I just competed last night and am ready to start my off season and put on some muscle. I need a little help with my daily values and cardio. Last off season I did cardio 7x/wk for 30 min (I know; too much). I want to add muscle but w/ minimal fat. I am 5"2 w/ a small frame. I walked the stage @ 102lbs/10%bf. I liked the way I looked but I want my stage weight to be around 110. My contest diet was around 225g pro/50g carbs/30g fat. I don't think I ate enough protein during my last off season either. I used creatine and glutamine as my supp.

Wow Laura, that's a lot of protein! I would drop that macro down to 100gr and up your daily carb intake threefold, to 150gr per day. I'd also increase the fats to 35-40gr.

For creatine, only about 2.5gr a day is necessary to eventually reach saturation point within the system in a relatively short time. Look into adding 1/2 scoop of Creatine Select with 1 scoop of Glutamine Select sipped during training. On non-workout days, you can elect to have 1/2 scoop CS with your highest carb meal. As for cardio, I would scale it down to 3x per week, 20-30 minutes a session.

Try this out for about 4 weeks and you can always make adjustments. For your pre and post workout meal, try to keep fats to a bare minimum.

Good luck!

Aram is right, I outweigh you by 50 lbs right now and I am eating 230 grams of protein. and for my offseason I eat at saturation in carbs, which is about 340 right now, I take it to 450 on nights I play soccer and Im staying lean.

What I like for women is 1.25 x lbm for protein reqs, so for you that is 112 divided over 5-6 meals.

For carbs I do 2.42 x lbm for saturation, the amount you could eat and not spill assuming protein and fat is not overeaten. For you thats 215, I bet that makes your eyes bulge.

Aside from the fact that too much of anythign will make you fat, most people fail to realize that carbs can store as energy (glycogen) in the liver and the blood stream, the body has no protein storage capabilities, eat too much and it can store as fat. Thats why people on these high protein diets cant eat many carbs, because the body burns the carbs and then there is excess protein which isnt being converted to energy any longer.

Anyways, if you want to feel safer you could take 50 grams form your saturation point which would be 165 grams carbs over 5-6 meals, very close to Arams suggestions.

Your fats would be about 25 grams....

So 5-6 meals...

112Pro/165CHO/25F, try it, I bet if you eat clean you wont get fat on this and you WILL feel MUCH better. Once you see this wont make you fat, add that 50 grams back and shoot for 215.

PLEASE PLEASE NOTE: when formulating a diet ALWAYS take into consideration the fat and protein in the carbs, people never do this and its a HUGE error in trying to get lean or staying lean.....use fitday.com to get it EXACT.

Good Luck