Women, Weight Training Will Not Bulk You Up!

Whilst using MyFitnessPal for my weight loss, I started reading a lot about weight lifting in the community section. I had never really thought about building muscle whilst doing my Jillian Michael DVDs, only becoming stronger.

So here I kept on reading topic after topic about how there was a lot of misconceptions regarding women and weight lifting. Whenever I used to think of weight lifting I used to have an image of something like the picture on the left.

I always imagined women who weight trained to end up with a massive and bulked up body that looked too manly and very very unsexy.

But after reading through discussions in MyFitnessPal regarding this topic, I realised how the myth regarding women and weight training was completely false and that the complete opposite happened when weight training like this article explains.

When women weight train, we become leaner and smaller and it takes a lot of hard work for us to actually build muscle because we just don't have enough testosterone to get bulky like men. Even men with all that testosterone find it hard to build muscle.

The health benefits associated with weight training shows how important it is to include weight training in you daily routine, this article gives you some examples of the benefits of weight training.

Since I started my weight training 6 weeks ago, I have seen such a huge difference to my body shape and and my strength and the best difference is my appetite, I eat around 2,300 calories a day and I still feel hungry and I'm still getting leaner, not bulky.

It is so important to get out the truth regarding weight training out to women because the myth of weight training bulking up women is so ingrained in people's minds that they can't seem to think how lifting weights can actually make my smaller rather than bigger.

I'm going to finish off by linking to the reason which had me picking up the heavy weights and wanting to build muscles Here is someone named Staci who changed her lifestyle around by lifting heavy and should be an inspiration to other women who are looking to get fit again.

A Clip That Will Make You Smile

I love watching this clip, it is so lovely and always makes me smile and the first time I watched it, I had tears running down my face!

How The Weight Fell Off With MyFitnessPal

Since May, I started to use MyFitnessPal to help control my calorie intake because through the whole month of April whilst I was using the gym and doing the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred I did not lose a single lb. I started at 9st 4 and was still at this weight at the end of the 30 Day Shred because I did not watch my food intake and had no clue about all the calories I taking in.

I have the sweetest tooth ever and when I have time on my hand I can eat one chocolate bar after another or one crisp after another and that month in April I was still doing just that, scoffing all those junk food so it was no wonder the weight wasn't dropping.

Once I had MyfitnessPal set up on my android phone I was good to go. At 5 ft 4 I set myself a target to get from 125lbs to 119lbs and with MyfitnessPal you set your goal weight you want to reach at a certain time. You should always give yourself a reasonable target as its not healthy to lose a great amount of lbs in a short period, you are only setting yourself to failure.

So from then on I started to track all the food and drink I was taking in and I tracked all the exercise I did, my calorie deficit at this point was 1250 and I always ate all my exercise calories aswell so most days I would eat around 1500 calories.

My weight from then on started to drop, I lost a lb a week and some weeks I didn't lose any due to water retention and time of the month. On May 5th 2011 I weighed myself at 9st 4lbs and by September 7th 2011 I was down to 8st 8lbs.

I can not recommend MyFitnessPal enough as I have gained great amounts of knowledge regarding fitness and nutrition through the community, and the other users are always willing to give their support if you need it.

I have learnt how important it is to give our bodies the right amounts to fuel to keep ourselves fit and there is no need to punish ourselves for taking cheat days as this is a lifestyle change and you should always treat yourself but also remember that you are what you eat.

I also learnt how many calories those chocolate bars that I used to eat one after the other contained, learning about their calories put an end to my junk food binge eating.

My Miracle Cleaner Called Ataka

So I'm sure there are many people whose taps suffer from those horrible limescale around their taps and and sinks, well my sinks and taps always get these water stains around them that are very stubborn and hard to get rid of.

One day I was complaining to a colleague of mine about my previous day spent trying to scrub away these pesky limescale with different bleach and bathroom cleaning sprays. She then mentioned Ataka to me which can be found in Boots for around £1.50 so I went and purchased one.

