weight gain 4 a small woman

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kerri007
kerri007 Posts: 123
in Fitness and Exercise
so i just finished my first figure competition at the end of oct and placed 9th out of 12 girls. which im pretty happy about. then took some down time off to eat real food cuz the last 6 months i was only eating chick, vegie , potatos, and egg whites which was pretty tuff, but i managed. but only ate chick cuz i dont like fish or tuna, im kinda picky. but it worked for me. so now im back at the gym and refocused to compete in my next show in june, but now its time to add size. so my trainers who i love dearly want me to add 8 to 10 pounds of muscle, which means 12-15 pounds more than what ive ever weighed. which is 15% increase in body weight and it will be tough cuz i got a small body frame, but i got the drive and determination to do it just sounds scary to me to add that much. but not sure if i can do it. im pretty small, 4 ft 11 and since ive been back to normal food weigh 106 now. which is hard to take cuz the last 8 months i was focusing on getting to 100 lbs, which i did but took a hell of alot of work. and when i was done my show that nite it hit me kinda hard. i just dont want to go throu that again. so just wonder if 3 months would be good enuf to add that much muscle. but was already thinking train like im doing the show in june then see where im at in 4 months from now b4 i start cutting down. then if im not ready go for the one in nov.

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  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
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    I would say a good amount is to eat 10% above maintenance cals to grow. Some people go for 20% so somewhere in between there would be the go.

    I probably wouldn't put a time limit on gaining or cutting, just go by progress. (pics/measurements) And lots of people do mini cuts during a bulk also. You may have an upper BF% you want to reach before you do a mini cut for a few weeks and then continue to bulk. And generally 3months should be plenty to cut down before the show as long as you don't go CRAZY bulking :tongue:

    It is very tough mentally to change from loss mode to bulk mode but you have to realise that you know how to cut the fat when the time comes.

    You could also check out StephanieLynne's blog as she's been adding some mass lately after being very lean. (unsure if it was for a comp though)
  • koosdel
    koosdel Posts: 3,317 Member
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    As far as a calorie surplus, everyone reaches a point of diminishing returns where the flabby stuff increase way more than the meat. For me, its 600 over. I wish I could offer more, but I'm not very good at clean'ish bulking.
  • kerri007
    kerri007 Posts: 123
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    awesome thanks. i was told to eat about 2000 cals. that should be good?
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
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    awesome thanks. i was told to eat about 2000 cals. that should be good?

    Going by the regular bw x 14-16 for maintenance.
    est 1500-1700.

    So started at 2000 would be a good idea IMO. So a calorie surplus of 2800ish I would say per week which should work well. As always, pics/measurements to assess progress. As you gain weight, you will have to eat more to continue gaining also.

    While I'm gaining I try and aim to gain .5lb per week. (averaged over time because of fluctuations) This is because of the maximum amount of muscle you can actually gain per week is very minimal. So going much more than that seems like just adding fluff to me. (I'm a former fat boy and still a bit wary of bulking though so this is probably very conservative)
  • BIG_Lew
    BIG_Lew Posts: 513 Member
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    awesome thanks. i was told to eat about 2000 cals. that should be good?

    Going by the regular bw x 14-16 for maintenance.
    est 1500-1700.

    So started at 2000 would be a good idea IMO. So a calorie surplus of 2800ish I would say per week which should work well. As always, pics/measurements to assess progress. As you gain weight, you will have to eat more to continue gaining also.

