Bulking is a difficult topic, it’s very much a love / hate relationship, especially for us ladies who are so temperamental with our goals. We all love being able to eat more food but yet at the same time it’s totally disheartening waving goodbye to all traces of abs and summer bodies.

We all admire those sexy curvy booties that have clearly been built in the gym but at the same time envy and find ourselves confused about how to attain them for ourselves without all of the extra calories pouring into our stomachs.

It’s super hard watching yourself gain weight, trust me I’m doing it now. I’m eating up to 2000 calories a day and with every mouthful I find myself having to reassure myself that this is right. This is WAY more than I used to eat – a few years ago I would eat only 1200 calories a day and go running 4-5x a day yet still found myself complaining that I wasn’t toned enough. 

It took a long time for me to realise and see food as fuel and not the enemy. Starving yourself then bingeing is so unhealthy yet it seems more and more common. You feel guilty for overeating so you compensate by under eating. Just think how bad that is for your body, hormones and digestive system – your body goes into shock and therefore may cause inflammation, breakouts, hormones imbalances or weight gain.

“Eating more actually makes you SMALLER”

It almost seems unnatural that eating more actually makes you SMALLER. Well, this is because you will build your metabolism which speeds up your bodies way of breaking down food.

“I’m scared that lifting weights will make me look manly”

I have so many girls message me and clients say to me ‘I want to be tiny like you, I need to do more cardio as I’m scared that lifting weights will make me look manly’… It doesn’t work like that! Lifting weights doesn’t make you manly in fact in the last two years that I’ve been weight training and eating more I’ve never looked smaller.

MORE: BGD’S VICKY DESCRIBES HER TYPICAL GLUTEN FREE DAY!

My scales may say different but muscle is heavier than fat so because of this I have stopped weighing myself and started measuring my muscle mass and body fat percentage instead. Last summer I did my first two bikini competitions and was extremely happy to have placed high in both, however at times I found I was constantly focusing on what the scales said which just isn’t healthy.

Another big issue that I constantly find myself talking about is the fact that so many people are scared of carbs. Carbs really aren’t bad and as long as you aren’t bingeing they won’t make you fat. Carbohydrates provide energy which allows you to push harder, lift heavier and exercise for longer in the gym. They are a vital part of our diet and we really shouldn’t be ignoring them. I’m currently six kg heavier than my stage weight I still count macros 60% of the time and I am training very hard around four times a week but I do enjoy food too. Eating a cheat meal and not stressing if I go over macros (and yes… I mean if I go over my 2000 calories). 

Building lean muscle happens with weight training and a good balanced diet. Lifting a weight won’t make you massive – if that were the case we’d see plenty more muscley men around and if they struggle to build muscle then ladies I think it’s safe to say it will take us some time too!

So, next time you find yourself overeating and panicking do yourself a favour and stop stressing. Don’t under eat or over exercise tomorrow just get back on track and start using your food as fuel.