After much research, I pooled together the top 5 training myths (in my opinion) so that we can debunk them together:

1. Lifting heavy weight makes you bulky
2. Higher reps, lower weight for fat loss
3. As you get older, muscle turns into fat
4. You should be super sweaty/sore after every workout
5. You can add back workout calories to eat

Myth #1: Lifting heavy weight makes you bulky

This may just be the most annoying one of them all. Especially coming from a woman. We hear all the time that women are afraid to lift heavier weights because they don’t want to bulk up or look like a man.

It is clear that these are the people who have never tried to pick up heavier weights because the reality is that it is extremely hard to “bulk up”, especially for a woman.

Women do not naturally produce enough testosterone in our bodies to easily gain muscle mass like a man would.

We have to PURPOSELY be eating in a calorie surplus (over maintenance level) for a very long period of time 6+ months to years depending on the starting point to legitimately become “bulky” from muscle mass alone (not fat).

On top of this, we also have to eat a TON of protein to be able to build muscle mass in “bulk”.

It is not necessarily the lifting heavy part that makes you bulky, it is the eating too much part. You can become bulky from lifting light weights too..

The main thing that creates muscle growth in the gym (outside of eating), is pushing yourself close to muscular failure during your sets (within 1-3 reps of actual failure).

This can be done with both light and heavy weights. The thing is though, most people who are lifting lighter weights aren’t pushing themselves to muscular failure during their sets.

It is much easier to do so with heavier weights.

Myth #2: Higher reps, lower weight for fat loss

About those light weight lifters..

People who lift lighter generally do more reps each set which makes the training more of an endurance style opposed to for muscular hypertrophy (growth).

Hypertrophy sits in the 6-12 rep range while endurance sits at 12+ reps per set.

And as I said above though, it actually comes down to the food opposed to how we are training (and with what weight).

You can ABSOLUTELY lose fat while lifting heavy weight only. In fact, it will probably be a lot easier since you’re exerting more energy to lift the weight.

And if you are a newbie (under a year), you may experience some muscle gain even if you’re eating in a deficit which will only increase your TDEE (amount of calories you burn every day) AKA making it easier to lose fat.

For fat loss specifically, it is important that we are eating in a calorie deficit (below maintenance level). This is the main aspect of losing fat and it can be done without any training or movement at all.

So why go to the gym?

There are many benefits of going to the gym outside just building muscle and losing fat which you can read about here.

But it certainly helps to move daily and exercise in order to lose fat at a faster rate (since you are burning more calories daily).

Myth #3: As you get older, muscle turns into fat

I actually said, “huh?” out loud while reading this one because it just makes no sense..

Muscle does not turn into fat EVER.

Fat does not turn into muscle EVER.

Fat and muscle have different cell structures and are made up of different components so it is simply impossible that they could magically turn into each other. They are not interchangeable.

As we age, it becomes increasingly important to lift weights and build muscle because our muscle mass decreases 3-5% per decade after we hit 30.

At the very minimum, if you are not wanting to build new muscle mass, it will be important to still strength training to maintain your current muscle mass or you WILL lose it.

Opposed to popular belief, our metabolism actually does not decrease throughout most of our adult life. It isn’t until we hit about age 60 where we start to see metabolic decreases.

So if you’re under 60…

I don’t want to hear it!

The facts are that you have put yourself in this situation most likely by either 1. not building sufficient muscle mass in the first place or 2. not strength training continuously to maintain it throughout your adult life.

So it is not that your muscle mass turned into fat, it is simply that you are likely to lose your muscle mass and gain fat (separately) as you age if you don’t keep up.

Myth #4: You should be super sweaty/sore after every workout

I actually get this one in my inbox a lot which is funny because I am one of those people who BARELY breaks a sweat during their workouts.

I really only break a sweat on leg day, and even then I’m never dripping or anything crazy.

And I’m pretty sure me and my gains have been doing well thus far.

Sweating is simply just a response to the body being too hot and trying to cool itself down.

So you’re not having a great workout, you’re just hot. Or maybe it’s both (every person is different).

And of course sweating a lot will make you drop water weight, but that is not fat loss so that truly means nothing.

I do experience a good deal of soreness after about half of my workouts though.

This does not mean I did or did not have an effective workout session though.

Myth #5: You can add back workout calories to eat

While it’s true that you can eat more food because you work out regularly, it doesn’t necessarily work in the way that you think.

Let’s say you burn 300 calories during your workout. This does not mean you now have 300 more calories to eat that day.

This is because when you calculate your TDEE, which is the number you should be basing your calorie goal off of, your exercise is already factored into it.

If you’re unsure of how to calculate your TDEE, try my free calorie/macro calculator. Make sure to read the instructions carefully to get the best result possible. Choose the “maintenance” option to get your TDEE.

So whatever you get returned, let’s say 2500, then you would subtract your 500 calorie deficit and 2000 calories is how many calories you eat every day if you’re trying to lose fat. Just because you burned 300 calories today, does not mean you now have 2300 calories to eat. You still have 2000 because your activity level was factored into that calculation.

Conclusion

The truth is that strength training regularly has 1000x more pros than it does cons (that may or may not be an exaggeration) and most of the “negatives” are generally things that aren’t even true! AKA why we call them myths.

If you’re ready to start dropping lbs and inches but not sure how or just need an extra kick in the butt like some of my clients… apply to work with me 1:1 here.

Until next time,

Coach Emily