Is the fear of getting bulky holding you back from lifting heavy weights? Are you confused by all the mixed messages about how strength training affects a woman’s body? Do you wonder if strength training will give you that lean, toned look or make you bulk up?

Today, Philip (@witsandweights) shatters the myths and uncovers the truth about how lifting really impacts your physique. Whether you’re aiming for a lean, toned look or worried about bulking up, he sets the record straight and empowers you to lift with confidence.

Philip breaks down the science of how lifting weights impacts women’s bodies. He explains how muscle growth, when combined with proper nutrition, actually contributes to a leaner, more defined look. Philip also addresses the role of cardio in your training regimen and offers tips for balancing it with strength training to optimize your results.

If you're ready to transform your physique and boost your confidence, this is a must-listen!

📩 To learn how to balance cardio and lifting, a weird little trick to burn more calories from cardio, and a sample weekly training plan to combine lifting and cardio for maximum results and recovery, join my FREE email list and ask for my “Cardio for Lifters” guide: https://witsandweights.com/email

Today, you’ll learn all about:

2:41 Listener question about lifting and body composition
5:10 Muscle growth and body changes
8:10 Eating for muscle gain without adding excessive fat
11:38 Peri or post menopause and RED-S
13:57 How to efficiently incorporate cardio into your routine
20:36 Muscle as a fat-loss accelerator

Related episodes:

• My Stair-Step Fat Loss Process to Get Lean and Ripped

• How to Get More Fitness Results for Less Effort (The Pareto Rule)

• Energy, Workout Nutrition, and Performance-Based Strength for Women Over 40

Episode summary:

Are you hesitant to lift weights because you're worried about getting bulky? It's time to debunk this pervasive myth and unlock the incredible benefits of strength training for women. In this episode, Philip Pape dives deep into the science behind muscle growth, the role of testosterone, and why women can confidently embrace resistance training without the fear of excessive muscle mass.

Understanding the impact of strength training on women's bodies is crucial. Contrary to popular belief, lifting heavy weights won't turn you into a bodybuilder overnight. Women simply don't have the testosterone levels necessary to build massive muscles without extreme effort and often pharmaceutical assistance. Instead, strength training helps women achieve a toned, strong physique that is both aesthetically pleasing and functionally powerful.

One of the key points Philip emphasizes is the importance of progressive overload and a slight calorie surplus in supporting muscle growth. By gradually increasing the weight you lift and ensuring you're consuming enough calories to fuel your workouts, you can build lean muscle without gaining unwanted fat. This approach not only enhances your physical appearance but also boosts your metabolic rate, making it easier to maintain a healthy body composition in the long run.

Nutrition plays a vital role in the muscle-building process. Philip discusses the significance of consuming adequate protein and balancing your macronutrients to support muscle growth while maintaining a calorie deficit for fat loss. He also addresses common concerns about eating enough to support muscle growth without gaining excessive fat, emphasizing that a slight calorie surplus, when done correctly, can lead to lean muscle gain with minimal fat accumulation.

In addition to strength training, the episode explores effective fat loss strategies. Philip highlights the importance of a moderate calorie deficit, proper nutrient timing, and sustainable practices to preserve muscle and energy levels while losing fat. He warns against the pitfalls of extreme dieting methods, which can lead to muscle loss and decreased energy levels, and instead advocates for a balanced approach that includes alternating between calorie deficits and maintenance phases.

Cardio is another crucial component of a well-rounded fitness regimen. However, it's essential to balance cardio and strength training to achieve optimal results. Philip suggests incorporating efficient conditioning methods like supersets and circuit training into your strength workouts to maximize calorie burn and improve cardiovascular health without feeling overwhelmed. He also emphasizes that cardio should complement, not compete with, your strength training efforts.

Throughout the episode, Philip addresses real-world questions and concerns from listeners, such as Valerie F., who shares her struggles with conflicting advice on diet and exercise. By providing practical solutions and evidence-based insights, Philip aims to empower women to embrace strength training with confidence and clarity.

To further support your fitness journey, Philip offers a free "Cardio for a Lifter's Guide," which provides valuable tips on effectively combining cardio and strength training. This guide is designed to help you maximize your fitness potential and achieve your goals without sacrificing your progress or well-being.

