Need some advice!!

amberx1127

Hi everyone, just here looking for some advice on what to do to reach my fitness goal. I am a 21 year old girl (110 lbs, 5'3") and my goal is to stay really lean but put on a little bit more muscle so I appear more "toned". Basically going for the "beach body" look lol. Anyway, I keep reading that it is impossible to keep burning fat while building muscle at the same time. I posted on some other forums and the people keep saying I need to eat more calories and gain weight (which means a little fat too) and build muscle and then cut down on calories and lose the fat. I dont want to gain any fat though! Is there a way I can build muscle and stay lean at the same time? I find it hard to believe that all these celebs who have awesome bodies bulk and cut all the time. I workout 7 days a week and mix it up between HIIT cardio and weight lifting. I always have a protein shake or bar after my workouts as well. When i look up how many calories I should be eating a day to maintain I get 2021 cals a day, however I am not eating that many a day because I am afraid I will gain too much weight if i just jump to eating more cals (i am eating between 1500-1750 cals a day at the moment) . If i want to start eating more calories but dont want to gain fat how do I go about doing it? I am always hungry so its not hard for me to eat more but I am just scared to gain weight because I am happy with the weight I am at now. If I put on weight I only want it to be muscle!

DaveneGfit

I wouldn't worry about gaining weight. You do need more calories to put on muscle. Also make sure that you are eating food that is nutrient dense because you could be eating a lot, but if your body isn't getting what it needs then that could be a problem too. If I were you I would try increasing your calories little by little to see if that helps. Remember when you put on muscle you actually burn more calories so you will slim down. It is a process and it won't happen over night, but you will get there