In the world I grew up in, women used to exercise to get smaller. Dieting was all about losing weight and almost everyone wanted to do it.

There are a lot of diets and ways of eating that have come and gone since I was a teenager, but overall, the goal was always to move that number on the scale and shrink ourselves.

I have mostly stayed away from talking about weight loss or dieting for a lot of reasons.  One of them is it is not my area of expertise. (although that does not stop most of the internet gurus from giving advice -but I digress)

Since I have been lifting weights and trying to gain muscle, I have been reading a lot of the science surrounding nutrition and muscle gain.  I learned you can lift all the weights you want but if you don’t eat enough protein, you can’t gain lean muscle mass.*

As we get older, we lose muscle mass. It is called sarcopenia and all of us will experience it. Of course the degree to which you experience it depends on what you do to prevent it.

Everyone should want to preserve as much lean muscle mass as possible – you burn more calories at rest, you are more functional, your joints will hurt less and you will look better to name just a few reasons!

This brings me back to losing weight. When most people say they want to lose weight, they mean they want to lose fat. Low calorie diets are not only hard to stick to, if you lose any weight, it will be fat and muscle.

The other thing many women are afraid of is “bulking up”. They want to get “toned” instead.

Here’s the thing – there is no difference between getting toned and gaining muscle and I’m here to tell you there is no way you are going to ‘bulk up’ lifting weights unless you really try to.

Those fitness competitors/body builders you see spend many hours everyday at the gym, have outrageous restrictions in what they eat and maybe take some form of testosterone therapy.

Yet, even today, some of us feel smaller is better.  ‘Don’t take up to much room! Don’t have muscles or you will look like a man!’

I call bullshit. I want to be strong – not fragile and I think muscles look good on a woman.

Now mostly if you want to gain muscle, you have to eat more calories, if you want to lose fat you have to eat less calories.

But there is a sweet spot if you are newer to weight training called body recomposition. It is where you can actually lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. A more experienced athlete may not be able to do this!

It does involve eating enough protein though. Experts in the field of protein and aging recommend a protein intake between 1.2 and 2.0 g/kg/day or higher for older adults.** 

Can you get to much protein?***  It is not likely!!

So while the scale weight might not look like what you think it should, your clothes fit better and you feel amazing. 

What do you think? Is muscle sexy? Do you want to be stronger when you are older? Do you want to know more about body recomposition? Let me know in the comments below. 

*https://examine.com/summaries/study/12r8K1/

**https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924200/

***https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-too-much-protein-bad-for-you

If you are ready to learn more about Strength training and muscle building, join me for my 6 week course  Strength for Beginners here.