advise on lean muscle gain??

adrianam1

history of me: i am 21 years old, female, height: 5' 2, 5 months ago i weighed 135lbs and i currently weigh 125lbs. i lost 10 pounds. i would do cardio 5 days a week for 1 hour and i would eat clean foods. i would cheat a couple times. and i would consume between 1500-1800 calories daily....

but now i want to gain lean muscle...
any suggestions for my calorie intake to be? same? higher?
can you list foods that i should eat?
should i avoid carbs?


thank you!!

Hadabetter

If you want to gain muscle you first have to reaize that you will need to eat at or above TDEE. Your body will not build tissue (fat or muscle) at a calorie deficit.

You should engage in resistance training using heavy weights twice a week. (If you can do 12 reps you need to increase the weight.)

You should eat 1 gram of protein for every pound of your lean body weight, or 1 gram for every pound of total body weight x 0.8.

Your fat grams should equal your body weight in pounds x 0.4.

Make up the remainder of your calories with carbs.


You will gain some fat doing this, so you will want to alternate several weeks of this program with several week of your weight loss regimin. Unfortunately you cannot gain only muscle and you cannot lose only fat, but by alternating these programs you will get where you want to be.

Congrats on losing those 10 pounds!

adrianam1

thanks!!
i dont know much of these "rules," i should say. but i have read that its okay to eat at a low calorie since its lean muscle. if you want to bulk then you should consume even more calories. is this right?

Lyadeia

In addition to what was mentioned above, I would also cut back on the cardio. Cardio increases a calorie deficit, so if you are trying to gain mass, cardio tends to work against you.

adrianam1

so would it be better do only incorporate 1 day of cardio and 4 of weights (2 rest days)? about how many calories do u think i should consume?

Lyadeia

I wouldn't be able to guess about your calories, it really depends on your calculated TDEE and what your personal results from eating at that level would be.

For me, I still cutting and I eat between 1800-1900 calories a day. I do 4 strength training sessions per week and 1 cardio workout. I also walk a minumum of 12,000 steps per day (about 6 miles or so). For me to gain mass without changing up my exercise, I would eat around 2200-2300 calories. At least, that's probably where I would start out. For reference, I am 5'5" tall and weigh 135 right now.

Zombriana

I've been making lean gains recently. || In the past 2 months I've lost 5-6 lbs of fat and gained 3 lbs of muscle.

I've been eating my a little over my TDEE (1700)
I do about 20 minutes of HIIT then lift for an hour (or as long as it takes for my routine)
I ride do steady paced cardio 1 - 3 days out of the week (not my lift days)

When I have really large deficts (500+), I eat a bit more, if I'm hungry. (1800-1900)
I'm currently eating more than my body weight in protein (149 g a day)
My macros are 35% protein / 40% carbs / 25% fats

I think I have a pic in my profile if you wanna look. I only "lost" 1/2 a pound by my body looks different.

Hadabetter

If you eat above TDEE you will gain muscle and fat. If you eat below TDEE you will lose muscle and fat. Heavy weight lifting will alter the muscle/fat ratio as you lose or gain.

You can not eat below TDEE and gain muscle. In other words, you can't lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. That's why you cycle your regimins like I mentioned. Body builders refer to this as bulking and cutting.

I'm not sure what you mean by "lean muscle" because there is only one kind of muscle and you are either building (requires a calorie excess), losing it (calorie deficit), or maintaining it (calorie balance).

I wish we could talk more about this, and I apologize for being so curt in my response, but it's past my bed time and I am outta here!

ninerbuff

As mentioned, you only gain lean muscle, there is no other kind. And gaining muscle will involve gaining some fat. It's inevitable. You just want to try to keep that down to as minimal as possible.

Training for gaining muscle is different and usually involves higher volume. So sets from 16-24 on average per body part. Reps between 8-12.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

MercenaryNoetic26

I'm 5'2 also and weighing in at about 120. The scale says I'm fat and I believe it, lol! It's okay, because like previously said, with muscle gain comes fat. I want that muscle right now.

ETA: I aim for 1 to 1.5g protein per lb of LBM

adrianam1

what foods do you eat?