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25 Yr old Female from UK 133lbs looking to gain muscle.

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  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,420 MFP Moderator
    edited February 2018
    shareebarnett2017 wrote: »
    sijomial wrote: »
    shareebarnett2017 wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    shareebarnett2017 wrote: »
    Hi All,

    firstly, apologies if there is currently a similar thread going off...

    I am 25yr old female, i currently weigh 133lbs, just to clarify i am happy with my weight, i am looking to gain muscle...

    I have been lifting for about 2 years now and not really noticing any muscle definition or gains... i am finding it difficult to eat my calorie amount a day (as in not reaching the target amount).


    feel free to send a friend request.

    I am looking for kind advice please... no nastiness!

    If you aren't seeing any progress in terms of body definition and/or strength, you probably need to evaluate your lifting program and then your diet. What has you weight done over an extended period of time? How much protein? And what is your lifting program.

    to be quiet honest with you im seriously confused because on here (my fitness pal) i set all my goals to gain muscle and it had be eating like 1800 odd cals a day with a high carb intake (215g) and 144g of protien... i stuck at that for about 2-3 weeks and all i noticed was that my definition was just dissapearing before my eyes. im not one to stand on the scales and care what it says, i go on how i look, i take progress pics but i had gone from 9stone 5 to 9stone 7 in this time my stomach measurements were also bigger so now yesterday i changed my goals on myfitness pal to try and loose that weight and it says i need to eat 1200 cals and i know from previous experiences that i will loose drastic weight on 1200 cals and not gain muscle - ah im so confused! i know what i want but trying to get it is prooving difficult.

    You are in charge of this tool but you need to learn how to use it better to drive it.

    Macros can be changed to your personal preferences rather than take the defaults. Macros also are a guideline not a straight-jacket. That protein is a bit higher than needed but not really excessive, what's wrong with higher carbs? They are a great training fuel.

    2lbs in three weeks is a tiny change and well within bounds of normal fluctuations - for a woman I wouldn't recommend making goal changes in such a short timescale, one month minimum to let changes settle out and allow for normal weight fluctuations to be apparent.

    The rate of loss you select has a drastic effect on your calorie goal, if you pick 2lbs a week that's a massive 1000 calories a day it will subtract until it hits the minimum of 1200/day.
    Would recommend making manual goal changes instead as a finer means of adjustment.

    What did you make of the feedback on your routine? (A summary from you would help enormously!)

    Remember your training is where muscle change all starts, diet supports your training and recovery.

    i appreciate the feedback, i now KNOW i need to lift heavier and do less reps, in the back of my mind i was always telling myself that, i dont know why i didnt just do it, i think maybe i was just trying to work my way up...

    im really thankful for your advise/ opinions i feel alot more motivated now, i started to get a little 'deflated' but my heads back in it now!!

    Remember your training is where muscle change all starts, diet supports your training and recovery. Thats good advise too!!

    The biggest key is getting on a structured program, like the ones found in the link posted above. Generally a 3 day full body routine is best to begin with. This is driven by the fact that you will respond best to the increase in frequency as a newbie to lifting and protein synthesis occurs over a 36-48 hour period. After 3-12 months, and more specifically when you start to plateau in strength gains, you can then look at intermediate programs that incorporate more volume and more isolation moves; these are generally 4-5 day splits. Essentially, a 3 day full body will help build a foundation of strength, and then moving to an intermediate program for refinement and working the smaller muscles to support further strength gains.

    Also, conceptually, there is no reason to one be in one specific rep range. Ideally, after you exhaust your newbie gains, you work do low rep high weight and low weight higher rep. I, personally, work in everything from 3-5 to 15-20 because each muscle group has a slightly different make up of type I and type II muscle fibers.
  • shareebarnett2017
    shareebarnett2017 Posts: 32 Member
    speedingticket wrote: »
    I just watched your youtube video. I am new to lifting too, so can just speak from my recent experience. I was doing sort of the same as it appears you are doing now, until recently. I've been working with a trainer for the last 6 weeks or so, and have already noticed changes.
    I am still working within the same rep range (8-12), just using bigger loads. There was nothing wrong with the rep range I was using before, but it was pointless because the weights I was using weren't providing enough resistance. There wasn't the necessary stimulus for my body to adapt to. This was mostly down to a lack of confidence. At some points in your video you look like you could bash out 2 or 3 x the number of reps you're actually doing (hard to tell from behind), because the weight is low.

    I only got footage of my first set which is always my lightest weight so your right i could have done at least 2x what i was doing, i think i was afraid to start heavier because i wanted to make sure i got my three sets and all reps in but starting monday im gonna start on the weight which i usually do my 3rd set on (weight depends on what it is im doing) and really push myself. I iknow i can do it because i started deadlifts on just the bar which was 20kg and added weight and now i find myself just using a 10kg bar... maybe its because im scared of DOMS...

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