Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

I'm 5"6 & weigh around 120 lbs. I am trying to build muscle but because of my anorexia I am limited to what I can do. I am allowed 3 hours of exercise a week & I am eating at maintenance. I have been doing a 3 day push/pull/leg split & 30 minutes of cardio 3x a week(12 minutes of interval training & then moderate intensity cardio). Any suggestions please help? This is only my 3rd week weight training.

 

Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

If your focus is building muscle, you don't really need to kill yourself in cardio but put your focus solely into the weights. Lift challenging weights and try to do better each time. You will need to eat at least 200-500 over your maintenance. Of course the less amount of calories you add to your maintenance, the slower you will gain weight. Gaining is not the easiest because it feels as if you have to eat so much but when you use high calorie foods such as natural nut butters and all nuts in general, butter, coconut oil, beef occasionally, fatty fish, olive oil, butter, dark chocolate, avocado, whole milk (unless your stomach is sensitive to dairy, like me), jelly, etc you will find it easier to hit your calorie amount each day. You don't have to keep your diet totally "clean" because it would be sooo hard to eat all of that...so don't feel bad if you add in something a little "sinful" to what you eat. It mainly matters if you hit your numbers, not necessarily the type of food. Your workout routine sounds solid right now, I would just try not to tire myself out with the cardio too much. Best of luck to you!

 

Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

eat, eat, eat and eat some more
and train HARD.
if you're going for strength (which you should be doing at first) lift enough weight so that u fail by the 3-5 rep
if you're going for hypertrophy fail by the 8-12 rep

make sure to get your protein
don't be scared of carbs you need them for energy

if your main focus is muscle building cardio won't really do anything for you, don't get me wrong it's good for you... but you're wasting the calories that could be used to build lean mass

don't be afraid to gain weight.. that was my biggest fear and I made no gains for a year because of it, since i started eating more I'm amazed at the changes that have been made in my body

good luck! feel free to pm me if you need any help , I'm a teen girl too

 

Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

Thank yo so much for lending your advice. How would I go about eating more. I am thinking I could add protein but the problem is becuae of my eating disorder I get lethargic after adding a lot more at 1 time. Right now I eat 70 g. Of protein. How can I safely increase this?

 

Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

break your meals up into small meals through out the day, and try to eat high calorie foods.
I'm cutting now but on my bulk I was eating a diet somewhat like this

breakfast :
-1/2 cup oats made with 1/2 cup milk (since you have trouble eating a lot I'd go for whole milk) and add 2 tbsps of PB or vans makes 8-grain waffles that are really good, you can put natural maple syrup on them or you could put pb on them
-2 eggs with 28 g of cheese (try to get the natural stuff, the kraft singles are good, but they don't taste as good as the 50% reduced fat cabot cheeses and they're not as good for you)
or if you're in a rush, i buy the eas or muscle milk protein shake containers and i use the whole thing as milk in fiber one cereal (SO GOOD)

snack :
-greek yogurt with honey and crushed walnuts (SO GOOD, get the whole milk greek yogurt for more calories) or beef jerky or almonds
-1 piece of fruit

lunch :
for you since you have trouble eating I'd get steak. It's very high calorie, so 4 oz of steak , 1 serving of carbs (brown rice, 100% whole wheat pasta, sweet potato) and 85 g veggies
if you're in a rush, just throw together a sandwich , 2 slices of 100% whole wheat bread and 4 oz of low-sodium deli meat and just pack 85 g of baby carrots for your veggies

pre workout
-nature's valley oat bar
-protein shake (not necessary, you only really need carbs for energy during you're workout, but for the calories and protein you should drink it)

post workout:
-protein shake
-banana

dinner
- 8 oz of meat, 2 85 g servings of veggies, 1 serving of carbs

desert
you're bulking, eat ice cream (or whatever sweet you want)

also, here's 2 REALLY good weight gainer shake recipes

-chocolate protein or vanilla protein
-1 banana
-2 tbsp pb
-vanilla yogurt
-1/2 cup milk

-chocolate protein
-mint chocolate chip ice cream
-1/2 cup oats
-1/2 cup milk

they're both delicious and pack almost 1,000 calories, you could have them for breakfast or post workout because they both contain simple carbs and protein

 

Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

Thank you for the advixe. I am also a vegetarian so how would I go about setting up my diet. I also have to eat 150 grams of carbs a day. So I'm thinking this will be a. Problem. Also how much cardio should I be doing a week? Thank you so much for your help. I am having such a hrad time right now. I over ate today(french fries & 2 slices of pound cake). I feel like my fitness goals will be crushed forever. please help?

 

Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

you're a vegetarian... protein will be hard then :/
invest in a good whey, get the rest of your protein from beans, peanut butter, eggs, cheese, greek yogurt, milk...
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/vege...dybuilding.htm
if i was you i'd have a whey shake with every meal

and you NEED more then 10 g of carbs a day if your bulking, you won't have energy to lift otherwise... when i was bulking i got around 200-250 g a day.

and no they won't! you need the calories! you should just try to eat as "clean" as possible, because from my experience the cleaner i eat the more filling the food is and the cleaner i eat the less junk food i crave

when you're bulking, none really.
I mean if you really feel the need to do like 20 minutes twice a week on your off days

but really, just eat, sleep and lift.
if you don't get the right amount of calories/protein, and you don't lift hard your fitness dreams will be crushed forever.

set a goal for yourself and follow though with it, don't let anything get in your way.

 

Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

Thank you so much! I just want to change my life with fitness. I am trying to find my balance. I have been overweight & underweight. So it's very hard to judge what is good & bad. I'm currently a sophomore in hs but don't know how to set realistic goals. I want to be fitness/bikini model bod ready by the end of hs but is that possible?

 

Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

anythings possible, I'm hoping to step on stage by mid 2013

if you want to do that though you're going to have to dedicate your life to it.

 

Help! Teen girl trying to build muscle

Holy heavens. If you are still anorexic, you should NOT be participating in exercise. Even if you are recovered, I highly suggest you give yourself ample time before you begin picking up weights/cardio.

Was I the only person to see the anorexia part of OP's paragraph? and how old are you?!