When I got home with it I was very eager to try it out so I went to my bathroom and splashed some of the solution around the sink taps and waited for 5 minutes and then wiped away. I was so suprised because as I wiped, all the limescale came away and I was left with shiny gleaming taps. I then went on to clean the rest of the sink and the bath tub and was very happy with the results.

I very highly recommend this product but the only downside to it is that it smells very badly and you might need a mask for it and a pair of gloves as it leaves the hands very rough.






 Before

 After

Jillian Michael DVDs

So after reading great reviews about Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred I went ahead and bought it for around £5 from play.com.

I hadn't exercised in any form in maybe 2 years before this and the first day of level 1 was just not what my body and I had expected! After the first work out my body was so exhausted, I could not move and my legs and arms felt like jelly, this really made me realise how out of shape I was.

I put up with the muscle pain you first have and continued on and at the end of the 4 weeks I was feeling more confident in myself and my body felt more leaner.

The only thing that didn't happen is the weight loss, I had started at 9st 4 lbs and I was still at this weight after the 4 weeks. It was after this that I read about myfitnesspal and learnt about calorie deficits and I obviously hadn't been watching the food I had been eating so my body didn't lose any pounds.

So I started watching my calories through myfitnesspal and ate at a deficit of 1250 calories a day and I started off on Jillian Michaels 6 Weeks 6 Pack dvd and it was now the lbs started dropping off.

The 6 Weeks 6 Pack dvd concerntrates on the abs but it still involves a lot of cardio and it was intense, I lost inches and with my calorie diet the pounds were dropping. By the end of this dvd I had dropped from 9st 4lbs to 8st 8lbs, so in 6 weeks I had lost 9lbs!

After this dvd I started on the Ripped in 30 dvd  and this one is similar to the 30 day shred but only more intense and all I can say is that the dog walk in level 3 is the worst move I have ever had to do, it really works the thighs!

Overall I think for someone that is looking to get back into fitness, Jillian Michael's dvds are a great place to start, especially 30 Day Shred as it whips you into shape and get some strength back into the body.

If you want to lose weight, you seriously need to look at what you are eating and watch those calories, once you get into it, you realise how easy it is to look at labels and make sensible decisions and MyFitnessPal is a great way of keeping a diary and it also has a great community on hand for help.

Before I found my love for exercising.

Since I have left secondary school, which was scarily just over 10 years ago, I stopped all forms of exercise and during college years I just socialised and ate a whole lot of crap and drank too much alcohol on them nights outs.

From leaving secondary school to the end of my two years in college I went from a size 8 to size 12, but I was comfortable in the size 12, I liked the curves I had and I think I was too busy socialising to worry about my weight.

During my first pregnancy (soon after leaving college) my appetite disappeared, I couldn't stomach the lovely takeaways I used to gorge after a long shift at work and by the time I delivered my beautiful daughter, I was walking out of the hospital a size 8 again.

Up to the birth of my gorgeous little boy and since then on I have gone up to size 10/12 and with no exercise I could classify myself as skinny fat. I became a lot more aware of my soft belly hanging out of my jeans and just hated that bloated feeling I got all the time.


In April 2011 my best friend mentioned that she had a colleague that had a gym in her house and was willing to help people get back into shape and that's is when I actually started thinking about get back into shape and starting up on exercising.

But that fell through and nothing came of it but I didn't want to give up and whilst browsing a forum for mums I saw Jillian Michael's 30 day shred being mentioned quite a lot. I googled the dvd and it seemed very popular so I ordered the dvd and bought some workout mats and dumbbells and from there on I started getting into exercising.

My First Ever Blog Post

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog where I will be discussing about random things that I am into. I am sat by my laptop a lot during my free time so I thought hey why not start a blog while everyone's at it and I am sure I can find something that might be worth writing about.