[evelove]

I picked up her book at B&N and she states in the book that women should not do heavy weight training if their goal is to be lean, slim and tone. She states that she has to retrain clients who weren't getting results b.c of heavy weight training and all that it did was make them bigger. She says the only resistance you should use is during cardio (spinning or increasing an incline) and that resistance training will not give the results that most women desire. I would love any insight or personal experience from those that do weight training. I had a trainer tell me the same thing and I feel like there is so much confusion around the issue. I was doing a wt. training program at the gym and my boyfriend said not to do squats bc my thighs would just "grow". What is the truth? I am so sick of all the conflicting messages. So, then I was going to just do "the Firm" and a lot of women on Videofitness said the Firm "standing legs" and tall box work only made them bigger. Will someone please straughten my head out! I am all ears

Ari

[northernbelle]

If your goal is to be lean and Twiggy with no muscle tone and match-stick arms and legs, then weight training is not for you. Weight training will build muscle, which will make your arms and legs bigger- and more shapely. If you don't build muscle, then when you do lose the layers of body fat, there will be nothing underneath.

Actually, you can't get any bigger than your genetic makeup will allow, anyways. Some people are inclined to build larger thighs; some, to build a thicker waist, larger hips, or broader shoulders. You are born with those inclinations. Further, unless you are a competitive trainer, you won't build a huge amount of muscle, being female.

Building muscle helps fat loss, as muscle requires a higher metabolism to get the required number of calories just for maintenance. Definitely, for fat loss, cardio and diet are the way to go, but building muscle also has its place.

My goals are to lose the last layers of fat, while maintaining the muscle I do have. Once I actually reach my goal weight, then I will focus more on the weight training. Right now, I am doing about 50% cardio and 50% weights. Further, as I am older (63), I want to slow down the loss of muscle tone. I don't plan on being bent over at a 45 degree angle, like my mother (86). My goal is not to wear a bikini any more. I did lose over 40 pounds in the last few years. Then I put the push on last year. I only lost 4 pounds, but enough inches to go from a size 16-18 to an 11-12.

So, it depends on your goals.

[Meg]

Hmm, you asked for personal experiences ... I lifted as heavy as I could while I was losing weight and went from size 22 pants to size 4 in less than a year. And I did a TON of heavy squats! You can check out my before and after pictures to see if you think I bulked up or not.

Lifting weights - as heavy as possible - has only made me smaller.

I'll never stop!

[Mel]

Fat makes you bigger; steroids make you bigger. Lifting heavy weights puts on healthy muscle. When I first started lifting heavy as opposed to circuit training, I went from a size 6-8 to a size 4 without any change on the scale. Last year I did a pre-contest diet for about 6 months and continued to lift very heavy and ended up in a loose size 2. I was squatting about 250 pounds, deadlifting 185, doing unassisted pullups in sets of 8, lat pulldowns at 90 pounds and 1 arm rows at 50 pounds. I bench press my own weight with a free bar. I've since put back on about 10 pounds of FAT and a little more muscle this year and am back up to a tight size 4, but it's the food, not the weights that's doing it.

Without lifting heavy, you may weigh less on the scale, but you are going to look bigger, and fatter for your weight.

There are VERY few women who can put on a lot of muscle naturally. I do know of one or two. They've both been life-long athletes and would never give it up for a skinny-fat look. Until you try, you'll never know.

Mel

[buddha belly]

So I guess me thinking those 10 lb dumbells I bought were heavy...lol

[nelie]

Yeah I'd call her book BS too as far as weight training goes. I wouldn't mind having lots and lots of muscle as it burns fat and my goal is to reduce my fat. If I do ever find myself too bulky muscularly, I'd just reduce the amount of weights I used. Muscle is easy (far too easy) to lose, fat is hard.

I've never gone up in inches, I've only lost inches. Although I'm not lifting as heavy now as I used to (I need to build up again), at one point I was doing up to 600 lbs on a squat machine (laying on back, feet in air) and I had a guy come up to me and say something like "that is no fair, I can't even get close to that amount of weight". Of course I attribute part of it to having to walk around over 300 lbs for 15 years or so