Women: Building Lean Muscle For Optimal Fat Loss

This is a very important post because it addresses an issue I have seen way too many times to count over the years; women who want to burn fat and "tone up," so they begin a journey of endless cardio only to end up losing muscle, not burning the desired amount of fat, and not "toning up" at all...
For some reason along the way, too many women have believed that the best way to burn fat and get toned, is to do endless bouts of steady-state, long duration cardio. Whether that is in the form of walking/jogging on the treadmill, walking/jogging outside, using the elliptical, etc., it really doesn't matter; these methods are not going to get you toned and burn fat optimally.

There are several reasons why endless cardio is not the answer. First off, cardio does not put your muscle under enough stress (breakdown) to elicit any sort of change when it comes to encouraging your body to get your muscles growing. Second, long duration cardio eventually puts your body in a catabolic (muscle burning) state, once your glycogen stores (the body's energy reserves) are depleted.
But the most important reason (in my opinion) why cardio is not the answer, is that it only elevates your metabolic rate for a short period after you finish. But fear not: there is something that will elevate your metabolic rate 24 hours a day, and that is lean muscle tissue; more of it, that is!

I am in no way saying that cardio does not have a place in your fitness regimen, because it does. It increases your cardiovascular endurance and is obviously great for your heart and lung health. But if you are doing it in an effort to burn muscle, you have to be smart about it. Choose a form of high intensity interval training to maximize fat burning through cardio. Whether it is sprint intervals, stair sprints/stairmill, etc.

But even with HIIT cardio, you still need to strengthen and build lean muscle. Muscle has a higher metabolic rate than fat, so if you simply work on building new lean muscle, you will inevitably increase your body's metabolic rate 24 hours a day. To do this, you have to hit the weights! Do NOT have the common fear/misconception that as a woman, you are going to get too big and bulky. It is not going to happen. Sure, everyone has a muscle group that just builds easier than the rest, or you may have naturally muscular legs, etc., but women do not naturally contain enough anabolic (muscle building) hormones to produce mass muscle.

Remember, muscle is much smaller than fat in volume, so if you gain 10 pounds of muscle and lose 10 pounds of fat, I assure you, you are going to notice a big difference regardless of it being a wash on the scale! So the next time you go to the gym, do a 5-10 minute cardio warm up, then go hit the weights! Then you can finish up with cardio if you choose. Train hard, and train smart!