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Muscle gain for women.

pixiethree

pixiethree

Member
Hi all I recently had a thread but it got trolled so I'm starting a new one.

A little about me: I'm 23, f, from aus and I'm currently aiming to achieve a physique of those who compete in fitness and then possibly physique. (Not looking to compete but looking to achieve that physique.) I am a newbie personal trainer and believe that using my own journey for experience will help me learn a lot.

Now I've certainly cracked how to get lean fairly quickly but I'm not sure what nutritional changes are required when changing my focus to muscle gain.

I'm currently 18% body fat & 57kgs,160cms.

Any good advice or discussion is welcome.
 
Lots of protein... dead lifts, squats, pull ups etc... don't go foo foo lift heavy and big :)
 
Haha looking for a little bit more in depth answer than that but thanks. Definitely lift heavy and eat protein but I'm sure nutrition plays a bigger role in muscle gain.
 
pixiethree said:
Haha looking for a little bit more in depth answer than that but thanks. Definitely lift heavy and eat protein but I'm sure nutrition plays a bigger role in muscle gain.
Click to expand...

Nutrition is the biggest role in muscle gain.
 
Yes so my question is what nutrition changes don't need to make when switching my focus from fat loss to muscle gain.
 
Very simple. For fat loss you're shooting for a calorie deficit, yes? So to put on muscle you want to change to a surplus. Your body will need the extra calories to build the additional tissue.

I would start with around 200 additional calories a day and see if you tip the scale at all like that. If that doesn't work keep adding additional cals until you start to see the gain you're wanting. From your avi you look relatively lean I'm assuming you'd like to stay that way so the most you should shoot for gaining (in my opinion) is a pound a week.

You want to get 1g of protein per lb of body weight. Depending on your macro ratios you should only have to make minor adjustments.

I personally try to eat carbs outside of fruits, milk and vegetables on workout days only and whilst bulking that tends to help keep me pretty lean. Other people will shortly chime in with more opinions at which point you can sift through the info and make up how you'd like to go about it :)

Any other Q's toss them up.
 
Thanks spaniard that's really good.
Yeah I'd like to stay lean and gain a bit of muscle at the same time.

When adding additional calories do they need to come from carbs? Or does it not matter?
 
pixiethree said:
Thanks spaniard that's really good.
Yeah I'd like to stay lean and gain a bit of muscle at the same time.

When adding additional calories do they need to come from carbs? Or does it not matter?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily... it all depends on your macro breakdown. You may be able to fill with fat or protein depending on what your intake is already. Ideally 1g protein per lb of bw (or convert it to kg lol) for example:

I weigh 185lb it is recommended that I eat 185g of P. I eat right around 1.25 - 1.5 because I would rather take in additional protein than carbs or fats HOWEVER this is what I find to be effective for me after years of fine tuning.

Protein contributes 4 calories of energy (actually kcals but...) per gram so if I take in let's say for ease 200g.

200x4 = 800 total calories (kcals)

I still have another 2200 calories depending on workload for me to be at a surplus (to gain).

Now we have to fill the remaining allotment for my calorie requirements with the remaining two macros carbs and fats

On workout days depending on the workload, carbs are higher for two reasons - fueling my workouts and recovery.

Then on rest days I lower carbs and raise fats. However I'm a firefighter so depending on the call volume I may have adjust accordingly for calls, training etc...

There are many different schools of thought for where carbs and fat should be but to be honest the most important factor is how your body utilizes the energy (calories) that you provide it with. Bodybuilders, well "bodybuilders" and internet gurus have been redefining and coming up with new diet schemes all the time and using "science" as their weapon to do so. Big picture - you want to put on muscle; little picture - eat food.

You may be able to eat 600g of carbs and be a slab of steel. You may be very sensitive to carbs. You look like you know what you're doing so just take the basic fundamentals turn the caloric environment into a positive one (surplus), stay away from pink dumb bells, turn up the volume on your tunes and train your ****ing heart out!
 
Okay great for the past 2 weeks I have been eating 1350 cal with my macros at 55% fat 35%protein and 10% carbs (from vegetables)

I have lost 2.5kgs since starting that.

I used your method to calculate protein at 125g (500cal) leaving me with 850cal where I eat an equal balance between the different fats and green vegetables.

Having a "refeed" once a week also.

I'm thinking ill continue doing this for a couple more weeks and should be pretty lean by then and needing some muscle!

Then I will start adding some calories. I'm thinking post workout would be better than pre workout to help with growth rather than fuel but I may have that part wrong?

Thanks for your help
 
pixiethree said:
Okay great for the past 2 weeks I have been eating 1350 cal with my macros at 55% fat 35%protein and 10% carbs (from vegetables)

I have lost 2.5kgs since starting that.

I used your method to calculate protein at 125g (500cal) leaving me with 850cal where I eat an equal balance between the different fats and green vegetables.

Having a "refeed" once a week also.

I'm thinking ill continue doing this for a couple more weeks and should be pretty lean by then and needing some muscle!

Then I will start adding some calories. I'm thinking post workout would be better than pre workout to help with growth rather than fuel but I may have that part wrong?

Thanks for your help
Click to expand...

1350??? Wow lol! What do you weigh 42kg??? With such a little allotment for calories for you I would start with 1g per lb and see how that works. What are you eating for your fats? You seem to be doing well for yourself at 55% fat. Fats may be your bodies most efficient fuel.

Pre and post are ideal times for carbs. Ideally you would consume the majority of your carbs within this time period.
 
Women tend to hold glycogen longer than men.

FWIW I had my bikini chic on 2k calories at 117, in about 6 weeks she gained 5lbs and lost 0.5-1% body fat.

Most carbs peri workout with healthy amount of fats (saturated) earlier in the day (if you train at night)

This was a change from a more traditional 40/40/20 split p/c/f where she had stalled around 115 and slowly added equal lean body mass and fat
 
I'm 56.5 kgs so 124lbs.

Another trainer put me at 1350cals saying that that would put me in a deficit of 500 so I just went with that.

125lbs x 15 = 1876cal - 500 = 1376

Is this not a good formula to be using?
 
Distilled Water said:
Women tend to hold glycogen longer than men.

FWIW I had my bikini chic on 2k calories at 117, in about 6 weeks she gained 5lbs and lost 0.5-1% body fat.

Most carbs peri workout with healthy amount of fats (saturated) earlier in the day (if you train at night)

This was a change from a more traditional 40/40/20 split p/c/f where she had stalled around 115 and slowly added equal lean body mass and fat
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input - in your opinion should I increase my calories and change my macro split??
 
pixiethree said:
I'm 56.5 kgs so 124lbs.

Another trainer put me at 1350cals saying that that would put me in a deficit of 500 so I just went with that.

125lbs x 15 = 1876cal - 500 = 1376

Is this not a good formula to be using?
Click to expand...

That's a pretty intense deficit. You don't want to freak your metabolism out do what's working for you. Just know when you hit a certain point of no progress you will need to switch it up
 
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