In summary, this episode of Wits and Weights is a must-listen for any woman looking to transform her body through smart strength training. By debunking the myth that lifting weights makes women bulky and providing actionable strategies for muscle growth, fat loss, and overall fitness, Philip Pape empowers listeners to unlock their full potential and embrace the benefits of resistance training. Tune in now and take the first step towards a stronger, leaner, and more confident you!

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Transcript

Philip Pape: 0:01

Imagine wanting to transform your body through strength training, through lifting heavy weights, only to hear conflicting advice at every turn, like lifting makes you bulky or no, it actually makes you smaller. Meanwhile, you're left wondering will I get the lean, toned look I want, or am I doomed to look like a bodybuilder, assuming that's a bad thing? But in today's episode we're cutting through the noise. We're exposing the truth about how lifting weights really affects a woman's body. You'll discover why the fear of getting bulky is misplaced and how heavy resistance training can actually help you achieve that coveted lean, sexy physique, even if there is an aspect of getting bigger but not bulky. Whether you're a lifting novice you're just getting started or you are an advanced, intermediate to advanced trainee, this episode will reshape your understanding of the physical, how muscle metabolism and the female form all come together, and then you can embrace the iron with confidence and with purpose. Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique. I'm your host, philip Pape, and today we're tackling a very hot topic that comes up all the time. It's caused more confusion than almost any other how lifting weights truly impacts a woman's body? Now, yes, I am a man, but I've worked with many women and I get asked this question all the time, particularly when I go on podcasts that are geared toward women audiences, and I think it's really important, because we received yet another question from a listener about this, who I'm going to give a shout out to in just a bit, but before we dive in, I do have something special that I think is going to help you out, because part of the discussion today is around cardio and how cardio interacts with lifting weights, and so I created this guide for private clients called Cardio for Lifters, and I'm giving it to you for free as a podcast listener. In this guide, you'll discover how to effectively combine cardio and strength training a weird trick to burn more calories through cardio, not what you think, not just doing more cardio and a sample weekly training plan that balances the two for maximum results and recovery. So if you want the free copy of this Cardio for Lifters guide, join my email list, go to witsandweightscom, slash email or click the link in the show notes. Again, that's witsandweightscom slash email or click the link in the show notes, and then, when you're on the list, just send me an email and say hey, can I have the Cardio for Lifters guide and I will send it right over. This is not publicly available, it's only for listeners. So you get the inside secret link here if you reach out and I will send it over to you.

Philip Pape: 2:46

All right, so let's get into today's topic, which was inspired by a listener, valerie F. She is a longtime listener Actually, I don't know how long she's been listening, but she's definitely been active in our community and reaching out, which I absolutely love hearing from listeners and she inspired this episode. Valerie, like many of you listening, many of you women listening has been barred with the conflicting information about lifting weights, strength training, body composition, health, all the things, not to mention diets and cardio and all of that, and she wrote the following quote that I think encompasses the confusion out there on this topic. She said quote basically, I need to focus on strength training and eating in a deficit, while also eating enough protein to lose fat, but also do a lot of intense cardio to keep my heart healthy and eat lots of fiber and vegetables and protein, but still be in a deficit, but also not be in an energy depleted state, because that's bad, but don't worry, because my muscles will get tighter but also bigger when I weight train. End quote. And again, I think I love that part of the quote. She actually gave me a pretty detailed email of like this expert says this. This expert says this you have one person saying that cardio won't make you bulky, but you have, like Steph Gaudreau, who was on the show, saying, well, it actually does make you bigger and we should embrace that, but like what does it all mean and what does it look like? Like what do you do Right?

Philip Pape: 4:08

So let's start by tackling the big myth that usually gets asked is does it make you bulky? That lifting weights makes women bulky, and this is a very outdated idea, but it still persists. And here's the truth Women lack the testosterone levels necessary to build massive muscles anyway without extreme effort and often some pharmaceutical assistance. Right, women start during puberty with I'm not going to call it a disadvantage, it's just factually less muscle. And yet women can build the same percentage of muscle throughout their life, but they can't. And yet women can build the same percentage of muscle throughout their life, but they can't.

