When someone tells me "I want to get skinny" I can't help but think about the girls you see on the fashion runway. With a little more digging I usually find out that what they would like to have a body with curves. How do you achieve a look of low body fat with curves?
It starts by avoiding these three mistakes I see most women make:
1. Lifting vs Running
When I talk about shaping what I'm talking about is building muscle in areas like the glutes, thighs, shoulders and arms. The most common mistake I see women make in the gym is that they head straight for the cardio section. Cardio though great for the heart and good for burning fat (to some degree) does nothing for your shape. In fact too much cardio will have the opposite effect by destroying precious muscle making you look blocky. If your goal is to not only to lose body fat but build a nice shape, the best thing you can do is resistance training. There's no better resistance training weapon then working with free weights and your own bodyweight. Do circuit training, barbell complexes and don't be afraid to incorporate them into your cardio sessions too.
2. Diet Alone Will Only Make You Skinny Fat
Diet books are so popular. I even wrote one. They're often the first step that someone takes in wanting to lose weight. The problem is that diet alone (especially a low calorie diet) is horrible for your shaping goals. You need to combine it with resistance training in order to shape your body. I measure body fat percentage of clients all the time. It's evident to me that the people who use resistance training as well as changing their nutrition see the greatest results. They see a much bigger loss in body fat while preserving muscle. The results of this study shows you that for best results you should combine exercise, nutrition and some form of accountability.
3. Eat More Protein
Can you Imagine building a house without any building material? Seems pretty crazy right? Well, protein is your building material and without it, it's impossible to build muscle. Focus your meals around protein foods like chicken, turkey, fish, beef, or eggs. Try getting 1gg of protein per pound of lean body weight. If you want to shape up it's not good enough to work hard you need to give your body the right building materials to grow.
Now that you know what to avoid, go for it! I know you can do it!
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