Skinny is out, curvy is in. But how do you build the curvy body that celebrities like Byonce have and not the skinny girls you see on the runway? It starts by avoiding these 3 mistakes women make:
1. Weights Before Dates
When I talk about shaping I'm really talking about building muscle in areas like the glutes, thights, delts and arms. The most common mistake I see women make in the gym is that they head straight for the cardio section. Cardio though great for the heart and good for burning fat to some degree does nothing for your shape. In fact too much cardio will have the opposite effect by burning precious muscle making you look blocky. If your goal is not only to lose body fat but build a nice shape, the best thing you can do is fall in love with resistance training and there's no better proven method then working with free weights. Don't be intimidated by free weights, embrace them by doing circuit training, barbell complexes and don't be afraid to incorporate them into your cardio sessions too.
2. Diet Alone To Get Skinny Fat
Diet books are so popular the're often the first step someone takes in wanting to lose weight. The problem is that diet alone (especially a low calorie diet) is horrible for your shaping goal if it's not combined with resistance training. Understand that as personal trainers my team and I measure body fat percentage of clients every day and it's evident to us the people that use resistance training at the same time as changing their nutrition. They see a much bigger loss in body fat. We often see people that simply purchase a nutrition plan lose weight on the scale yet don't lose much body fat meaning they are losing a lot of muscle (shape) too. This weight watcher VS fitness club study shows the same result.
3. Shake Things Up
Can you Imagine building a house without any building material? Seems pretty crazy right? Well protein is your building material and without it, it's impossible to build the shape you desire. Don't be scared of protein shakes, center your meals around protein foods like chicken, turkey, fish, beef, or eggs. Try getting 1g-1.25g of protein per pound of lean body weight. If you want to shape up it's not good enough to work hard you need to give your body the right building materials so it can grow.
Now that you know what to avoid, go for it! I know you can do it!