Philip Pape: 4:49

I mean, the joke is I can't even get big and I try. I lift weights a lot and I've made a lot of strides from my 30s to 40s when I did this right and I'm a guy with decent testosterone levels yes, I've had it checked and even I can't get big. So to even get afraid of being bulky from that context it is kind of ridiculous. And I don't mean that as an insult, I just, if you step back and think about it, you realize, oh yeah, actually that's kind of insane. But let's really get into it here. What actually happens when women lift heavy weights? What happens? They get stronger right. Their muscles then do grow Absolutely, but this growth is nothing like what you see in a professional bodybuilder or even somebody who's fairly quote unquote large and bulky like what you wouldn't normally see in a woman. Instead, it creates that coveted toned look.

Philip Pape: 5:35

Just look at the Olympics. I know the Olympics just happened as I recorded this, not sure. When you're listening to the episode. You look at the Olympics, you look at female athletes and you see this wide spectrum and those athletes who have a strength or muscle kind of focus, the types of sports that require being fitter from the body composition perspective. What do you see? You see strong, healthy, sometimes bigger, but not bigger in a negative way athletes. They're powerful and capable, right. I mean. I think it's beautiful, it's sexy, it's all those things. If we're going to go there, right, and that's just a combination of they built muscle and they lost fat. And we're talking about athletes and let's be honest, if you're listening to this, most of you are probably not going to get to that elite athlete status. Potentially, some of you might be, but even if you're just general population wanting to get a better physique, you don't have to worry about it. So there's another twist on this right and I've even used this terminology before.

Philip Pape: 6:32

You might've heard that lifting then it makes you physically smaller because muscles get tighter right, muscles denser than fat, so it actually is going to make you smaller. That's kind of a misunderstanding and a misinterpretation of how the whole thing works. You know, muscles are obviously muscles themselves aren't changing. They're not getting tighter. You're actually building more muscle and so your cross-sectional area of your muscles become bigger because you have this dense tissue and you have more of it right, and they get more defined as they grow and then you lose fat and so you are going to probably have your shirt size go up, right, and they get more defined as they grow and then you lose fat and so you are going to probably have your shirt size go up right, your arm size go up, but your waist comes down. So, like, the proportions change a bit, but in a good way. Like, muscular arms are beautiful arms, like men and women. If you look at them, it's usually not a problem, even when women have muscly arms. And, yes, muscle takes up less space than fat for the same weight. So as you build muscle and lose fat, you might find that your weight on the scale doesn't change much if you're doing a body recomp and kind of staying the same weight, but your body composition improves dramatically and so your shape is changing and you are going to probably need clothes, not because you're getting huge or bulky, but because your shape is changing in all the right ways. You might need pants that allow for a bigger booty, for example right or shoulders or arms, but like in a good way, not because you're bulky, because you're actually filling them out and you're not just like skinny fat.

Philip Pape: 8:02

I hope none of this is triggering for any of you, because I am talking a lot about physical appearance here, but that is where the question comes from, doesn't it? Let's address another concern the fear of eating too much when trying to build muscle. So that's part of the bulking fear of like actually getting fat. Okay, and it is true again that to build muscle you need to eat enough to support that growth. You can generally build muscle either in a surplus or sometimes at maintenance. If you're a newer lifter, right, it's very rare that you're going to build much muscle in a deficit, although it can happen, but it's just going to be slower and that's not really the priority. When you're in a deficit, it's more to lose fat.

Philip Pape: 8:41

Now, when you are at maintenance or even in a slight surplus, it doesn't mean you're going to automatically gain a certain amount of fat, but you probably, the bigger that surplus is, are going to gain some of that as fat. When you do it correctly, when you do it precisely, a slight calorie surplus. So for numbers sake, I would say gaining around 0.2% to 0.3% of your body weight a week. And again, if you want to be conservative and be on the lower end, that's fine. 0.2% of your body weight a week, it's not that much. If you do the math right. It's at most a couple pounds a month for, like, an average size female.