    While I'm gaining I try and aim to gain .5lb per week. (averaged over time because of fluctuations) This is because of the maximum amount of muscle you can actually gain per week is very minimal. So going much more than that seems like just adding fluff to me. (I'm a former fat boy and still a bit wary of bulking though so this is probably very conservative)
    Agreed.....
  • bry_all01
    bry_all01 Posts: 3,100 Member
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    awesome thanks. i was told to eat about 2000 cals. that should be good?


    in my bulking phase, I got up to 2500 calories, but I would think 2000 is a good place to be. Its scary, but it is worth it. Besides, it won't look like you've gained the 10 pounds. If anything, it will appear you've lost weight, or so I was told repeatedly when I put 10 pounds on during the bulking phase. You've done great so far, and you'll only get better!
  • margieward82
    margieward82 Posts: 406 Member
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    so i just finished my first figure competition at the end of oct and placed 9th out of 12 girls. which im pretty happy about. then took some down time off to eat real food cuz the last 6 months i was only eating chick, vegie , potatos, and egg whites which was pretty tuff, but i managed. but only ate chick cuz i dont like fish or tuna, im kinda picky. but it worked for me. so now im back at the gym and refocused to compete in my next show in june, but now its time to add size. so my trainers who i love dearly want me to add 8 to 10 pounds of muscle, which means 12-15 pounds more than what ive ever weighed. which is 15% increase in body weight and it will be tough cuz i got a small body frame, but i got the drive and determination to do it just sounds scary to me to add that much. but not sure if i can do it. im pretty small, 4 ft 11 and since ive been back to normal food weigh 106 now. which is hard to take cuz the last 8 months i was focusing on getting to 100 lbs, which i did but took a hell of alot of work. and when i was done my show that nite it hit me kinda hard. i just dont want to go throu that again. so just wonder if 3 months would be good enuf to add that much muscle. but was already thinking train like im doing the show in june then see where im at in 4 months from now b4 i start cutting down. then if im not ready go for the one in nov.

    I'm 5'4" and currently 94lbs and trying to also add muscle. Sadly I've had quite a few set backs in my progress, drive and so forth but I have have some success adding muscle once I started eating more. I keep at a 40/30/30 c/p/f breakdown. And I'm going to be upping my cals again very soon now that I am back to the gym! Being smaller (weight-wise) than you, my maitnence is lower and I am not adding as many extra calories daily. I want to gain about 1/4 to 1/2 lb a week of muscle so I'm going with about 200 over maitnence .
    Basically my husband put it best, he said for slow gain just drink a glass of milk a day in addition to what you'd have for maitince. No, it doesn't have to be milk, but you get the idea.
    I'd think that 2000 calories would be perfect for you since your metabolism must be super high with all the muscle you've got!
    Not sure I really added anythign helpful to the conversation, but fel tthe need to jump in anyways :P
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
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    awesome thanks. i was told to eat about 2000 cals. that should be good?


    in my bulking phase, I got up to 2500 calories, but I would think 2000 is a good place to be. Its scary, but it is worth it. Besides, it won't look like you've gained the 10 pounds. If anything, it will appear you've lost weight, or so I was told repeatedly when I put 10 pounds on during the bulking phase. You've done great so far, and you'll only get better!

    I found if you go to the beach and see the average physiques of people these days, you don't get so scared of bulking up a bit. Kerri +10lbs or whatever = physique better than 99% of people. We get hung up on looking at comp physiques it seems, well I do anyway.
  • UponThisRock
    UponThisRock Posts: 4,522 Member
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    8-10 lbs of muscle, unless you're a novice trainee, isn't going to happen in a few months. An experienced male would be lucky to get that in a year.
  • bigfoote_03
    bigfoote_03 Posts: 8 Member
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    Listen to your body kerri i put allot of muscle on when i was power lifting by eating high protein and high calorie diets with lots of heavy lifting . I would work major muscle groups lots of squats, dead lifts, and flat bench. Like i said listen to your body you are small framed and you want to remain healthy with that said with all of my weight gain back then my blood pressure went up as well as my cholesterol and then came the injuries the older we get it takes so much longer to heal and i pushed my self hard and tore my left shoulder up as long with the bicep. You have to give yourself more time to recover plenty of rest and money for the supplements . Get different oppions from trainers, dietitians and doctors and then make an informed decision i know you have the heart and courage to do what ever you want :-)

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