[sally]

Also, I wrote an essay on Curves on the old Islamica. Bah.

Basically it's not designed for young women. Not only will you not find many people your age there (unless it's the only gym in your city) but the music is horrible and a young person is definitely bound to get discouraged from the whole environment within a few weeks. But Curves has guest passes, so you can go in for a weeks worth of work-outs to see if you like the philosophy or not.

Middle aged to older women also get discouraged from Curves like gyms (and there's different ones based on the same concept popping up everywhere under various names) but that's for a whole other post.

**
Caramel, I appreciate your genuine concern but it takes a lot more than just working out like crazy for a woman to end up looking like a man aka weird supplements and substances. And as someone who is aiming for a career in the fitness industry, I've done more than my fair share of research on that. Also, as you become more and more active, your body becomes increasingly resistant to the movement because you not only develop endurance, BUT your body knows it can't get rid of your entire weight so you start to level off with regards to calorie expenditure and everything. The trick is to eat right. I go to a lot of fitness/running forums just to read posts of lifelong runners and other overactive women, none of whom have ever expressed concerns about losing their feminine look.. and they're all way more active than me and have been for years and years and years.. Like there are women who run 50 miles a week and crazy stuff like that and are completely healthy because they make sure to replace what's lost and yeah.