking a muscle. I've heard this thrown around so many times after working in fitness for so long, of people saying, well, I don't want to bulk my muscles, I want to tone my muscles. However, this is not how our muscles work. That would be like saying that you can have toned fat or toned bones versus bulky fat or bulky bones. Muscle is lean mass by nature, so you can only increase your total muscle mass or you can decrease your muscle mass. There's no such thing as like bulky muscle versus lean muscle. All muscle is lean, so I think it's first important to understand that fact. So what's happening then when you see a lean, muscular person versus maybe what you might think of as like a bulkier, muscular person? And I just want to say like, there's no wrong or right body type. It's really all what you prefer. And we're all going to have unique body types and carry our weight differently. In all of that is fine. I just kind of want to break down some of these myths around toning versus bulking. When it comes to being a woman who lifts weights. So the there's two things here to consider when it comes to this topic of like lean muscle versus bulkier muscle, the bulkier individuals. So someone who maybe has a lot of muscle, but they also just in general are a little bit bigger, a little bit stockier. The bulkier individual has more muscle. And maybe more body fat. Okay, so it's not just because they've gained like large quantities of muscle. The reality is a lot of people gain muscle, but they also gain body fat because they're not necessarily keeping close reins on their diet. Maybe that's not their goal. Maybe they just want to focus on getting stronger and feeling good. So they're eating more to accompany their goal of gaining muscle. So they've likely been eating in a calorie surplus or at maintenance while gaining muscle. Okay, so that's really important. The two go hand in hand. You can't gain muscle very well without eating enough food, without eating, at least at maintenance or in a calorie surplus, because that muscle is not just going to come out of thin air. We need to give our muscles the fuel that they need in order to grow. So therefore that individual has more muscle on their frame, but either the same amount of body fat or more. Okay, so this is what's typically happening when you see someone who's gaining muscle, but also like growing in size, right? The next thing to consider is that genetics are at play. So we have, you know, predesigned bone lengths and frames that are determined by our genetics. Therefore, someone who's taller. As longer bones. Longer limbs may appear to be more toned or leaner than someone who's shorter and stockier and has like these smaller limbs. Right? Like I'm never going to have the same build as a six foot. Victoria's secret model. It's just not going to happen. I'm five foot five and I'm a little bit stockier. My arms and legs aren't very long, so I want to go over a couple scenarios here for the person who might be saying, well, I started lifting weights and I feel bigger, or I've even gained weight because this is a very real scenario. So I want to talk about why this is happening, because I think we're so quick to just blame weight lifting and say, well, I gained weight when I started lifting, and that was the opposite of the result that I wanted. So it must just not work for me. It must not work for my body type. So here are a few common examples of what can happen for someone who's not lifting weights versus lifting weights over time. So example one this person isn't paying close attention to nutrition or tracking intake. They just kind of eat, you know, generally healthy, but maybe go a little bit crazy on the weekends, not really keeping track of things. And this leaves them in a in a very slight calorie surplus over time, which leads to subtle fat gain. This is what happens to the general public. Most people aren't keeping track of their intake. Most people are gaining weight slowly over time as we age, because we're just not paying that close of attention to it. We're typically less active as we get older. We're not moving around as much as we did when we were young. This is just kind of what happens. So that's why a lot of people look back and they're like, oh, over the last few years I've gained, you know, £10, £20. It happens slowly and subtly in this way. However, at the same time, they're also losing muscle slowly over time because they're not engaging in strength training. And maybe if they do activity, it's more cardio based type of stuff. So this causes minimal weight gain and maybe not even like much of a size change in their body due to the muscle loss and slight fat gain. So because this person's losing muscle and at the same time gaining slight fat, their body composition is changing and that they have more fat mass and less muscle mass. But that might not actually be reflected on the scale because of those ratios shifting, right? The average person is losing muscle as they get older. Over a decade, the average person loses like 5 to £10 of muscle. This is a lot of muscle, and so it definitely affects our body composition. If we're not actively trying to preserve or gain muscle over time. Okay, so that's a very common example of someone just like not really focusing on doing weight bearing activities, not super focused on their diet. That's why a lot of people's body compositions change in that direction over time. So example number two, listen up closely. If you are saying I started lifting weights and I feel bigger or I feel like I've gained weight. So example two this person also is just kind of eating a normal