A recent exchange between me and a commentor on my blog.

We often hear people compliment others, usually girls, by saying, “Wow, look at you; you’re so skinny!” or something similar. While their intentions are good, hopefully they are referring to her lack of fat instead of what “skinny” really means.

The difference between skinny and fat

For technical purposes, or as technical as I can get on this here fitness forum, “skinny” refers to a lack of mass, or more specifically, lack of firm muscle.

On the other hand, when you say someone is “fat”, you’re clearly describing their excess body fat, not the excess lean muscle they have; duh. That part is easy.

So, you see, skinny is NOT the opposite of fat. Describing someone as “skinny” refers to the lack of muscle one has, and describing someone as “fat” specifically talks about body fat.

Therefore, you can be skinny AND fat at the same time; the worse way to be. This is when you have too much fat on your person, while not having enough muscle to give your body a decent shape, not to mention the functional purpose of muscles.

That’s why “losing weight” is not specific enough. You can’t just lose overall weight without considering how much fat you lost (good) and how much of that was muscle (bad). You want to keep as much muscle as you can, because as it has been said many times on here and pretty much everywhere else; muscle burns fat.

Having muscle on your body requires energy to maintain it, thus burning fat in order to keep the useful muscle you just earned. And it’s obvious that pretty much all men want to build and keep muscle, but not all women are aware that building muscle makes them loose fat. Muscle also gives the body a much better body composition and therefore, a sexy physique.

Who’s skinny, who’s fat, who’s hot?

Picture one: Skinny legs. She does not have much fat as you can see from her firm legs and abs, but neither does she have much muscle. Not terribly bad, and great for fashion (although I don’t know why) but you can do much better. And men; what do you think, hot or not?

Picture two: Skinny fat. This is what I described earlier. Does not necessarily have a big barrel of a stomach nor does she resemble an elephant. However, her fat percentage is quite high, and her muscle is super low. She is technically obese. Sexy, isn’t she!

Picture three: Low fat, high muscle without looking like a manly buff chick. Amanda Carrier is a Maxim and fitness model. She works out. And not just by running around, which is ok for burning fat, but to get a strong, lean, sexy body like this you must hit the weights. This is meant for women since, like I said before, men already know they should hit the weights.

^ Sorry, but I had to post this so that you see another example of skinny fat, from a “reverse perspective”.

Saggy butt syndrome. Again, she does not have thunder thighs or a giant, space-hogging bean bag of a body, but neither does she have enough muscle—at least on her butt—to make it attractive. And some of you might give me crap about how, “We’re all different. Not everyone likes what YOU like.” or “Maybe some men like that!” Well good luck with your saggy butt and your saggy-butt loving man. Looks like you scored. I wish you well.

For the rest of you, lifting weights will give you a strong, sexy body and firm behind that will own the Vegas pool or beach next summer. Or for that matter; this winter in Mexico! F*ck cold weather!

For a firm behind:

Squat with heavy weight using a barbell on your shoulders so you don’t have to rely on your hands to grip such heavy weight. It should be heavy enough that you can barely get to 12. You can use heavier weight if you have a squat rack as pictured above so you can just walk up to it and put the barbell down right from your shoulders. If no rack, then use a weight that’s light enough that you can easily press it above your head when you’re done with the squats.

Press your shoulder blades together, arch your back, stick your butt out and go all the way down so your butt touches your ankles. This will give you a really good stretch in the quadriceps, hamstrings, and buttocks muscles which will get them to grow into firm sexy curves. Do a set of 12 reps, rest for 1 to 2 minutes, and repeat twice for a total of 3 sets.

Then do step-ups or lunges, again with a barbell on the shoulders. 3 sets of 12.

Squats, step-ups and lunges will not only help your lower body, but will also do tremendous good for your core/abs, help kill fat, and tone up your muscles all over your body! No one will call you “skinny”, let alone “fat”, but will most likely refer to you as “hot” or the more formal, “effing hot”.

Lesson:

Ladies, don’t be afraid of lifting heavy! It can only do your body good, and you can ease up if you feel you’re getting too muscular. BTW, you won’t suddenly look like a bodybuilding competitor by accident, don’t kid yourself. It would require a deliberate effort to get really lean and build a ton of muscle, especially because of the low testosterone levels in women. In fact, think about it; it’s kind of insulting to the true body building women—saying that you might get like them without really trying to.