What Happened When I Stopped Working Out to Be Skinny

Most women buy their first gym membership with one goal in mind: to look better. We’ve all been there. We’ve all had those moments/phases/chapters when the sole focus of our workouts is to be skinny/get skinnier. Logging countless hours on the elliptical, starting and stopping numerous high rep exercise programs, devising a plan to get to the gym early for fasted cardio…sound familiar?

The gym is full of cardio equipment. Weight loss articles are every where (including on this site). Society idolizes thin, beautiful women. Working out can help you lose weight.

Related article: Why I Choose Not to Diet

I used to go to the gym with an obsessive desire to be skinny. Enjoyment and unwavering, healthy motivation weren’t really a goal. I wasn’t seeing major change. I wasn’t even healthy. This is what happened when I stopped working out to be skinny.

Why my goals changed.

I was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa at age 20. I’d run and worked out and restricted myself to the point that I was no longer in control of my mental health, never mind my physical health.

I moved home and stopped going to the gym (doctor’s orders). Over the next few years, I slowly crawled out of that hole. Even after I was physically healthy again and was back at the gym, I still had a mental battle to fight. I still had an obsession with skinny.

Then I found body building (specifically bodybuilding.com). Instead of spending hours burning calories on the cardio machines, I pick up weights. I spent a few years learning the basics and building a little bit of muscle. Still, in the back of my mind there was always a voice that said “you didn’t burn that many calories today, you should go for a run”.

Finally, I found a program that was 100% dedicated to building muscle. No calorie deficits, no scheduled cardio. The programmers spoke brilliantly (brilliantly enough to change my mind, at least), about building muscle and why that was the key to everything I wanted out of the gym. This wasn’t news to me, I knew the benefits of building muscle. But my workouts were boring me and I was ready to try something new.

It changed my body, my confidence and my mentality in a matter of weeks.

What happened when I stopped working out to be skinny.

I stopped working out to be skinny and started working out to get stronger and build muscle. Cue the aha moment.

My body changed in a matter of weeks.

I dropped my rep range and increased the amount of weight that I was lifting and my body responded immediately. It was as if my muscles had been waiting for me to pick up heavier weights. Muscles that hadn’t been well-defined (or even there), before started to appear. I was getting stronger. Which means…

I overcame plateaus.

In the first three weeks of the program, I hit a PR (personal record), almost every single workout. For someone who has been working out a long time, that’s HUGE. My big lifts (my squat, dead lift and chest press) had stalled at a certain weight range. Within three weeks of starting this program, I was lifting more than I ever had. I finally knocked out strict pull ups, a goal that I’d always had but never realized. The excitement of those accomplishments meant…

My motivation went through the roof.

Here’s what I know for sure: results are motivating.

When you go to the gym and you see results, you go back. That’s it. If you find a program that helps you to progress, you’re going to keep doing that program. Progress is motivating.

The kind of motivation that you get from seeing results is 100% about you. It’s the perfect answer to the questions “Why do you do this?”. I had no problem going back day after day because…

I felt endless energy.

When you stop working out to be skinny, calorie counting becomes inherently less important. Your building muscle! You’re getting stronger! Those results need fuel.

And so you eat more healthy foods because your body craves them. You have more energy from the fuel so you are constantly using it. You put that fuel to work at the gym so that you continue to progress and you walk out of the gym feeling like you can do anything and the cycle begins again.

I had more confidence.

Strength is an incredible confidence builder. Keeping track of my progress meant that I felt more in tune with my body. I had more confidence inside and outside of the gym.

While lifting, I knew that I could push a bit more, and a bit more. I didn’t have the aches and pains that I’d been feeling from repetitive use and high reps. I felt confident adding 10 pounds here, 5 pounds there, 2 1/2 pounds there.

And I felt more confident outside of the gym because I liked the changes I saw in my body. I liked feeling and looking strong. I liked the definition in my arms and shoulders and legs.

Ironically, my body fat decreased as soon as I stopped working out to be skinny and started working out to build muscle.

So if in the future you hear me preaching about the wonders of weight lifting, this is why.