Philip Pape: 9:18

That, combined with training properly right Progressive overload, progressing over time in the gym, going to the gym three or four days a week that is going to lead to plenty of lean muscle gain with minimal fat accumulation. And by minimal I mean maybe a third to a half of that is fat. And you're like, oh so if I gain 10 pounds, up to five of that is fat. I don't think that's the way you should reframe it. I think you should frame it as so if I gain 10 pounds, a full five of that is muscle. Holy crap, that's five pounds of muscle that I never had. And then I can easily drop whatever fat I gained in a cut, you know, in a fat loss phase. Wow, five pounds of muscle is massive when most women are walking around losing muscle year after year at the age of 30, eventually leading to sarcopenia and also osteopenia, weakness, frailty and ultimately death, and I hate to paint a negative picture. We all die someday, of course, but the chances are much higher when you don't have the muscle. So that's the health argument for muscle.

Philip Pape: 10:18

Hey, this is Philip and I hope you're enjoying this episode of Wits and Weights. I started Wits and Weights to help ambitious individuals in their 30s, 40s and beyond who want to build muscle, lose fat and finally look like they lived. I've noticed that when people transform their physique, they not only look and feel better, but they also experience incredible changes in their health, confidence and overall quality of life. If you're listening to this podcast, I assume you want the same thing to build your ultimate physique and unlock your full potential, whether you're just starting out or looking to take your progress to the next level. That's why I created Wits and Weights Physique University, a semi-private group coaching experience designed to help you achieve your best physique ever. With a personalized, done-for you nutrition plan, custom designed courses, new workout programs each month, live coaching calls and a supportive community, you'll have access to everything you need to succeed. If you're ready to shatter your plateaus and transform your body and life, head over to witsandweightscom slash physique or click the link in the show notes to enroll today. Again, that's witsandweightscom slash physique. I can't wait to Now.

Philip Pape: 11:30

For those of you in peri or postmenopause, you might have heard warnings about limiting calories in a deficit or a severe deficit causing something called REDS relative energy deficiency in sport. In fact, steph Godreau, when she was on the podcast, we talked quite a bit about that I may have talked with I'm not sure I talked with anyone else around about it, but it's a valid concern, for sure it exists. But for most of you listening, you're not going to be in that level of a calorie deficit and doing it for so long like an elite athlete or bodybuilder to have to worry about that right. If, of course, you're crash dieting and if you're dieting for a long, long time and you're doing it super aggressively, which is not the way we do it here, yes, you are at risk for that right and amenorrhea and all those things.

Philip Pape: 12:33

But for most of you it doesn't mean you can't be in a calorie deficit, right? The key is doing it at the proper rate of loss, a moderate deficit, with the proper nutrient timing for you, right, the proper meal timing for you. Or you're not doing all this crazy fasting, cutting carbs just to cut carbs, like all that stuff. Just have a balanced diet, go at a moderate rate of loss that's not so fast that you lose muscle or lose too much energy, that lets you get in the gym and you're not trying to hit a number on the scale. You're not trying to hit a target. You're trying to do something sustainable that slowly releases fat and helps you do it successfully, which most people can't do. Most people aren't doing that right.

Philip Pape: 13:07

So short, controlled periods of a calorie deficit interspersed with maintenance phases, right. Or, even better yet, some building phases, can help you lose fat while preserving muscle, preserving hormonal health, and you won't be anywhere near that REDS, that low energy availability state. So if you hear all these fitfluencers and 22-year-old nutrition coaches saying like you need to eat more to lose weight, need to fix your metabolism, you're probably just under eating. I mean, there's a tiny bit of truth to the under eating part in some cases, but it's not magic, it's just a function of calories. That's all it is. We just need to identify okay, how much are you under eating? By what's your current maintenance? Do we need to be in maintenance for a while and clean things up and do things right and then get back into a deficit? It's those kinds of things. Let's be reasonable, let's not be a fear monger about this.

