That’s right women should not lose weight.

Before you think I want women to do nothing but gain weight let me explain.

When I say women should not lose weight, I mean women should not focus on just losing weight.

They should focus on losing fat—and not worry about what the scale says.

Why?

Simple.

And this leads me to my first reason:

MUSCLE EQUALS STRENGTH

And to me muscle strength means health, it means that I am in shape and I am strong and can handle things.

So why exactly would you want to get rid of the muscle that is on your body.

O.K.

You might be thinking,

Who said anything about getting rid of muscle?

Well, that is exactly what can happen if you focus on just what the scale says.

For example,

When someone has a special occasion coming up, like a reunion or wedding what happens?

They have to go on a strict diet right away.

So they starve themselves and sure they lose some weight, most of it probably being water and some muscle.

Exactly what you don’t want.

Reason Number Two

MUSCLE BURNS CALORIES

Muscle is the most metabolically active substance on the body—meaning it burns the most calories.

Please don’t let anyone tell you that fat does not burn calories because it does just not as many as muscle.

Some of those early numbers that showed that muscle burned like fifty calories per day pure pound were wrong and honestly I don’t know how many calories per day a pound of muscle burns, but I do know muscle burns calories.

So for instance if a women starts going to the gym and trains with the intent of actually gaining muscle and not using those super small pink weights and gains ten pounds of muscle, that means she will have ten more pounds of muscle on here frame actively burning calories twenty-four hours a day seven days per week—sounds good to me.

So again, why would you want to just watch the scale go down, when as it goes down, so does, chances are, your metabolism as well, which means it will be harder and harder to lose weight.

Next up is reason number three

MUSCLE BRINGS CONFIDENCE

By this I mean, let’s go back to the above example.

Say our imaginary women, before she started going to the gym, was well skinny, but was not happy with her body.

Flash forward, as the months progress, she see her body change, muscle comes on while body fat goes down.

Even though the scale does not register much of a change.

Now when she looks in the mirror she sees a totally different person, she sees a lean, firm body, that doesn’t look starved.

It looks healthy and better yet, she knows that she has control over her body; she can change her shape for example, by gaining more muscle in her side delts, to make her already small waist, look even smaller.

SOME COMMENTS

For my money muscle is way better for burning fat and totally reshaping your body than aerobics.

But building muscle, for both men and women goes far beyond the muscle you gain.

It is the confidence it gives you.

For example, you can open that jar or move that couch or lift your kids, basically just live a better life when you are stronger.

I am not saying that aerobics, like a nice brisk walk, does not have its place because it does.

And for being totally healthy, I always recommend both, brisk walks done for thirty to forty-five minutes four times a week, being my preferred form of aerobics.

Also, I would like to make a comment on the myth that women will become too muscular if they lift weights, not so.

So for any women reading this, please do not worry about gaining too much muscle.

CONCLUSION

I hope from reading this post, women and yes men too, can see that just focusing on the scale, is not a good thing, it can strip away the one thing you actually want on your body, which is muscle.

Oh sure, you might be able to get away with a crash diet for a wedding or reunion without too much damage but to me it sets a bad precedent, one that can eventually lead to trouble.

Until Next Time

STAY SMART