amount, isn't paying super close attention to nutrition or tracking intake, but generally it's okay. Sort of healthy, maybe not the best on the weekends. This leaves them again in a slight calorie surplus. Over time, however, they are engaging in strength training, which leads to muscle gain over time. So while the body composition changes are actually favorable here, whereas this person is gaining muscle and maybe even lowering body fat or keeping body fat the same, they might gain scale weight due to the increase in muscle mass and slight calorie surplus. Okay, this is what happens 99% of the time when people say, I gained weight when I started lifting weight, it's because our nutrition is not intentional. So it's really crucial. If you're someone who says, I want to get toned, I want to change my body composition, I want more muscle and less fat. This means you need to focus on both the components of increasing muscle mass, so you actually have that visible muscle to show. Otherwise you're not going to really have that toned appearance, right. But you also need to focus on lowering overall body fat percentage to show that muscle to reveal that muscle. So this is the part of the equation most people get wrong. Maybe they start lifting weights and that's a great step in the right direction. But if your goal is losing fat and looking more toned, you cannot ignore nutrition. It's absolutely crucial that we are in a slight deficit over time. Otherwise, you're going to probably gain some weight when you start lifting weights. It's a natural effect. Doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. It just means we need to dial in nutrition a little bit more. 1s So the reason that we want more muscle is because of its many benefits as we age, such as increased bone density, functionality, capability, strength, obviously, but it's also massive for metabolic support, meaning that we're going to burn more calories at rest simply by having more muscle on our frame. Muscle is metabolic tissue, so this is huge for maintaining a healthy metabolic rate as we age. And that's also just going to naturally then increase our total daily energy expenditure, which is amazing. If we don't want to have to constantly manually burn calories through activity, which most of us don't. It's a more efficient way to stay lean and maintain a healthy weight over time, so gaining slash maintaining muscle while in a calorie deficit is one of the best things that you can do for yourself. If fat loss or toning is your goal because it's going to be not only crucial for improved body composition, you're not just losing muscle and fat at the same rate, but it's also huge for your metabolic health, which is absolutely essential for weight maintenance. If our metabolic rate drops due to just losing a ton of muscle while we also lose fat, which can happen if all we're doing is like not eating very much and doing a ton of cardio or no exercise, and just like starving ourselves, which unfortunately a lot of women do in a very unhealthy effort to lose weight. But you're also going to be shooting yourself in the foot from a metabolic standpoint, because your basal metabolic rate is going to drop if that's your tactic for weight loss. So in order to maintain those efforts, it's going to be a lot harder if we don't go about this the right way, which is why so many people who lose weight, who lose fat don't maintain it. It's a lot harder to maintain than it is to lose. Like anybody can lose weight by just like stopping eating very much for a while. Like having these crazy diets. That's not impressive. What's impressive is doing things the right way and actually being able to maintain it. If you can maintain a healthy weight loss long term, that shows that you took the time to do things the right way. Put your body composition first instead of just focusing on losing weight, and also put your metabolism first and your mental health, your relationship with food, all of these things that are really crucial to be in check in order to maintain a healthy weight over time. You can't fake it in order to maintain it. So. Let's talk about weights versus cardio, because this is a huge topic of debate. Typically people fall into one camp of like hardcore weightlifter or hardcore runner, cardio bunny, whatever you want to call it. And I definitely find myself somewhere in the middle because there's really amazing benefits of both. But let's talk about how we kind of determine what that looks like in our own life and our own workout schedules. So first we would need to establish what your clear goal is. What does success look like for you? This is one of the main questions that I ask individuals who are applying for mountain Metabolic coaching, because if we're not crystal clear on our goal and on what outcome we'd want to see in the next six months or so, then it's going to be really hard to measure that success, because how do we know what success looks like? You know, maybe you even lose some weight, lose some inches, gain strength. But if you haven't set those, you know, metrics of like, these are the things that I want to accomplish, it might not feel like enough. You might not feel like you're reaching your goal. So it's really crucial to start there. What does success actually look like for you in this space? Is it performance driven? Is it fat loss or body composition change driven? Is it habit driven? Or perhaps maybe a combination of some of these things? That's usually the case for some of our mountain metabolic clients. So no matter your goal really across the board, I can very safely say that a foundation of 2 to 3 