Philip Pape: 13:58

Okay, so I've talked about quite a few things related to physique with energy, to deficits, to health. I want to talk about another health aspect here, related to cardio. Valerie's email mentioned cardio and I was like, hmm, should I do another topic, a separate topic about this, but I think I want to cover this all in one kind of spot. For women Again, you're worried about getting bulky, which means you're probably in many cases over-correcting by trying to stay thin and lean quote unquote, I have quotes up here by doing lots of cardio, by doing Pilates, by doing forms of movement you think are associated with lean muscles in some way, and it's a total myth. It really is. The only way you're going to get that lean toned look is to add muscle, to add muscle, and then you cut off a little bit of fat if needed. Okay.

Philip Pape: 14:51

But let's talk about cardio where it fits in here. Because, yeah, if you listen to experts, there's all sorts of recommendations. Some experts recommend the government health standards, which is something like 150 minutes of vigorous cardio per week, which honestly isn't a bad kind of average number for a lot of people to shoot for. That's two and a half hours a week and if you're lifting, say, three or four days a week for at least an hour, that two and a half hours of cardio equates to about half the time that you lift, which is the recommendation I usually get. It's not out of the ordinary, it's not super high, it's not super low, it's kind of in the ballpark.

Philip Pape: 15:34

Now, cardiovascular exercise in general is important, okay, but it doesn't have to be separate from your training, meaning like you don't have to do special medium and high intensity cardio sessions. Your strength training alone, plus walking, for many women, for many people, is plenty, is actually enough. And if you want to incorporate some medium and high intensity cardio because you enjoy it and you want that little extra calorie burn and that little bit of extra heart health to go with it, I'm all for that. In fact, I do like a little bit of concurrent training in there. Once you get past that initial phase of like, hey, I'm just learning to get my protein, I'm just learning to lift weights.

Philip Pape: 16:11

Once you get past that initial phase and things are kind of dialed in, then I would say, okay, now where do we fit in a couple sessions throughout the week, either on your off days from lifting or like many hours after your lifting sessions, and make sure that they're maybe not on leg day but they're on your upper body day, like little tweaks like that. And I did mention the cardio for lifters guide early on. Again, I actually explained those in there I explained the types of cardio, how to incorporate it with your lifting, how to balance it, and then a little trick that I like to use to get a little bit more calorie burn from your cardio. Okay, just join my email list, whitsandweightscom slash email, and send me an email that you want the cardio guide and I will send it to you. All right, but if you are like juggling a family, your work, your training, meal planning and the idea of fitting in separate hours of cardio sessions on top of strength training can seem overwhelming, if not impossible. Right, and this is where the efficiency comes in. I'm all for efficiency here. You can incorporate some conditioning into your strength training.

Philip Pape: 17:16

So, women, ladies, if you do like those bootcamp classes, if you like the Pilates, if you like you know spin, whatever, I'm not against having, like supersets, a little bit of circuit training work, a little bit of just kind of what you would see in CrossFit, like box jumps or stuff like that kind of thrown in, but they're second priority to the lifting or they're incorporated as part of the lifting. So, for example, you might do, you know, your normal heavy squats, then you might do some leg presses, but then you're going to go ahead and do some calf raises and leg curls and you're going to superset them, and because you're supersetting them and taking very little rest, your heart rate's going up right into zone two, maybe zone three. Right there you're spending a good minutes 10 minutes in a medium, if not high intensity cardio state while lifting weights. Boom, you just got two for one. You can get plenty of cardiovascular benefits just from lifting weights, without having to double your gym time or do things that you don't enjoy doing. Okay, so the goal here isn't to do everything at maximum intensity all the time. Right, we've talked about 80-20 in the past. Go look up my episode called the Pareto Principle is in the title where you just have to do enough to get the minimum effective dose, and then that is the maximum use of your time, where you can make progress without burning out, and then you can decide if you want to do more than that. Can make progress without burning out, and then you can decide if you want to do more than that. And this might mean this probably does mean focusing primarily on strength training, because now you know you're not going to get bulky, but that is the way to get the lean you know bigger in a good way, lean and sexy physique. That you're going for Strategic cardio compliments right. Doesn't compete with your lifting, and that's the approach I would take when it comes to cardio. You don't have to be doing a bunch of treadmill work, a bunch of stair climbing work, right. Just walk, lift and then incorporate cardio where it makes sense and make sure you enjoy it.

