Why Women Should Lift Heavy Weights for Fat Loss

Ladies, Why are you in the Gym?
Why women should get off the treadmill and lift weights

Why is it that in every commercial gym the guys always flock to the weights while the women can always be found on the "cardio" machines?

For the guys it's obvious, we all want large muscles so we lift weights in an attempt to fool our body into thinking we need them. That makes sense; Weight lifting with some strategic "cardio" mixed in will produce results.

But that doesn't answer the question; Why are women always on the machines rather than lifting heavy weights.

I'm here to convince you that there should be NO difference in the way men and women train - only the amount of weight moved. The level of intensity will vary between the individual. A healthy woman can lift more weight, more intensely than a beginning male lifter.

The big question is. What do women want?


If Fat Loss is the answer, this might be the most important thing you'll ever read.

From what I've seen, It seems like the answer would be minimal fat with minimal muscle?  In an attempt to look like a runway model, women often end up with a physique referred to as "skinny-fat". Skinny-Fat looks downright TERRIBLE.

These people look alright with clothes on, but when the shirt comes off...loose skin is never attractive. This famished look presents itself as if the individual can't afford food, or is somehow else unhealthy (whether that be physically or mentally it doesn't matter - not interested).

If we stop and think about it, what women really want is to be lean; an athletic look with little fat and enough muscle to keep the body firm and healthy. LEAN MUSCLE is the name of the game.

I think woman are scared of the weights. They think that lifting heavy weights will make them look fat or just overweight -- as if muscle is so easy to build. I want to put an end to that right now. The truth is that lean muscle is sexy. Being skinny and incapable of doing anything for yourself if not attractive anymore...Men want a partner, not a 12 year old girl...

When I started this post I was just going to share the video of a 17 year old girl who is a beast in the gym. I still have it at the end of this rant. But here are 3 reasons why Girls Should Lift Heavy Weights.

1. Muscle is difficult to build and your body will fight you in an effort to stay lean. 

Muscle is extra work for the body, it requires extra calories to maintain and it's work carrying it around. By lifting weights, your body will automatically go to it's natural lean muscle state. There will be no bulkiness unless you are eating like Arnold! The Paleo diet is not a bulking diet. I dare you to try to get fat while lifting weights and enjoying a strict paleo diet.

2. The Truth About "Cardio" - MUST READ

Aerobic exercise is commonly reffered to as "cardio". This is misleading and is likely a major reason why so many woman are on the treadmill. 

Every movement is cardiovascular. Every movement requires the use of oxygen which requires work from the heart.

In every cell in the body, energy must go through the anaerobic cycle (creating pyruvate) before passing into the aerobic cycle where the mitochondria uses pyruvate and oxygen to create ATP for energy.

The interesting thing is that the anaerobic cycle can do work at a faster rate than aerobic cycle which in turn creates excess pyruvate that the aerobic cycle can't use quite as fast. It's then stored as lactic acid which is then stacked up and cycles until the mitochondria is ready to use it. This creates an environment where the aerobic cycle is still running long after the workout stops!

In regular, low intensity exercise, once stopped the aerobic cycle also stops as the anaerobic cycle never built up pyruvate because it never needed to. 

So if you are looking to lose fat, a weight lifting routine will serve you better than the treadmill!

To learn more about this, Author and Doctor Doug Mcguff goes in great detail in his book listed above.

3. Weight Lifting will Drive Nutrients into Muscle Cells rather than Fat Cells!

At any given time, we have about 270 grams of glycogen in our liver and muscles. The glycogen in our liver is used for our large and needy brain, the remaining glycogen is of course stored in our muscles in case we need to use it - flight or fight.

If we don't use this stores of energy, they remain full and when we eat (add more energy to the system) our muscle tissue will reject the energy and it will be stored as fat. This is what happens when we constantly eat cheap carbohydrates and don't burn them off.

However, if we are lifting weights and working hard our muscles will use the energy they have stored and will therefore be begging for replenishment (more food). 


This is where the term "earn your carbs" comes from.

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As you can see, lifting heavy weights has it's place even for women. The difference in physique will depend on hormones, and lucky for women they don't have to worry much about testosterone.

Here is some motivation for ya to get started.