Something like this sounds like the train of thought of many female fitness novices who are afraid of being “masculinized” through strength training and who therefore cleverly bypass all forms of muscle building . However, you should know that through strength training you can build muscle and burn fat in a very targeted manner without mutating into a female mountain of meat. The only disadvantage that comes from regular strength training with squats, deadlifts and the like. arises, the exponentially increasing glances will be on your firm butt . But you will have to live with that …
The main reason for this fact is the different proportion of the sex and growth hormone testosterone in the blood of men and women: The androgen testosterone is essential due to its protein-anabolic (muscle-building) effect responsible for the structure and quality of the muscles. In men, it has a decisive influence on the development of the secondary sexual characteristics, but testosterone is also found in the female body. However, in a proportion that is approximately 10 times lower than in men, much less pronounced. As a woman, you will not be able to naturally build up uncontrollably growing mountains of muscles, because your genetic requirements do not allow this at all!
Muscle building and fat burning – why should I even do strength training as a woman?
Even in women, intensive and correct strength training leads to muscle growth. However, this is genetically limited and you do not need to be afraid that after a few weeks you will have to pose with Arnold Schwarzenegger on a stage with a brown brush to finance your living because you no longer fit into your business blazer and lost your highly paid job in a bank, management consultancy or law firm.
Rather, through strength training you can build muscle and burn fat to an extent that will make you look more athletic and well-trained through and through. By reducing the percentage of body fat and strengthening the muscles, your skin will look firmer and even cellulite can be counteracted through strength training: If the muscles increase in volume through consistent training and displace the excessive fat tissue, this leads to a strong tightening of the skin.
Another advantage: combined cardio and strength training also causes hypertrophy (adaptation) of important organs to the new performance requirements. For example, regular training also the adrenal cortex, which is significantly involved in hormone synthesis in men and women significantly. The adrenal gland is a vital organ that, when it fails or is underactive, e.g. with extremely reduced physical activity or malnutrition, inevitably to … well … let’s just call it “unpleasant side effects”, after which you can quickly look at the radishes from below. Regular exercise is worth it!
A “trained” adrenal gland can produce significantly more corticoids when under stress and release them into the blood when required. Corticoids (also called corticosteroids) are not illegal doping substances, but describe the more than 30 hormones naturally produced by the adrenal cortex that are responsible for the build-up and breakdown of organic cells and structures (such as muscles or fat) are responsible in our body and are therefore indispensable for building muscle and burning fat. Pretty complicated.
Building muscle and burning fat as a woman – how is that connected?
Basically you can remember the following: Muscle building requires muscle building training , (effective) fat burning requires an energy deficit from the diet , which forces your body to use the accumulated body fat as Dodging the energy supplier and thus melting the extra pounds. Then what does muscle building training have to do with burning fat? It’s simple: if you train and strengthen your muscles, they will grow. The bigger and more trained your muscles are, the more energy they consume in every second of a rest phase and with every active movement. A pronounced musculature consequently increases your total energy requirement because the basic and performance metabolism increases.
You can picture it: Imagine that workers in your muscles make sure that you can move. They constantly shovel energy (food or energy reserves) into the incinerators (mitochondria) to ensure that you can do muscle work. The bigger and more trained your muscles are, the more workers have to be employed and the more energy has to be shoveled into the “ovens” so that they can work. So you not only consume more energy during , but also after strength training with strengthened muscles. Of course, this process is much more complicated and extensive in practice and requires other essential components such as oxygen, without which the combustion (oxidation) of energy-rich substrates such as fats and carbohydrates would not be possible.
We are currently working on an extensive fitness program for men and women that explains and illustrates all the fundamental basics on an appealing and smart level. Once you have understood how your body works, you can use it as a precise tool with which you can achieve your training goals in an impressive amount of time!
Building muscle and burning fat as a woman – diet is the initial spark
In order to be able to convert your body’s increased energy consumption through muscle training into a reduction in body fat, it is important that you keep an eye on your diet. Burning fat in women is not rocket science, but it does require some discipline and knowledge. If you do strength training, your daily calorie requirement (from basal metabolic rate and performance metabolic rate), however, you will build muscle, but you will not be able to significantly reduce your body fat percentage. You can only force your body to switch to fat reserves through a diet that just covers your calorie needs optimally. You can of course roughly estimate your calorie deficit if counting calories is too time-consuming. Alternatively, you can use our calorie calculator to determine your (approximate) calorie requirement, which you can then e.g. adapt to your personal energy needs with the help of our fat burning nutrition plan.