First of all, let’s congratulate you for thinking of lifting weights to help you move towards your goals. The misconception that weights makes you bulky is a myth perpetuated by people who either haven’t tried lifting weights, or who lifted weights and paid no attention to what they were eating on a daily basis.
Lifting weights whilst paying attention to the food that you eat is often a really powerful way of changing your body shape.
Benefits of lifting weights include:
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Increased muscle tone – think improved body composition
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Higher daily energy expenditure – burn more calories on a day to day basis
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Self confidence boost – empower yourself to do more than ever before
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Improved health markers – delay the physical degradation associated with age
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Improved sports performance
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Protecting your free time – lifting weights is a very time efficient way to train
On a pound for pound basis, fat takes up more space than muscle, so often people concerned about “getting bulky” actually mean they don’t want to gain weight in the form of fat.
Lifting weights causes microscopic damage to muscles that must be repaired – if you routinely eat more calories than you are using then you can gain weight. The opposite is also true – adding some muscle to your body causes you to burn more energy on a daily basis just to maintain it so you can be burning more calories at rest.
So, to conclude, lifting weights will not make you bulky unless you are routinely eating too many calories for what your body needs to survive and repair the damage done by the lifting. In fact lifting weights can make you smaller!