How much weight should females gain a week?

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widmer3
widmer3 Posts: 94 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I've been on a bulk for about 3 weeks now and I've only gained about .75 pounds. I'm trying not to gain too much fat, so I know the bulk should be slow, but is this TOO slow??

F, 23, 5'2", 118 lbs. Probably around 19% bf.

Thanks!!

Replies

  • MapleFlavouredMaiden
    MapleFlavouredMaiden Posts: 595 Member
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    It really all depends on if you are new to lifting or not. If you are new, you gain a lot more muslce at first than if you are not new. It goes down (how much you gain that is) with every year of lifting. It think gaining .75lb of muslce in 3 weeks is fantastic. How do you know what the gain is from? It could be from anything, including water. Are you using any form of BF measuring? That's probably the only way to find out for sure.
  • widmer3
    widmer3 Posts: 94 Member
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    I've been lifting for a little over a year now. I've only gained .75 lbs total, so I assume only around half of that is muscle. I'm only using a body weight scale to measure- no access to body fat measuring devices at the moment, unfortunately.
  • obsidianwings
    obsidianwings Posts: 1,237 Member
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    If I remember rightly was aiming for about 1lb a week when bulking, and I wasn't going for a slow bulk, so you would want to be putting on les than that I guess. Unfortunately we can't put on muscle as fast as the guys, so sounds like you are doing ok to me :)

    I can't wait till my next bulk
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
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    The average male can put on about 1 to 2 pounds of muscle per month. New lifters a little more, advanced lifters or older will be a little less. Women can gain around half that.

    To insure you are eating enough to get optimal muscle gain some shoot for about a 50/50 ratio of fat and muscle. So a male lifting on a good program could try to gain 2-4 pounds per month and women would be half that. Around half of that would be fat gain which might have to be cut later.

    You could try to lessen the fat gain but it is very hard to eat at that precise of a calorie intake. Weight fluctuation can be a few pounds per day so seeing a 1-2 pound gain over a months is already hard. You might go a couple of months and find you were not actually eating enough to gain any muscle.

    If your gain of .75lbs for 3 weeks is accurate that is right on the money IMO.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Sounds pretty spot on to me assuming water weight fluctuations are not messing with the numbers.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
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    Ignoring water gain, that would imply you are consuming a 125 calorie surplus to gain 0.25 a lb each week. Is that your intended surplus?
  • D8vidFitness
    D8vidFitness Posts: 104
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    Too many numbers and variables unless you're competing or a semi-pro

    Bulking really puts your confidence level to the test. Assuming you're lifting heavier weights on your bulk, just eat whenever you're hungry. Higher carbs in the morning and afternoon, less carbs at night

    Good luck
  • shred_me_up
    shred_me_up Posts: 267 Member
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    Honestly, I would try not to worry much about fat. It is impossible to gain muscle without any fat, and if you focus less on this and more on having intense strength trainings and hitting your macros , you will put on way more muscle. As for the extra fat, a cut can take care of that afterwards.

    The reason I advise this is because I did what you are doing now ("bulking" but not really, because I feared putting on too much fat) and then when I cut, I found I had barely gotten any more muscle, I was pretty much back to square one. Then, i bulked again and allowed myself to get a little chunkier, but my gains were way better and now that i'm cutting, I can already see that I've put on a lot more mass than my first experience :)

    Good luck
  • TriLifter
    TriLifter Posts: 1,283 Member
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    There's a group on here that you might find helpful: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/16930-women-who-bulk
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
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    Honestly, I would try not to worry much about fat. It is impossible to gain muscle without any fat, and if you focus less on this and more on having intense strength trainings and hitting your macros , you will put on way more muscle. As for the extra fat, a cut can take care of that afterwards.

    The reason I advise this is because I did what you are doing now ("bulking" but not really, because I feared putting on too much fat) and then when I cut, I found I had barely gotten any more muscle, I was pretty much back to square one. Then, i bulked again and allowed myself to get a little chunkier, but my gains were way better and now that i'm cutting, I can already see that I've put on a lot more mass than my first experience :)

    Good luck
    This is exactly why I don't suggest slow bulks or recomps - very little progress for the amount of time invested. I'd get as close to the ideal cap of adding calories to muscle as possible which is 250 for women with average P-ratios.

    On a related note, I wish more muscular hypertrophy studies on women using biopsies were done. The few out there actually suggest women are capable of hypertrophy gains in terms of percentage increases in muscle fiber types similar to men.
  • HMVOL7409
    HMVOL7409 Posts: 1,588 Member
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    Honestly, I would try not to worry much about fat. It is impossible to gain muscle without any fat, and if you focus less on this and more on having intense strength trainings and hitting your macros , you will put on way more muscle. As for the extra fat, a cut can take care of that afterwards.

    The reason I advise this is because I did what you are doing now ("bulking" but not really, because I feared putting on too much fat) and then when I cut, I found I had barely gotten any more muscle, I was pretty much back to square one. Then, i bulked again and allowed myself to get a little chunkier, but my gains were way better and now that i'm cutting, I can already see that I've put on a lot more mass than my first experience :)

    Good luck

    Love this. So many women end up spinning their wheels with no success trying to avoid the inevitable.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    I gained about 8lbs in 4 months when I bulked.
  • obsidianwings
    obsidianwings Posts: 1,237 Member
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    Honestly, I would try not to worry much about fat. It is impossible to gain muscle without any fat, and if you focus less on this and more on having intense strength trainings and hitting your macros , you will put on way more muscle. As for the extra fat, a cut can take care of that afterwards.

    The reason I advise this is because I did what you are doing now ("bulking" but not really, because I feared putting on too much fat) and then when I cut, I found I had barely gotten any more muscle, I was pretty much back to square one. Then, i bulked again and allowed myself to get a little chunkier, but my gains were way better and now that i'm cutting, I can already see that I've put on a lot more mass than my first experience :)

    Good luck
    I like this. Its a lot easier to cut fat than it is to gain muscle in my opinion, so would rather give myself a chance for some good gains.
  • JustYandy
    JustYandy Posts: 221 Member
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    It takes 5 weeks to build 1Lb of muscle is what my trainer taught me my weight changes lots by water,sodium,food...your body usually changes 5lbs up and down trough out the day.Just work hard keep doing what you do and you will get results.

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