Contrary to popular belief, it is true that if you weren’t born with great glutes, a lean abdomen or defined arms, they CAN be created. The myth that a woman was just born “lucky” in having a stellar body composition is most likely not true, (although there are few that are genetically blessed).
Most of us women have to work at maintaining an ideal body composition, but with the right fitness program, this is a realistic achievement. However, in order to achieve this, we need to consider the two parts of the equation that’s necessary to do this – grow our lean muscle tissue and lose body fat. This is what we tend to forget. If a + b = C, we can’t equal C by eliminating a or b!
The reason why many women don’t think this is possible is simply because they haven’t received the correct fitness education. Changing one’s physique doesn’t happen overnight. Changing one’s body composition requires specific time and effort in two areas – muscle tissue and body fat. These two things, not just one, contribute to a woman’s overall state of “tone”. However, the way in which they are both improved, takes different approaches. A woman can’t reduce her body fat in the same way she maintains or grows her muscle.
MUSCLE COMPOSITION + BODY FAT COMPOSITION = STATE OF TONE
Unlike body fat, improvements in areas where women want to make improvements in their muscle, can be “spot” toned. This process however, requires more time than body fat reduction, but makes the greatest impact when it comes to a woman’s overall tone, (a thin woman with muscles looks a lot different than a thin woman without them!)
Experts suggest that most women can gain around one pound of lean muscle mass per month (although this rate is varied based on age, physical condition, genetics, etc). Many women have a misconception that this rate is much higher and they risk getting “bulky” by growing their muscles. This misconception leads them right back to focusing on only one of the variables of the equation, negating their overall fitness goals.
Along with time, growing muscle also requires an environment of resistance training that is best done with a conservative calorie surplus. Unfortunately, a lot of women don’t familiarize themselves with resistance training, as they typically tend to use cardio equipment to try and reach their fitness goals (cardio isn’t the same as resistance training!).
It can often seem counterintuitive to our goals as women, when we spend time lifting weights and slightly increasing our calories and trusting the process when the scales go up. We often don’t consider what we’re trying to accomplish when growing muscle, as the goal isn’t to lose body fat initially, as this process is done after muscle growth has been successfully achieved. (I talk about this in my “How to Be a Fit Mom” YouTube Series: https://youtu.be/SzoxltLUuJE?si=Z8-APllde0EK2xMN)
Muscle composition + Body Fat composition = overall “TONE”
When growing muscle, you have to “trust the process”, knowing that with your consistency of efforts, you are successfully growing lean muscle tissue underneath a conservative layer of fat. Once you grow a substantial amount of muscle, you can then transition your efforts to lean out in order to lose body fat, allowing you to appreciate the body composition changes you’ve made with your overall “tone”. This body composition process takes time, patience and discipline. A breakdown in any of these three things, sends us right back to focusing on one variable of the equation yet again.
Losing body fat is a different process than growing muscle. A reduction of body fat can’t be lost in a particular area, but rather lost “all over” when it comes to overall weight loss. A woman’s genetics will choose where she loses weight first and last.
When a woman loses body fat, yet still has areas she’s not happy with when she reaches her ideal weight, the only way to make improvements with her tone is to focus on the other variable in the equation – her muscle. If a woman doesn’t have enough muscle in areas that she’d like to improve, although she lost body fat, she will just become a smaller version of her same body composition. It is critical that if she wants to make greater improvements in certain areas of her body, she has to consider where her muscle development is at.
So, if a woman wants to achieve her ideal X-factor shape (defined shoulders, small waist and round glutes), she’ll need to consider the simple equation: Muscle composition + Body Fat composition = overall Tone. It can be said that “Life is a grand equation: it must be worked on both sides to be balanced”. The same can be said in fitness…if both variables that equal one side of the equation aren’t considered, balance cannot be achieved and you’ll end up with the wrong result.
