Identifying a female hardgainer

**dissipate** · 11-24-2005 07:36 PM

compared to men, most females have a difficult time gaining muscle... so how do you tell if a female is a hardgainer?

**getfit** · 11-24-2005 07:39 PM

**Built** · 11-24-2005 07:43 PM

honey, we're ALL hardgainers.

LOL!

**Davidelmo** · 11-24-2005 07:47 PM

Lol, but you have benefits of being a woman too!

Your calorie requirements are SOO low.. no need to stuff yourself so you feel sick.

Built's mainenance calories are ~2300 if I remember correctly. I have that before lunch!

**Built** · 11-24-2005 07:49 PM

Go to hell.

I LOVE to eat!

I would be THRILLED to eat 3000 cals a day.

Or more.

NO PROBLEM.

On the other hand, it is totally awesome being female!

Gotta take the good with the bad.

**Davidelmo** · 11-24-2005 08:03 PM

Hehe, oh well sorry! :P

(hehe, I get to stuff my face.. in fact I'm eating RIGHT NOW.. take that!! :P)

EDIT: it's just a struggle at the end of the day when I don't want to eat any more but I know I have to

**SkinnySadMan** · 11-24-2005 08:45 PM

Built eats more than me, or just as much. I'm a girly man though

**khari** · 11-24-2005 08:56 PM

Hardgainer is such a stupid term, because everyone thinks they are one.

**Doobs** · 11-24-2005 09:13 PM

Originally Posted by khari

Hardgainer is such a stupid term, because everyone thinks they are one.

:withstupi

**Canadian Crippler** · 11-24-2005 09:18 PM

I'm an easy-hardgainer. When I eat well enough to gain, I gain a lot and in good proportions (little fat, mostly muscle). Thing is, "eating well" for me is about the same as the average 225lb dude on this site. And I'm 185-190.

**TOBART** · 11-24-2005 09:29 PM

I'm with you there Crip, except I'm 150

**Davidelmo** · 11-25-2005 04:29 AM

To me hardgainer means how much you have to eat to gain weight.

3500kcal a day does nothing for me and I'm only 140lbs!

Whereas when I look at the fitday of some of you big guys, you're round about the same

**Paul Stagg** · 11-25-2005 08:18 AM

Hardgainer is a virtually meaningless term. All the same rules apply - if she wants to gain muscle, she has to lift, add weight to her lifts over time, and eat enough protein/calories to sustain muscular growth.

**anasthetic** · 11-25-2005 10:35 AM

I agree that the term hard-gainer is meaningless as it is defined by most people. I mean seriously, so you have to eat 600-1000 calories more than the average person to gain weight? Cry me a ****ing river.

There needs to be a term for somebody who consistently gains a higher than average ratio of fat to muscle, regardless of their metabolism. That to me is a true "hard gainer."

**Built** · 11-25-2005 10:42 AM

Endomorph.

**Hatred** · 11-25-2005 10:59 AM

Originally Posted by Davidelmo

To me hardgainer means how much you have to eat to gain weight.

3500kcal a day does nothing for me and I'm only 140lbs!

Whereas when I look at the fitday of some of you big guys, you're round about the same

My maintenace is 4400 and I am weigh 250-ish.

Remember: How much you eat is vastly important.However, how much you eat in relation to your caloric expenditure is just as important.

**Canadian Crippler** · 11-25-2005 11:00 AM

I hate you.

**Hatred** · 11-25-2005 11:02 AM

Hate me all you want. Just remember, Olive oil will always be your friend.

**RickTheDestroyer** · 11-25-2005 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by anasthetic

There needs to be a term for somebody who consistently gains a higher than average ratio of fat to muscle, regardless of their metabolism. That to me is a true "hard gainer."

Originally Posted by Built

Endomorph.

**JustinASU** · 11-25-2005 12:40 PM

At 255, I can pull in 4000 a day and maintain. I'm too much of a pussy to bulk these days.

**anasthetic** · 11-25-2005 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by Built

Endomorph.

I had always thought that part of the definition of endomorph was having a slow metabolism.

**Built** · 11-25-2005 02:24 PM

That puts on fat more easily than muscle, right?

**Davidelmo** · 11-25-2005 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by Hatred

My maintenace is 4400 and I am weigh 250-ish.

Remember: How much you eat is vastly important.However, how much you eat in relation to your caloric expenditure is just as important.

Indeed but I'm a student (aka "sit on your ass all day and occasionally drag your ass to lectures")

**noahfor123** · 11-25-2005 06:02 PM

Do women overtrain more easily then men, or can they use the same routines?

**Built** · 11-25-2005 06:21 PM

Originally Posted by noahfor123

Do women overtrain more easily then men, or can they use the same routines?

I don't think we need to train much differently - I use the same equipment and do the same basic heavy compound lifts as the guys...

I have read that we may respond to slightly higher rep ranges, and that we may need (a little bit) more cardio to lean out, but nothing significantly different from how the fellas train, at least with my body.

I've compared my lifts to those of guys about my size, and they seem similar for the most part.

Here's the link that suggests slightly higher rep ranges for women: http://www.ruggedmag.com/index.php?t...ticle&i=14&a=4

Originally Posted by Canadian strength coach Christian Thibaudeau

Women do not have the capacity to recruit as many motor units as men do. As such, they'll need 1-2 more reps to fully stimulate their muscles. So when training for strength, a man should use between 1 and 5 reps while a woman will benefit more from doing 3-6 reps. Also, most women will need to perform 1-2 more sets of an exercise to achieve the same degree of stimulation as a man, once again because of their lower motor unit activation.

You can see the difference is NOT large (we're not talking 20-rep sets here!), and certainly this difference varies from person to person. Personally, I tend to like rep ranges of 5-12 for most of my work.

Thread: Identifying a female hardgainer

Thread Tools

Display

Identifying a female hardgainer

Support Wannabebig and use AtLarge Nutrition Supplements!

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions