Building muscle for fat girls....

zuzuanne88

Hey guys!
I'm really wanting to incorprate stregth training into my workouts that has primarily been walking and pilates.My goal is to gain 10 pounds of lean muscle. I wanted to know what is a reasonable time frame to do this. I also wanted to know if smaller weights and more reps will give lean muscle or vice vera?

divemunkey

Go big or go home! lifting heavy will get you the results you want faster and with a lot less time in the gym. For how long it takes to add 10 pounds of lean muscle, that will be hotly debated. It's hard to tell if you've gained muscle while losing fat unless you lose an arbitrary number of inches while staying the same weight. Depends on how much fat you have to lose, and how fast your type of body puts on muscle, too. I think 4-6 months isn't an unreasonable amount of time for most women if they hit the weights hard.

Lupercalia

Lift as heavy as you can. I suggest looking for a beginning strength training program that is mostly (or entirely) made up of compound exercises as you'll get a full body workout and will learn the basics of how to lift safely and appropriately. Starting Strength has been great. I think Stronglifts is also good....I'm sure there are other programs of this nature, but I'm forgetting at the moment. I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions.

It's kinda hard to add muscle and lose fat at the same time. Not sure if that's what your goal is or what. But don't let that discourage you from lifting, or think you shouldn't lift until after you've lost a bunch of weight. Do it now so that you can hold on to your lean body mass as you lose (if that's what you're up to), and also build strength and shape your body. NOTHING will shape your body like lifting heavy weights. Not cardio, not yoga, not bodypump or whatever. That is a fact, and lifting is a wonderful way for women to get sexy curves, feel great about themselves, and focus on really positive, healthy goals in the process. I love it!

sarafil

Please know that you can't build muscle at a caloric deficit. Gaining 10 pounds of lean muscle is a lot for a woman, not sure how realistic it is. At any rate, small weights at high reps is not going to build muscle. You have to lift heavy, low reps, and you are going to need to eat.

sunsnstatheart

It takes time to build muscle and the speed at which you do it will depend on your whether you're eating at a calorie surplus or deficit, your genetics and how well you stick with your program. Just be patient.

As for programs, most people will advise going with either Strong Lifts or the New Rules of LIfting for Women. As an alternative, my wife is on Wendler's 5/3/1 program with me, and we are both having success and fun with it. And, definitely go for lifting heavy as advocated in these programs.

emelia_

Holy cannoli, 10 lbs would take a very long time. If it's definition your looking for you could add cardio so the muscle would be more visible.