Starting strength and gaining weight questions

[spongela]

Currently into my third week of starting strength, I started at around 136lb and am now up to 138lb. I am wondering how fast should a female should be gaining weight when trying to put it on?

I am 5ft 9 and currently aiming to eat around 2400 calories, my maintenance is around 2200. I also still have a little bit of fat to lose but when I tried to cut fat before I just ended up looking to skinny with little muscle but still with some stomach fat and dropped down to the weight I started starting strength at. This was probably because I wasn't lifting heavy and doing to much cardio with some strength training but not enough. So I'm guessing I can continue to add weight while lifting heavy, but my other question is do people still drop some body fat while doing this, or would I have to cut my calories down after I reached a certain point to cut fat.

[rlw31]

Currently into my third week of starting strength, I started at around 136lb and am now up to 138lb. I am wondering how fast should a female should be gaining weight when trying to put it on?

I am 5ft 9 and currently aiming to eat around 2400 calories, my maintenance is around 2200. I also still have a little bit of fat to lose but when I tried to cut fat before I just ended up looking to skinny with little muscle but still with some stomach fat and dropped down to the weight I started starting strength at. This was probably because I wasn't lifting heavy and doing to much cardio with some strength training but not enough. So I'm guessing I can continue to add weight while lifting heavy, but my other question is do people still drop some body fat while doing this, or would I have to cut my calories down after I reached a certain point to cut fat.

I'm doing SS now, having previously had a go at it a couple of times over the past couple of years. In the past, I rather stupidly tried to cut whilst doing it and that, along with my rather rubbish knowledge on form etc, led me to stalling pretty quickly. I'm now six weeks in and am stronger on every lift than I ever have been.

You don't need to be eating huge amounts for this to work well for you, nowhere near as much as Rip recommends skinny guys. I'd say the amount you're having right now is just right. Push it up if recovery becomes a problem. I'm bigger than you and have only recently gone up to 2,600 calories a day and I've managed a few runs in that time as well.

I'm sure if you're smarter with your diet than I was then you could get stronger whilst maybe losing fat, particularly if you're completely new to lifting weights. But I'm finding it a lot easier to just eat, get strong, make this programme last as long as possible and worry about cutting later.

[spongela]

I'm doing SS now, having previously had a go at it a couple of times over the past couple of years. In the past, I rather stupidly tried to cut whilst doing it and that, along with my rather rubbish knowledge on form etc, led me to stalling pretty quickly. I'm now six weeks in and am stronger on every lift than I ever have been.

You don't need to be eating huge amounts for this to work well for you, nowhere near as much as Rip recommends skinny guys. I'd say the amount you're having right now is just right. Push it up if recovery becomes a problem. I'm bigger than you and have only recently gone up to 2,600 calories a day and I've managed a few runs in that time as well.

I'm sure if you're smarter with your diet than I was then you could get stronger whilst maybe losing fat, particularly if you're completely new to lifting weights. But I'm finding it a lot easier to just eat, get strong, make this programme last as long as possible and worry about cutting later.

Hey thanks for the advise, I think I will stick with the calories I am on, it seems to be working right now and I am making progress. So hopefully I can just continue getting stronger and worry about cutting later. I just want to focus on putting on some muscle mass right now.

Do people cut on programs like SS when they need to do a cut?

[rlw31]

Hey thanks for the advise, I think I will stick with the calories I am on, it seems to be working right now and I am making progress. So hopefully I can just continue getting stronger and worry about cutting later. I just want to focus on putting on some muscle mass right now.

Do people cut on programs like SS when they need to do a cut?

Sometimes, but adding weight session to session will be very hard, particularly if you're already pretty strong. I imagine it'd be fine if you accept that progress (as far as putting more weight on the bar session to session goes) will slow or even non existent after a while. When I tried to do that before I ended up in a conflict: do I to lift heavier every session or do I want to lose fat? For now I'm happy to accept the weight gain that'll come with the strength (though I've no plans to fat **** myself).

[alexkj]

Hello.
What would you recommend for someone to decrease body fat and get leaner??

5'5" ~142 lbs.
~ 23% body fat..
how many calories per day?

Right now trying to bulk up and get more lean muscle mass.
Have alot of trouble with abs section..so far.
For now, eating about 2000 ~ 2100 calories per day..
And training at least 5-6 times a week (weight training), with little cardio alongside.
But dancing (light to moderate) at least 3-4 times a week.
THanks

[gwnorth]

Hello.
What would you recommend for someone to decrease body fat and get leaner??

5'5" ~142 lbs.
~ 23% body fat..
how many calories per day?

Right now trying to bulk up and get more lean muscle mass.
Have alot of trouble with abs section..so far.
For now, eating about 2000 ~ 2100 calories per day..
And training at least 5-6 times a week (weight training), with little cardio alongside.
But dancing (light to moderate) at least 3-4 times a week.
THanks

You should post this as a separate thread.

[oregonchick76]

You shouldn't gain faster than 1/2 lb per week. A woman can only gain around 1lb of muscle per month MAX, so everything on top of that is going to be fat.