times a week strength training is recommended. Like no matter your age, no matter what stage of life you're in, no matter if you want to run a marathon or get stronger or lose weight, this is going to allow you to maintain or build muscle. And that's obviously going to depend on your frequency, intensity, consistency if you're progressing your weights over time, which is, as we discussed before, a vital foundation for health, proper aging, performing well in the activities that you enjoy, healthy metabolism and favorable body composition. So this is really the baseline of what every single person should focus on as far as you know, what they're doing in their workouts. I can't state it enough no matter what. Please do some sort of strength training at least two times a week. If that's all you're doing, great. At least focus on that. So what I mean here when I say weight training or strength training is that it's a weight bearing activity, ideally done progressively. So if you're kind of confused on what that means, go back and listen to the possible reasons why you're not seeing workout results episode. I'll link it in the show notes. This was an amazing episode with one of the Mountain Metabolic coaches, and we talk about what is true progression in our workouts look like and how it really affects our results. So you want your strength trained to be on in a progressive manner, meaning that you're not just using the same weights endlessly over time, but you really are continuing to challenge your muscles and with ample rest and good form. So oftentimes classes like, you know, super fast paced circuits, hit style workout classes get lumped into the strength training category. When, to be honest, they probably shouldn't because a lot of these things are not done in true progressive overload fashion. They're not going to be extremely effective over time. So let me clarify what I mean by that, because obviously doing something is always better than nothing. And if you love that style of workout and that's the only thing that gets you to the gym, that's amazing. And if you're just getting into exercise, those things may act as a stimulus for building muscle, especially if you haven't done much in the past that's been, you know, stimulating your muscles for muscle growth, then this is going to be great, however, because over time, the stimulus is no longer as novel to your body. If you're doing this exact same body weight exercises or lightweight movements without any form of progression, we're not increasing intensity. We're not increasing in volume. We're not increasing the weights in some form. Then it's going to lead to a plateau and therefore diminishing returns. So I'm not saying that these types of workouts are useless by any means, but what I am saying is that if that's all that you're doing, rinse and repeat over and over again without adding any form of progression, then you will start to kind of see. A plateau and that can be frustrating. So to eliminate that, we want to build in proper progressive overload. So definitely go back and listen to that mode that I referenced before. It is so helpful if all of this is new to you, and it feels a little bit overwhelming, and if you're also if you're unsure of where to start, stick around until the end, because I have a discount and offer for you to get started with a plan for success in this way. So if this is something that's resonating with you and feels a bit daunting, definitely stick around till the end. 1s Okay, so talking about how we implement cardio. So we already mentioned that having that foundation of two to time, 2 to 3 times a week strength training is recommended. We want to do it properly with progression. We want some added rest. We don't want to just rush our way through things because we want our muscles to be challenged more than our lungs, and this is something you definitely see in classes where you have like 30s of rest. And it's like, well, of course you're not going to be able to pick up a super heavy weight because you're gassed from not having enough rest, but you're more so getting the cardiovascular challenge than you are a muscular challenge there. So we want to make sure that we're careful with separating the stimuli of strength training versus cardio. So when we're talking about adding cardio, um, this is especially helpful if you have some sort of cardio performance goals such as like a big hike, a bucket list adventure, a marathon, triathlon, biking events, something of that nature, or if it's something you simply really enjoy. However, cardio is far less effective for fat loss than many people think. I did a whole episode about running and fat loss, so if that's of interest to you, go back and listen to that one. I'll link that in the show notes as well. But trying to burn calories manually through cardio is far less than you'd assume, meaning that the energy expenditure is usually overestimated. The cardio machines that try to, you know, populate some sort of like random number for how many calories you're burning. Those are usually grossly overestimated. Okay, so excessive cardio is also going to really drive up hunger, making it harder to adhere to any sort of calorie deficit, which is ultimately the number one determinant of fat loss. So if we're interfering with our hunger signals, that's going to make it even harder. So sometimes we just end up in this cycle of like. Doing tons of cardio, getting really hungry, overeating and then not seeing results, which is really frustrating. So this is why many people actually gain weight while training for things like marathons. Performance and