I need help with my woman's diet

**slfmade** · 12-09-2011, 04:49 PM

So I have a pretty good understanding of dieting for myself/men; however, I'm very clueless as to what a woman needs (Diet wise-wink wink). Right now my fiance and I have been dieting since march. The last 5 weeks we've decided to bulk up a bit...she's getting too skinny and wants to put on some muscle. So far she's had really good strength gains and I've been putting her at 1500 cals, on a 50/30/20 split, but I want to know what's ideal for women.

Here are her stats:

Female
27
92lbs
5'2

So my questions is...Does she need to run 500 calories over her BMR to gain LBM or this just for men during a bulk? Her current BMR is 1212. We workout 4 days a week and 1 day a week we do a pretty strenueous 8 mile hike.

Also, on the 2 rest days, is it still necessary to consume that many calories if there is no activity or should we cut a meal out on those days.

Lastly, what kind of breakdown split is best for women. ex. 60/30/10

Thanks for the help

**SlimmerMe** · 12-10-2011, 11:40 AM

Hi....do you want to get your woman to sign up? might help to see what she is eating plus she would get much better feedback this way...

GOOD LUCK!

**tbody66** · 12-10-2011, 12:39 PM

Also would like to see her workout routine for your proposed LBM program, exact exercises with sets/reps/poundages would be most beneficial, maybe some pics for our best assessment as well.

**slfmade** · 12-10-2011, 02:08 PM

Well, I can pretty much speak for her as we live together, work together, train together, and diet together. I don't understand how giving her workout routine would make a difference to my original question, but here goes anyway. As of now she pretty much mimicks my workout, but with lower weight.

All exercises are 3x8

Monday - Chest
Flat Bench
Incline Bench
Decline Bench
DB Fly's

Tuesday - Triceps
Triceps Pulldown
Tri DB Extension
Dips
Not sure what it's called but a tricep cable crossover type of thing.

Wed. Shoulders and Legs
Dumbell Press
Lateral Raise
Front Raise
DB Shrugs
Upright Rows
Leg Extension
Leg Curls
Leg Press
Calf Raises

Friday- Back and Bi's
Back Raises
Lat Pulldown
Assisted Body Raises
Seated Rows
Lawnmowers
Zottman Curls
Preacher Curls
Spiders Curls
Hammer Curls
Barbell Curls

Abs on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays - She likes 8 min abs!

As for diet I currently Have her on a 1500 cal diet on a 50/30/20 split...but again I really have no idea how a woman diets for LBM gain...this is what I'm here to find out.

Here's a pic from Halloween of this year. Since then she's kept about the same weight but toned up a lot more.

Thanks

**slfmade** · 12-10-2011, 02:35 PM

So, I just got her to set up an account on here. "Browngirl". She'll be reading the thread as it progresses.

Thanks again for the help.

**tbody66** · 12-10-2011, 02:54 PM

The workout won't help to answer your original question, but diet is not the only piece of the puzzle, especially with putting on muscle and even more for females.

She is an attractive girl but the pic from halloween doesn't look like the body of someone who trains with weights, imho. The workout is, in the kindest way I can state this, atrocious/pathetic. Five biceps exercises? Triceps have a day by themselves? Wow. Neither of you will put any muscle on with this program. You could have a perfect diet and be completely strict on it and not put on any muscle with the above workout. You "have her on" a diet? I need a little background on your experience so I can understand where you would have the knowledge to put anyone on a diet and I am really interested to hear where you get your workout advice/information from. We would love to help you accomplish your goals, and her goals as well. The diet geniuses will help straighten all that out, but please let me help with the weights.

**slfmade** · 12-10-2011, 03:18 PM

Okay so one thing at a time. At that time she had never done any weight training. As I stated in the original post...we just started 5 weeks ago...AFTER Halloween. One major point is we have both made huge improvements in our strength...so as atrocious/pethetic as it may be we have both made drastic improvements. The reason we only do triceps on a day by themselves is due to fatigue issues when trying to do something such as a chest/tri. Many people do 1 bodypart a day so they can push that bodypart as hard as they can, so what is so horrible about that. My diet was critiqued and approved with little changes by the vets on this nutrition forum so I think we're good on me and my knowledge of dieting for a male. But I don't know jack shit about what a female needs. This is why I was questioning what we need for her.

**spywizard** · 12-10-2011, 04:01 PM

so with the "bulk"

what's the purpose for her?? More size?? that's what bulk means and that means hypertrophy muscle development... guess what a woman has to do to increase that??

