Why Your Workout Isn’t Working For You — And What To Do Instead
We often chase results by doubling down on workouts, cutting calories, and expecting quick changes. But what if the issue isn’t that you’re not doing enough… it’s that you’re focusing on the wrong goal?
According to Dr. Gabrielle Lyon who is a board certified physician, New York Times bestselling author, and the founder of the Muscle-Centric Medicine®, the problem isn’t fat, it’s a lack of muscle. And for many of us, that small shift in mindset is the missing link between frustration and real, long term progress.
We’ve Been Targeting the Wrong Thing!
For decades, health and fitness advice has centred around one thing, weight loss. Fat is the villain. Calories are the enemy. And cardio is the solution.
But Dr. Lyon argues we’ve misunderstood the root cause of the modern health crisis. It’s not just excess fat, it’s underdeveloped, underutilised, and undervalued muscle.
Skeletal muscle isn’t just about strength or appearance. It plays a direct role in;
Blood sugar regulation
Immune function
Inflammation control
Hormonal balance
Brain health
Disease prevention
Longevity
Put simply, muscle is your metabolic engine, and most people are running on empty.
Meet the Queen of Muscle
Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, believes we’ve spent too long looking at body fat as the problem, when the real issue is what we’ve lost along the way, lean muscle mass.
As a board certified physician with a background in geriatrics and nutritional sciences, her mission is simple, flip the narrative. Build before you strip away. Focus on gaining strength, not just losing fat.
Her message is especially powerful for women, particularly during fertility years, perimenopause, and menopause. When hormonal shifts and muscle loss collide with confusing advice about dieting and exercise.
The Patient That Changed Everything
During her medical training, Dr. Lyon met a woman named Betsy. A mum in her 50s who had spent decades dieting, counting calories, and doing everything she was told. But by the time she landed in a research study, her body composition had broken down very little muscle, high levels of body fat, and early signs of cognitive decline.
Betsy’s story mirrors so many others, people doing everything “right” on paper, but still feeling unwell, tired, inflamed, and stuck.
That’s when Dr. Lyon realised something critical, we don’t have an obesity epidemic, we have a muscle deficit epidemic..
Muscle Isn’t Just Tissue — It’s Medicine
Muscle isn’t just about aesthetics or gym selfies. It’s an endocrine organ, actively producing powerful chemical messengers called myokines. These play a role in regulating inflammation, immune response, brain health, and more.
In fact, skeletal muscle accounts for around 40% of body mass and is responsible for roughly 80% of glucose uptake. When we lose muscle, our body becomes less efficient at managing blood sugar, burning fat, and recovering from stress or illness.
This helps explain why muscle loss (sarcopenia) is linked with:
Type 2 diabetes
Cardiovascular disease
Alzheimer’s
Osteoporosis
Immune dysfunction
Reduced lifespan
So when people ask why they’re doing all the right things but still feeling worse… this might be the reason.
Why Muscle Is Especially Critical for Women
Women face unique challenges when it comes to health and ageing. Hormonal shifts during perimenopause and menopause can create a perfect storm, muscle breakdown, insulin resistance, weight gain, and mood changes.
And yet, resistance training remains one of the most underprescribed tools in women’s health.
Muscle helps manage:
Fertility and PCOS
Blood sugar during pregnancy
Weight gain in menopause
Metabolic and mood regulation during hormonal transitions
It’s not about turning into a bodybuilder. It’s about future proofing your health.
Step One: Build Before You Burn
Instead of asking “how do I lose weight?” we need to ask “how do I build healthy muscle?”
That means shifting the goal from restriction to restoration:
Add resistance training to your weekly routine
Prioritise protein intake (aim for 30–50g per meal)
Consider creatine for muscle, brain, and hormone support
Focus on function, not just the number on the scale
We’re not just trying to get lean, we’re trying to get strong, sharp, and sustainable.
We’ve been sold the wrong idea for decades.
If your workouts aren’t delivering the results you want, whether that’s fat loss, body composition, or long term health, it’s not a willpower problem. It’s likely a muscle problem.
The Muscle Mistake We're All Making
We’ve been conditioned to think of muscle as something cosmetic, a side effect of lifting weights or an optional extra for athletes.
But according to Dr. Lyon, muscle is far more than just “tone” or strength.
It’s a critical organ of longevity, directly influencing:
Glucose regulation
Inflammation and immune function
Hormonal balance
Cognitive health and survivability against disease
And for women, it plays a defining role through fertility, perimenopause, menopause, and beyond.
What’s more, muscle is our metabolic sink, the primary site for glucose disposal. That means more healthy muscle gives us a better shot at controlling blood sugar, improving energy levels, and protecting the brain, liver, and heart over time.
The truth? If we’ve been prioritising weight loss without building muscle, we’ve been targeting the wrong problem.
Why Cardio Only Workouts May Not Be Enough
Let’s be clear, movement matters, and all exercise is beneficial.
But for many women, especially those training regularly, the issue isn’t commitment. It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Walking, yoga, cardio, and Pilates are great. But if your goal is to change body composition, protect against age related muscle loss, or support hormones through menopause, resistance training is non-negotiable.
Dr. Lyon puts it bluntly: if your current routine isn’t producing results, your metabolic stimulus needs to change.
Reframing Your Goal: Build Before You Burn
Most of us want to lose “weight.” But what we’re really after is fat loss and ideally, without sacrificing lean mass.
Here’s what happens with traditional low calorie diets (especially those that follow older government guidelines):
Up to 40% of the “weight” you lose can be lean tissue. That’s your metabolically active, protective muscle mass and losing it makes long-term fat loss and health harder.
The better approach?
👉 Prioritise resistance training.
👉 Eat enough high quality protein.
👉 Build muscle first, fat loss becomes easier as a result.
Why Muscle Matters More for Women
For women aged 35–65, particularly those navigating fertility, perimenopause or menopause — muscle becomes even more vital.
Here’s why:
Pregnancy is an insulin resistant state. More muscle can help prevent gestational diabetes.
Menopause triggers a metabolic shift. Declining oestrogen increases the risk of insulin resistance, fat gain, and chronic conditions like Alzheimer’s.
Strength training helps offset these changes and improves survivability, mobility, mood and quality of life.
Bottom line? Being strong protects your future self, especially during life’s hormonal transitions.
The Protein Prescription
This is where most people fall short, especially women.
Dr. Lyon recommends aiming for at least 1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight, with 30–50g per meal to effectively stimulate muscle growth.
The key nutrient? Leucine, a branched chain amino acid found in high quality protein sources like eggs, meat, poultry, and whey. It's the spark that ignites muscle protein synthesis.
And yes, it’s possible to get this on a plant-based diet, but it often requires a higher volume of food (and carbohydrate) to match the amino acid profile of animal based sources.
Want Results? Change the Stimulus
If you’re walking, hiking, or doing yoga five times a week and not seeing progress, it’s time to rethink your formula.
Three resistance sessions per week is a powerful start. You don’t need hours in the gym, effective training sessions can change the game when the focus is on stimulus and intention.
Don’t just move. Challenge your body. Build strength. Create adaptation.