fat loss typically don't mix very well because they require different intake considerations. So it's just something to think about. If you're someone who has always felt like you needed to do tons of cardio in order to lose weight, you really, truly don't. It's kind of liberating when you realize that, especially if you're not someone who loves cardio. Now, I'm definitely not saying that you shouldn't ever do cardio. I really enjoy it. I like hiking, I like jogging, I like doing a lot of these activities, but I don't use cardio to lose weight like I used to because it really did just put me in this vicious cycle. So I recommend doing lower intensity forms of of aerobic activity such as hiking, daily walks, low intensity, low intensity cardio, um, occasionally enough to keep your aerobic capacity in check, especially if you do like to go for hikes. If you do like to do these cardio activities frequently, you want to feel good while you're doing them. But we don't need to overdo it in the cardio department. Driving up hunger, driving up stress. It's just not necessary, right? Like you go for a walk a day and that would reap so many great benefits. You don't have to always do the most intense things. 2s The truth is that exercise. Is actually far less effective for fat loss than people believe it to be. Think about exercise as the thing that's going to shape your body, create a healthier body overall, a more thriving metabolism, and allow you to feel good both mentally and physically. However, your intake, your food intake amount is going to ultimately determine your body size. So whether you gain or lose fat or just size in general following a workout program. I've said this before you can literally do the exact same workout program as somebody else. And if they are eating in a calorie deficit and you're eating in a calorie surplus, your body sizes can totally change differently. Like that person could lose fat during that program, and you could gain weight if you're eating in a surplus and they're eating in a deficit. So it's really important to not just look at exercise as like the reason why you're not seeing results that you want as far as body composition, if you're not also willing to closely look at your nutrition. Okay, so what to do if you feel like lifting weights has caused you to gain weight or to gain size? So exactly what I was just referring to. Take a hard, accurate look at your nutrition. Don't just guess. Ensure that you're in a calorie deficit based on your personal baseline. And this is where working with the coach is so helpful because these calorie calculators usually aren't the best. 1s This is something that we do in our mountain metabolic coaching. So really ensuring that you're in a deficit, being willing to keep track of things for a while, it's really hard to manage what we don't measure. Right. 1s Pardon me. So it's important to look closely at that. If this is a very real goal of yours, the next is to be consistent for several months before assuming that something isn't working. I personally lost 20 to £25, fluctuates a bit, 20 to £25 slowly over several years by being patient, doing things the right way, not doing these like quick fix type of efforts anymore, being consistent and instead of just looking for for like fast results. Right. And I've been able to maintain it even after a pregnancy because I focus on doing things the right way, which I cannot say I always used to do. And it showed. I mean, I used to spin my wheels, I'd lose £5 and I gain back 7 or 8, and I had this like repeat cycle until I found myself the heaviest that I had ever been, and I was doing more than I had ever done. And I felt so trapped and frustrated. And it wasn't until I really started doing things the right way and building that healthy foundation, which is what we focus on in Mountain Metabolic coaching, that things turned around for me, and I've actually been able to maintain a really healthy size for myself and feel better than I've ever felt as well, while doing less than I've ever done before, which is a whole nother podcast. It's a really great feeling, though, when you don't have to be a slave to your diet and workout regimen. 1s Okay, so the next thing that you can try to do, if you feel like lifting weights has caused you to gain weight or size, and these are in order of importance. So number one, take a good hard look at your nutrition. Number two, be really, really consistent before you consider that your workouts just aren't working for you. Three look at your overall habits in your life. Look at your patterns. Look at stress management, sleep quality, daily steps. You're just total daily like energy expenditure. Are you active outside of your workouts or are you pretty sedentary? Food quality? Alcohol intake all of these can affect rate of fat loss and overall health. So it's really important to not just compartmentalize things. Really look at those some of those patterns like are you eating really well during the week and then like going on some alcohol benders over the weekend or food benders over the weekend? Are you not sleeping hardly at all, getting four hours of crappy sleep. And then that's affecting your food habits. How's your stress management? Are you looking at all of the stress in your life and then just continuing to add more caffeine, more high intensity workouts, all of these things. So this is another component where it can be really helpful to work with a coach, because sometimes we don't see these things for ourselves very clearly. And it helps to have someone else be able to take a look from the outside and kind of examine some of