A little confused about net calories

AnAbsoluteDiva

The average woman will gain about ten pounds of muscle a YEAR. Be sure that the two pounds you've gained are muscle.

I'm very curious where you heard this from? I'm quite skeptical that the average woman gains that much muscle a year. Maybe a little muscle and more fat, but not all muscle! As you gain weight, some of that is going to be muscle to help support your body, but it takes work to gain weight and have most/all of that be muscle.

Oh, okay. No, I didn't mean that "a" female will gain ten pounds of muscle mass over a year. It's, as you say, someone working towards the end. And I mention it so that when women who gain three pounds in one week won't fall into the "it must be muscle" trap. Amazing how people can think that a weekly weight gain is all muscle.



Rate of Gain
Most people average about ½ lb. of muscle growth per week, notes CNN nutrition expert Dr. Melina Jampolis. Conduct regular strength training and adhere to specific dietary strategies to achieve this rate. According to the American Council on Exercise, most women will gain about 20 to 40 percent in muscular strength after several months of resistance training.


Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/198318-how-much-muscle-can-a-woman-gain-with-strength-training/#ixzz11cbfbUVc

Ah - see the key there is that it's regular resistance (weight) training and specific dietary strategies - most women don't fall into this category. Your original post made it sound like the average woman gains 10 lbs of muscle a year without doing anything special.

The fact is that you have to eat extra calories (be in calorie excess) to gain muscle but you have to have a calorie deficit to lose weight. Women on this site who are weight training while working to lose weight are not going to be gaining much (if any) muscle, but they will be strengthening existing muscle and becoming stronger that way.

Oh, okay. No, I didn't mean that "a" female will gain ten pounds of muscle mass over a year. It's, as you say, someone working towards the end. And I mention it so that when women who gain three pounds in one week won't fall into the "it must be muscle" trap. Amazing how people can think that a weekly weight gain is all muscle.

(I replied in the wrong section.)