Philip Pape: 19:16

I think there's one more thing that I kind of forgot to mention earlier about the calorie deficit for fat loss, because I was thinking of cardio and how many of you use cardio to try to increase your calories and help with fat loss, and that is not what cardio is for. Cardio is for heart health, and that's pretty much it. It burns a little bit more calories, but you don't want to overdo it, and so when we moderate the cardio and we focus on lifting and then use diet as the dial right, periodizing your diet, having proper fat loss phases, cycling your calories as needed, this can allow you to get the result efficiently in a fairly short period of time. So let's say, 10 pounds over 12 or 16 weeks, and then you get back to maintenance for a while and then you build a bunch of muscle and then you do another fat loss phase. I've talked about this in the past with my stair-step fat loss approach. Approaches like that that I do with clients all the time.

Philip Pape: 20:13

Right, we roll up the sleeves and we say what's the most creative way to structure your diet? Your lifting, your cardio, so it's fun, so it's sustainable, so you can go out and have fun on the weekends and you don't really feel like you're dieting like you used to. And then what do you get for it? You get a physique that you you know, your dream physique, your ideal physique that you're going for here Not bulky, not bulky, but lean, toned, sexy. All of those things let's talk about.

Philip Pape: 20:39

This is the last thing I'm going to talk about here, a concept that gets overlooked in all of this the very act of building muscle can make fat loss easier. It makes fat loss easier in the long run. Muscle tissue is the most metabolically active tissue. That means it burns more calories at rest than fat does. Fat does have some burning, but not nearly as much as muscle, and so by focusing on building muscle through heavy lifting, you are upgrading your body's engine, your metabolic engine. You're making it more efficient to burning calories. And here's the thing that people miss. You can carry more scale weight so you can be bigger but leaner. And because you're bigger, you're burning even more calories and you get to eat more food. Who doesn't want that? So this is why focusing on strength training rather than cutting calories endless cardio, high rep, high cardio type workouts can often be the game changer for women looking to transform their bodies, and why you should not be afraid one iota about lifting weights One iota. You are improving everything about your life, your health, your function, your capability, your metabolism. There is zero, absolutely zero downside to building muscle, one of the most powerful things you can do for your body.

Philip Pape: 21:59

So, as we wrap up, I want to recap some key points here. Number one lifting weights will not make women bulky. It will not make you bulky, that's it. It'll make you leaner, stronger and, yes, sexier. Maybe that last one's a subjective thing, but I'm a guy, so I can say that. Number two muscle growth and fat loss work together to create the toned look. You've got to spend some time building muscle, but then occasionally you focus on fat loss. Number three balancing that nutrition with your training is key here. Right, but it doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, it should work with you and your lifestyle preferences. Number four cardio is important, but it can be efficiently incorporated and prioritized below your strength training. And then number five building muscle is the best thing you could do. It is a powerful strategy for long-term fat loss, for metabolic health, for everything.

Philip Pape: 22:50

So I hope the message was clear. The goal isn't to conform here to some idea of a perfect body, right, but it is to dispel the myth that women are going to get bulky and instead, when you lift weights, when you focus on muscle, you will become the strongest, healthiest version of yourself. As long as you're fueling it properly, you progress and you track the right things right. You do the right things. You do what we talk about on this podcast. You reach out for help when needed, because that's sometimes the best way to accelerate your results, and you watch as you transform and it won't take that long. But you're going to transform not only physically, but with your confidence and your capability and your ability to show up for yourself and for others. All right If you enjoyed today's episode, if you want to learn more about really everything, but specifically what I mentioned today, if you want to balance cardio and training, because that's sometimes where the big question mark is.

Philip Pape: 23:48

Don't forget to grab your free copy of my Cardio for a Lifter's Guide. Go to witsowheightscom, slash email or click the link in the show notes to join my email list. Then, when you're on there, reply and say hey, philip, I would love the Cardio for a Lifter's Guide. By the way, what else do you have? And I to send you all my free stuff? Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights, and remember your body is capable of amazing things when you give it the right muscle building stimulus. This is Philip Pape, and you've been listening to the Wits and Weights Podcast. Talk to you next time.