those patterns and work towards healthier habits. The next one is kind of tricky, but it's body acceptance while pursuing health. And there are times that I feel like this can be next to impossible. And other times when I feel like I'm doing a really good job at this, it's not always easy. So obviously it's going to ebb and flow. But even though I'm not, you know, at a like even when I'm at my healthiest and Lena's place, I'm never going to be model skinny like I talked about earlier, my builds more athletic, more short. My limbs are shorter. So it's important to kind of look at where you are. Because if I saw my progress, but then just kept saying it's not good enough, I need to look like this person who's on Instagram and is the super skinny version of myself. Like, then I would never be satisfied, right? So it's a constant balance, a bit of tug of war between really trying to pursue your best self, but also being content with your body the way that it is in some regard, like knowing that my frame isn't going to change. I can't change my height, I can't change my leg length, my arm length, my natural build, my genetics. But what I can do is work hard to be a better version of myself every day, to pursue healthy habits, to continue trying to get stronger, to model that to my daughter instead of just constantly comparing myself. So this one, while challenging, is so worth it. If we can find that sweet spot between body acceptance and really being content with the body that we've been given, while also still trying to honor that body with our daily activity and how we pursue our health. Even if you may never look like XYZ person on Instagram or so-and-so actress, that's okay. And lastly, looking for any sort of underlying root causes of fat gain or inability to lose fat. At Mt. Metabolic, we have a functional practitioner, Alicia. You may have heard her on the show before, and she helps our clients get to the root cause of certain symptoms. Now, I will say that I think oftentimes this is like jump to as the first conclusion. If we feel like we're doing everything right and not losing fat. But I definitely want to encourage you to do the above items, the things that I just mentioned first before just jumping to this one, because the first few things are going to probably be the more likely opportunities for improvement. And if you've done all of those consistently and you're still stuck and you're still like, what the heck, I know something's off. I'm still having all these symptoms. I'm unable to lose body fat despite doing all these things. That's when we can take a deeper dive and look at the hormone and gut side of things. So we have the ability to do that with mountain metabolic coaching. If that's something where you already know that you're in this place, maybe you've been so diligent with the things I just mentioned, then it's time to definitely, you know, get on a call with us and we can chat about what what some protocols might look like. Um, so, as promised, I have a special offer for anyone who. This episode maybe has resonated with. If you're serious about making some changes and seeing results. I am going to offer 10% off of our Mountain Metabolic coaching for the first ten women who DMs at Fit underscore for hiking. So go to Instagram, go to fit underscore for hiking. DM us the word results and we will get you set up on a call to chat through the program. You'll be chatting with me about that, see if it sounds like a good fit, and you can get that discount applied if you want to move forward with coaching. So it's a great opportunity to get started before the holiday rush. Things are going to get busy. We're going to get very full. So if you are listening to this in the fall and want to jump on it before we are maxed out, definitely take advantage of that. Send us a DM at Fit Underscore for hiking. As always, I hope that this episode has been enlightening. I think that it's such an important topic to go about explaining, because I think sometimes when we have these insecurities about getting bigger or lifting weights, they're just often dismissed and people will just kind of laugh at you in the fitness space and say, oh, no, you're not going to get bulky. That's not even possible. But I know very many women, including myself, who have felt at times like, oh, actually, I do kind of get bulky when I start lifting weights. So it's important to talk about why that could be happening instead of just dismissing those feelings, because I want to respect, you know, if that is your goal to become more quote unquote toned and do some of the things that we talked about today, there's nothing wrong with having those goals for yourself. So it's good to talk through what might be hindering that progress and what we can do to move forward. So I hope that you guys enjoyed this episode. If there's a fitness or hiking related topic that you guys want to hear about, please send us a DM at the Fit Underscore for Hiking Instagram page. I would love to connect with you there and hear what you're enjoying. If there's any feedback that you have for us, we are all ears. And if you are enjoying the show, it's so helpful if you leave us a rating and review, or if you share on Instagram stories or with people that you care about, who you feel like might also resonate with some of these episodes. I can't tell you how helpful that is. Word of mouth is huge and would really, really appreciate it. So thanks for tuning in you guys and I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this. Be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at ponytail on a trail. Happy and healthy trails.