Weights Do Not Make You Big and Bulky, Donuts Make You Big and Bulky!

“Weights do not make you big and bulky, Donuts make you big and bulky!!!”

A Rant by Fitness Director Jonathan Hernandez

Dear Member,

If you think that lifting weights 2 to 3 times a week will make you look like a bodybuilder, you are completely wrong. Most people have the same goal in here, to lose body fat. I am on the same mission. As a male, I do want to add some lean muscle to my frame because I know that muscle helps burn fat. So, this is how the human body works. It can take 1 week to drop a pound of fat. 3,500 calories burned equals a pound of fat burned. It can take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to gain 1 pound of muscle. Let me repeat that one more time, It can take anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks to gain 1 lb of muscle. Example: My Inbody results from December 23rd 2014 – Weight was 199 lbs, 91.5 lbs of Skeletal Muscle Mass, and Percentage of Body Fat was at 20.7% At that point the holidays were ending and I said I need to recommit to my workout routine and would like to lose body fat. So I started lifting 5-6 days a week, I was lifting heavy weights because I wanted to gain some muscle and I cleaned up my diet. I did my Inbody this morning, March 5th 2015, and my results were – Weight 199 lbs, 93.7 lbs of Skeletal Muscle Mass, and Percentage of Body Fat at 18.1% My body completely changed but I still weigh the same. Please understand these numbers. For females, you can lift 2, 3 or even 4 days a week and you would never look like a body builder. Bodybuilders spend hours and hours in the gym daily and workout 6 days a week. If you are lifting weights 3 days a week, all you are doing is damaging your muscle fibers (which is a good thing) which will result in you burning more calories once you leave the gym because your body is repairing itself (which is a good thing). Here are easy equations to remember: Lifting + Eating carelessly = Gaining fat and muscle mass. Lifting + Clean Eating = Losing Body Fat while maintain muscle.

Oh, and break a sweat, please. If you are lifting dumbbells for an hour and you didn’t break a sweat, you didn’t rip up your muscle fibers which is what the goal is.