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!

wheird

You can look into the lean gains method, but I am not familiar with it.

Bulk/cut cycles are the tried and true method. You dont have to gain loads of weight, YOU determine how much you will gain and then how much you will lose.

KateK8LoseW8

Bulk/cut in short cycles to minimize fat gain. You have to eat at a calorie surplus to see faster muscle gain results. You can recomp (eat at maintenance and lift weights to change your body composition), but that takes a VERY VERY long time. Just do short 6 week cycles of bulking and cutting until you get the physique you want. You won't gain significant amounts of fat in 6 weeks if you are lifting, and whatever fat you do gain you can get rid of in the next 6 weeks.

wpwarrior88

You say you are always hungry right now, so your body is saying you have it in a semi-starvation mode. Add healthy calories, fruits, veggies, raw unsalted nuts. Start with 200 (from where you are now) extra calories a day. See if that curbs your hunger. Also, how much water are you drinking aim for a minimum of 8 glasses a day.

You do need more calories to build muscle and be able to power through your workouts. MFP tools are really good for tracking your intake vs output. Keep in mind muscle weight more than fat but takes up less space and with weight lifting you should see your body mass index drop! Have you determined your current BMI, if not, it is easy to find the simple ways of doing it on line.

Last, everyone is build different, what works for you may not work for me and vice versa - don't be afraid to try different calorie intakes. If you find something does work the way you desire drop it and move on!

Keep pumping toward achieving the body you desire!

TigerBite

What about body recomp? Eat at maintenance and lift ... Slower than a Bulk/Cut, but will get results w/o the fat gain ...