My suggestion is she like most women and many many men are not at their natural top level of development, what's she's probably looking for is swimsuit, or fitness model development, typically with women it's the delts/back/leg development ???

by the way 3x8 will not accomplish either of the goals discussed..

**slfmade** · 12-10-2011, 04:10 PM

Yes she wants to put on some muscle in her arms and have a bit of abs showing. She doesn't want to be a super muscled up or anything, but she wants to look very physically fit like a swimsuit model not so much a fitness model. I've always been told that if you want to build muscle you do Heavy Weight/Low Reps. I've been out of the game for a while...has this changed? Advice on this is apprciated, but I would still like to know the answer to the original question about diet.

Thanks

**tbody66** · 12-10-2011, 04:58 PM

The smallest muscle in the body is the biceps and the next the triceps, both of those muscles are used in every other bodypart exercise to some degree. They are also the easiest to overtrain, having arms on a day by themselves after hitting them once or twice in the non-primary role is acceptable. Having triceps after chest day is incredibly counter-productive and a sure set-up for over-training and major set-backs. From sedentary to activity of any sort in five weeks will make "dramatic" results, but training properly, especially when creating a base to build on for the entirity of your future will make all the difference when moving forward.

In order to receive diet advice you will be asked to at the very least put in the effort to spell out her specific diet now with accurat macro break-down.

Current pics would be more beneficial for the best assistance. Some basic things to remember for weight training, for either gender, work largest muscle group to smallest muscle group. More sets/reps for the larger muscle groups, perform compound movements. Train the smaller muscle groups more frequently since the smaller the muscle the quicker the recovery.

If you are both going to perform the same exercises, just at different poundages (which I think is a good idea) then we need to know your age/ht/wt/bf% and training experience.

**GirlyGymRat** · 12-10-2011, 05:01 PM

Hi and Welcome BG!! I am no expert at all and have only tried to lose weight but I am not sure how to calculate BMR but just to give you an idea. I am 5'4" and at 140 to lose I was trying to hit 1367 cal/155P/84C/37F. I too workout 6 days a week and do much more cardio, obviously to reach a cutting goal. I calculated my TDEE at 1330, considering myself sedentary, since I have a desk job.

I have put on muscle and strength. I do lower weights, higher reps and add weight when it need to. I am also clueless about weight training for woman. I would like to know what I am doing wrong in the gym. I know what I am doing wrong with my diet....and DIET is so dang key in this game of cutting and bulking!

Good luck and I will be checking in periodically!!!

**BrownGirl** · 12-10-2011, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by girlgymrat

Hi and Welcome BG!! I am no expert at all and have only tried to lose weight but I am not sure how to calculate BMR but just to give you an idea. I am 5'4" and at 140 to lose I was trying to hit 1367 cal/155P/84C/37F. I too workout 6 days a week and do much more cardio, obviously to reach a cutting goal. I calculated my TDEE at 1330, considering myself sedentary, since I have a desk job.

I have put on muscle and strength. I do lower weights, higher reps and add weight when it need to. I am also clueless about weight training for woman. I would like to know what I am doing wrong in the gym. I know what I am doing wrong with my diet....and DIET is so dang key in this game of cutting and bulking!

Good luck and I will be checking in periodically!!!

Thanks girlgymrat! I know I've put on some muscle and increased my strength. Lately I've been doing higher weights and I feel great. And you're right, the diet is so important. That's where I'm having the issue. I really need to figure out if I should eat 500 cal more than my 1212 BMR not...aaaarrrggghhh! lol Anyways, thanks for the support!

And thanks for your help as well tbody66 and spywizard!

**tbody66** · 12-10-2011, 05:48 PM

NP, you've come to the best board on the planet to vaporize the learning curve! We can't wait to see what you both accomplish.

**BrownGirl** · 12-10-2011, 06:06 PM

Originally Posted by tbody66

NP, you've come to the best board on the planet to vaporize the learning curve! We can't wait to see what you both accomplish.

tbody66, I love how supportive everyone is on here!

I've learned a lot from reading posts and stuff. And I can't wait either! lol Us girls have a harder time than you boys! j/k I have the motivation to do it...

**SlimmerMe** · 12-11-2011, 01:20 PM

HAPPY you joined us BrownGirl~

Looking forward to your progress. And the trick to ALL of this is consistency. Plus keep in mind slow wins the race no matter what your goals are.

You have come to the best place to reach your goals. Lots of great info here.

Do you want to start a log? I bet that would help you a lot.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU! Will follow your progress.