Macro Ratios for Women Bulking

Diet and Nutrition
1

My girl is looking to gain some some muscle. She’s currently about 5’1, 124 lbs, and is fairly soft, but no gut or anything. Her ratios are about 40/25/35 on off days and 35/45/20 on lifting days. She only gets 33g of fat on lifting days, and I came across somewhere that you don’t really want to go below 30 for hormonal reasons?

Most information out there is geared towards men gaining or women cutting… but I’ve found the following ratios from various sources (p/c/f):
33/33/33 - standard baseline
30/40/30 - standard bulking
30/60/10 - specifically for women

I’ve read that both women require more protein than men and less (some study found women more efficient at using it for energy in endurance settings). So, I don’t really know where to stand on that.

I lot of it depends on what she likes, I know. If she had any current complaints, I think she’d like more fat, a little more carbs, and less protein. She isn’t interested in any extremes. I was thinking of just increasing both her carbs and fat in equal proportions until she is gaining too quickly, pull back a little and replace some protein with more carbs and fat. However, I don’t know really know if equal proportions are the way to go.

2

I’ve actually heard women need less protein, just because they carry less LBM. So where I usually aim for roughly 1g/lb of BW, I’ve suggest my GF get in about .7-.8g/lb of BW.

I personally tell her to get in .4g/ lb of BW in fat at least, and than let her a eat the rest of her caloric need as she’d like. Personally I’ve found that’s easier for her. I would suggest she fill the rest up with carbs, but because she’s not very muscular, I feel that the kind of water weight eating a lot of carbs usually carries wouldn’t make her happy. So with this approach she seems to naturally drift towards a 30/40/30 kind of split, and I think that’s fine.

So I think just setting minimums and a caloric intake is probably best in a situation like this.