Here is a picture of five pounds of muscle versus one 5 pounds of fat. Amazing, isn’t it? My big question to you is: which would you rather have?

Many of us already know the benefits of strength training. Wonderful things like improved posture, increased metabolism, potential decreased risk of injury, increased bone density and increased strength are just a few of the side effects. I think many women feel that they have to be in a gym setting lifting heavy weights in order to strength train. I’d like to use this space to bust a few myths if I may…
Many of my clients tell me they don’t want to lift weights because they don’t want to get big muscles. Please refer back to the picture above. My friends, muscle is very dense and will actually take up less space, hence giving you a smaller appearance. You will not get big by strength training (please repeat this 3x).
5 Pounds of Muscle vs 5 Pounds of Fat
Please take another look at the picture. The muscle and fat are very different cells. One cannot be turned into another. You cannot convert fat to muscle or muscle to fat. You have a certain number of fat cells (these are determined in utero, during the first year of life and during adolescence – hence the importance for our children to be eating healthy as well as eating healthy during the prenatal period. Once these number of cells are determine, they can either get bigger or smaller, not disappear.
Nutrition is very important when it comes to fat loss and changing your aesthetics. I do not recommend any sort of diet. If you can pick it, kill it, grow it, dig it or harvest it and it can spoil, chances are it’s great for you. If it comes in a box, contains ingredients you can’t pronounce, is fluorescent in colour and takes months to spoil, chances are it’s not an ideal food. Eating healthy is healthy. Ketosis, zero carbs, shakes all day and low calorie diets are not healthy. Eating healthy is healthy.
So how do we go about this? If you’re stuck and need some guidance, hire a professional. Joining a class can also help with motivation. Starting with a few exercises every other day or so can have huge payoffs. A few push ups, some squats and some planks and presto, a strength workout! Consistency is key, even if you’re doing a handful of exercises, you will see results when doing them regularly.
Here is a great clip of some exercises you can do with your baby as a weight:

Here is a video of a few exercises you can even do with items found in your kitchen
http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=557551
Enjoy and happy strength training !
Photo Credit: Sarah Zahab
Eewwwwww that is soooo gross! Now I am really going to think twice of what I eat!
I am much afraid I have too much fat and not enough muscle,time to get working
Wow that’s a huge visible difference!
The difference is amazing
I vividly remember when I started doing weight exercises on machines on a regular basis, hoping to loose weight – I actually put on 4lbs in a month because my muscles were much better toned and no it didn’t look like I was a weight lifter either 🙂
Wow! The difference is amazing! I always thought muscle weighted more then fat. I just started exercising again, I’m motivated.
The difference is pretty freaky! I need to exercise more!
This is a great article, very compelling.
That’s a big difference!
This really makes me want to lose more fat
I found this feature very interesting and it has inspired me to get moving again.
Wonderful!