Leanness v. Strength- for chicks

[Derek Weaver]

I just re-read my response and realized it's a little disjointed (at best).

The main point I was trying to make is that you can get stronger through other means besides mass gain. Although, heavy weights provides a nice growth stimulus, and excess calories will fit in nicely with that stimulus.

Like Steven said, keeping cals. in check will keep mass in check. The laws of thermodynamics still apply to humans.

[Gant Grimes]

Originally Posted by Gittit Shwartz

More protein comes to mind too - 12 blocks on the Zone is not that much.

Big glutes are awesome. (I'm female BTW)

Thank you. On both points.

Sarah, you're eating 84g protein to support 135 lbs. bodyweight. You want to get stronger but stay lean. Fortunately, there's a macronutrient for that.

[Steven Low]

Originally Posted by Gant Grimes

Thank you. On both points.

Sarah, you're eating 84g protein to support 135 lbs. bodyweight. You want to get stronger but stay lean. Fortunately, there's a macronutrient for that.

Yeah, agreed with Gant here. If you're trying to gain strength while maintaining weight then you probably need to be over 1g/lbs per day.... if not 1.25-1.5g/lbs.

[Derek Weaver]

Originally Posted by Gittit Shwartz

Some carb cycling or targeted carbs approach might work for you to gain strength without too much fat. You'll have to play around with the carb numbers a bit to find the right amounts.

More protein comes to mind too - 12 blocks on the Zone is not that much.

Big glutes are awesome. (I'm female BTW)

+3 on this one. At least 1gr/lb of LBM, preferably per LB of total body mass. If you're going off LBM 1.5 grams/lb is completely within reason.

[Sarah Markle]

Thanks, guys. Dully noted. I would just increase the protein, and roughly leave c & f alone? (2x fat, about 4-5carbs/day)

[Arien Malec]

Originally Posted by Sarah Markle

Thanks, guys. Dully noted. I would just increase the protein, and roughly leave c & f alone? (2x fat, about 4-5carbs/day)

Try that and see what happens. Other things you can do are to move most of the carb blocks PWO and to look at subbing fat for carb (unless performance suffers).

[Ben Fury]

Originally Posted by Arien Malec

Try that and see what happens. Other things you can do are to move most of the carb blocks PWO and to look at subbing fat for carb (unless performance suffers).

If you take carbs low enough you'll go ketogenic and you'll get a temporary performance dip as the body goes through keto-adaptation. This lasts anywhere from 1-4 weeks and can include some uncomfortable side effects. Keeping sodium/potassium sufficiently elevated helps alleviate this some.

Once fully keto-adapted, performance returns to near normal. The only thing that tends to suffer is extreme top end endurance intensity. Cutting back on training volume a little usually makes up for this without affecting performance significantly.

Keeping protein up will also help since your PRO will end up supplying the carbs your body wants through gluconeogenesis.

[Darryl Shaw]

Originally Posted by Gant Grimes

Thank you. On both points.

Sarah, you're eating 84g protein to support 135 lbs. bodyweight. You want to get stronger but stay lean. Fortunately, there's a macronutrient for that.

84g/day of protein works out at 1.38g/kg/day for someone weighing 61kg which is a perfectly adequate amount of protein for a recreational athlete.

www.nsca-lift.org/Perform/articles/PTJ060605.pdf

Originally Posted by Sarah Markle

Is it possible to get stronger and keep lean?

Yes. If you're worried about gaining fat keep you carb intake fairly high in order to replenish your glycogen stores between workouts and control your calories by manipulating your fat intake as this is the macronutrient most likely to be stored as fat when consumed in excess.

Note: I know this is contrary to what most people on this board will tell you but any decent book on sports nutrition will confirm what I said.

[Blair Lowe]

May be enough for a rec athlete. A better question would be if she wants to be "ok", good enough or be "smart" about it.

[Ben Fury]

Originally Posted by Darryl Shaw

Yes. If you're worried about gaining fat keep you carb intake fairly high in order to replenish your glycogen stores between workouts and control your calories by manipulating your fat intake as this is the macronutrient most likely to be stored as fat when consumed in excess.

Note: I know this is contrary to what most people on this board will tell you but any decent book on sports nutrition will confirm what I said.

"Any decent book on sports nutrition"? Name me one that can stand up to scrutiny. The high carb nonsense has run its course and is falling into the dust bin of failed metabolic theories where it belongs.

Carbohydrate directly converts to triglycerides in the liver and is most readily stored as fat.

"Fortunately, elevated triglycerides is one of the easiest problems to correct with the appropriate diet. Simple restriction of all sugars and grains."
http://www.healingdaily.com/conditio...glycerides.htm