Should I Lift Weights?

“Should I lift weights while trying to lose weight?  I don’t want to get bulky, I’ll just go light!  Won’t I just gain weight if I lift?”  These are the questions and comments I hear from women all the time.  So I thought I’d address it here, short and sweet, so you can get on with your day and live the best life you can!

1. I don’t want to get bulky….so I’ll just lift light-weights!

I hear this one oh so much. Women think that lifting heavy weights is somehow going to make their muscles huge and bulging and looking like a man.  Well, guess what?!  As women, we can’t gain those larger, ‘bulkier’ muscles men do because we have much less testosterone and human growth hormone than men.  Testosterone and human growth hormone are the two main hormones involved in building muscle.  So if you do see women that are very very muscular, it is likely they are supplementing!

Also, lifting heavy weights is the only way to increase bone density!  As we all are getting older, we should all be aiming to increase our bone density.  Your future self will thank you when you fall and that hip doesn’t break. This brings me to my second comment…

2. Should I lift weights while trying to lose weight?

People always think in order to lose weight they need to cardio, cardio, cardio.  Because cardio burns more calories than weight lifting, right?  While cardio (aerobic activity) burns fat during the workout.  Strength training (anaerobic activity) burns fat in the recovery period as well.  To further this point, strength training builds lean muscle, and the more lean muscle you have, the more fat you are burning while at rest! So the more you lift, the more fat you lose.  This brings me to the third question…

3. Isn’t lifting weights just going to make me gain weight?

This is a tough one to answer because it depends on you and your body- some will lose, some will stay the same, and others will gain BUT this is because when you lift weights you are gaining lean muscle and muscle weighs more than fat.  So while you may see little or no change on the scale, you will see your pant size shrinking and tape measurement size go down.  You’ll also see a decrease in body fat.  This is why it’s so important to take measurements and pictures because they will be a much better indicator of progress than the scale!  Just take a look at the picture below.

So all in all, the point is, you should incorporate lifting weights into your exercise routine.  Along with great cardiovascular exercise and a balanced nutrition plan because it is only going to help accelerate results!