Everyday Systems: nosdiet: message 3066 of 3212

Note: This is an archived message from our old discussion software. Join the current discussion here.

    


Thanks for all the info. I'm taking all this stuff into consideration. 

Amy




--- In , mayoigo humberto <mayoihumbert@g...>
wrote:
> 
> Hi, Amy,
> 
> First of all, disclaimer: I am not an expert; this is stuff I've
> learned from research, and I may get some bits wrong, though I'm sure
> that I'm generally right--feel free to correct me, anyone.
> 
> Almost all women don't have enough testosterone to truly bulk up, 
so
> you really shouldn't worry that you'll become mannishly muscle-bound.
> Female bodybuilders work incredibly hard to get muscular, and they're
> not lifting (relatively) dinky 12 lb shovel gloves. Shovel glove may
> cause you to bulk up, but I'll tell you why that doesn't matter. At
> first you may think you're bulking up, and you may be building muscle,
> yes, but likely a lot of it is water and glycogen (?) at first, which
> builds up quickly because your body isn't used to the exercise. When 
I
> first started lifting, my body retained a whole bunch of fluid, which
> was gone in a few weeks, so definitely don't let the initial weight
> gain panic you into not exercising.
> 
> Look at yourself in the mirror naked. Do you see flab and pudge, or
> visible, striated muscle? You should think of your body as visible 
fat
> (the fat hiding your muscle tone) over muscle over...even more fat. 
A
> lot of people don't think of the fat they have underneath their
> muscles and even in between their muscles, but they should because
> it's not muscle pushing their bellies out it's fat, or they'd be able
> to see definition in their muscles and likely visible veins. Unless
> you see defined muscle with the cuts between each muscle group, you
> don't have to worry about having too much muscle. (Plus if you have 
a
> hard time doing stuff like carrying groceries, then you don't have 
too
> much muscle.) And if you're not doing any sort of weighted exercise,
> then trust me, you don't have too much muscle.
> 
> That said, if you want to concentrate more on your weight and losing
> fat, you should probably concentrate more on cardio, and only do
> shovelglove (or whatever weighted exercise you choose) once a week 
so
> you're not dieting away the muscle you do have. Apparently, once a
> week is the magic maintenance number; if you let it go beyond a week,
> you don't progress. If you want to gain more muscle, do work out the
> same muscle group no more oftener than once every 48 hours--the muscle
> needs time to recouperate and grow. Also, it seems it's easier to
> either lose fat or build muscle, one at a time, which is why a lot 
of
> weight lifters have a long bulking period with intense training then 
a
> losing fat period with more concentrated cardio and maintenance
> lifting. So don't worry if you go back and forth. Just make sure you
> at least do some sort of weighted exercise once a week. Cardio, you
> can do every day if you'd like. It's more a matter of ratio for
> targetted goals than of doing or not doing. So if you see that you're
> "bulking up," don't panic and stop shovel gloving, just cut back 
to
> once-a-week maintenance, and concentrate on cardio for a while.
> 
> Basically, don't worry about getting "big" through building 
muscle.
> Try to lose the fat instead, because it's the muscle that's holding 
up
> your skeleton, and it's muscle that burns calories just by being
> there, and it's having muscle that raises your metabolism. (Male
> professional body builders have to eat like 4,000 calories a day just
> to maintain the big muscles they have, cuz muscle eats up protein 
like
> crazy.) Fat mostly is there to store energy long term--very good in
> case of famine, not so good in an industrialized society. You have 
to
> exercise to stay thin into old age unless you want to eat less and
> less as you get older while your muscle and bone waste away and your
> metabolism slows down down down.
> 
> Check out this site: http://www.stumptuous.com/weights.html 
if you'd
> like more info. I cribbed a whole bunch of info from her.
> 
> Best,
> 
> mayo :-)