Body Composition, Female-Specific Training Principles and How to Gain Muscle with Holly Baxter, APD

Women in that 35+ age range are really not eating enough protein ... We talk about those ranges being anywhere from, say, 1.8g of protein per kg of their lean body mass all the way up to as high as 2.9g of protein per kg lean body mass.

When we finally make a dietary recommendation, it might be that I just move their protein from, say, 80 grams... up to 130 ... Just that adjustment alone without making any major changes to their carbohydrate or fat intake will actually result in a really positive body compositional change.

If we look at the surplus that's necessary, about 10-20% above your maintenance calories is about what's recommended to optimize the hypertrophy response.

I think there's a bit of a stigma or misconception that as soon as you start lifting, that you're all of a sudden going to turn into the hulk if you're not really careful, and it's just such a myth.

I just want to point out as well, for women, because we have lower testosterone levels, it is a little more challenging for us to build as much muscle as males.

Females have very subjective experiences of whether or not their period has an impact on their strength and/or hypertrophy outcomes.

Ultimately, the more muscle you build over time... that governs your metabolic rate, because that is the most energetically costly tissue.