Rookie trying to gain muscle

Body weight exercises will not cut it.

As long as she is training progressively, bodyweight exercises work just fine

How to you train body weight squats progressively?

body weight squat
Goblet squats
single leg squat
pistol squat
shrimp squat

Adding a little bit of weight to some of those can make them exponentially more difficult. Add 2-5 pounds to the extended leg on a pistol squat- totally different than adding 2.5 pounds to a bar.

Do a little research- there are tons of progressions- Waldo here is pretty much the resident expert on body weight and bulking- he's a genius.

strengthunbound.com

While barbell training is efficient and convenient, most wildly used- it is NOT the only way.

It's recommended you eat 1954 per day to maintain. Add 250 and you have 2200.

2200 is your daily bulking calories, but you must be in a good routine to make it work properly. It might be worth trying your 1950 maintaining figure of 1950 and learning the basics of your progressive weights programme (strong curves etc).

Spring's got most of it- I want to add- this number is not a fixed number- it's more like a moving target- like a RANGE.

And as you gain weight- and start working with more difficult weights/exercises- you'll need to eat more- so think of it as an arch that grows with you that's not a line- but a band.

I used to eat 1500 for maintenance- now it's my cutting weight- as I bulked this past winter- I jumped from 2200- to upwards of 3000 and it was still not enough toward the end.

I would also recommend - invest in some stretchy pants- and some flexible dresses. I pretty much lived in dresses all winter- forget jeans.

Tell you're significant other what you're doing- and ask them to bear with you- you will have fat days and feel miserable- be prepared- it will happen. It's okay- it will pass.

Also- I like setting a window- X is the minimum- Y is the maximum- 4-6 months is a good range- 4 is just long enough to get solid results and have time to tinker- 6 is for longer slower gains. I made it to 5- but I wanted to quit at 3.5- and I pushed through and some of my best gains were the last two months. it's mentally helpful to have a fixed idea- albiet flexible in terms of time- that way you have something to hold you to the course when you're feeling down but some flexibility if you bail early.