why do my muscles always look soft?

[rez]

i have a fairly low bf%, and dont weight a lot, but i can never seem to look cut enough. Im not wanting to do a BB comp, but i really want defined muscles.
do u think it involves increased training or tweekin the diet?

i have mainly low carb mod fat hi protein diet..so its not really an issue to reduce carbs..what gives?

stats;
female, 22yrs, 5"6, 104pounds, 17%bf

 

[MS]

"stats; female, 22yrs, 5"6, 104pounds, 17%bf"

I Hope you don't think me too rude, but you need to have some muscle before you can see any definition. I'm 5'5", 165 pounds and ~16-17% bf. I obviously have a lot more muscle than you, but even so, there's little definition there unless I flex. So I think you are suffering from a combo of too much fat AND too little muscle for good definition. I would suggest you work on adding muscle.

 

[takniteasy]

Increase your carbs a little and see what results you get. Yams, brown rice, oats seem to do the trick for me. When I reduce carbs too much, my muscles lose their fullness and go flat. No definition with "flat" muscles.

 

[VeggieLifterChick]

Do you eat a lot of wheat products? My trainer told me to avoid wheat products because they keep your muscles from being hard.

I do have to agree with MS though about needing more muscle. Think about it this way. Skinny runway models may be at a low bf% and a low weight...but they don't have hard bodies or muscular definition. Why? Because they don't have much muscle under the fat.

 

[MS]

If you mean a 'ketogenic' diet rather than an ordinary lowish carb diet then this will add to the problem as stated.....no carbs=flat muscles. But you will still need to add some muscle if you want to have true definition. You cannot add muscle on a ketogenic diet. Do you ever have any 'carb-ups'?

 

[nikkita]

I hope you dont get me wrong... with your stats:
5"6, 104pounds, 17%bf ... you should be having less bf or as the other girls say you should be having more muscle.
I'm 5'6. 132lbs and 13% bf.... you see what I mean? in order to see definition you should have more muscle.... my guess is that something may be lacking in your diet and you may be catabolic from time to time.... therefore having less muscle and more fat.

what has worked for me is high protein, mod carbs and low fat.... protein because it is what will keep feeding my muscles... mod carbs because I need an energy source. So why don't you try modifying your equation?... mod carbs and low fat instead.

 

[Gladiola]

My trainer told me to avoid wheat products because they keep your muscles from being hard.

Never heard that before - anyone else know about this??

I can't quite fathom why that would be. I can understand why no bread, b/c it has added sugar & other junk, but ALL ""wheat products"" what is bad about them relative to rice & oats???

I got a great Kashi "Pilaf" that has NO added sugar & no added ANYTHING (much unlike all other kashi products). Just oats, brown rice, wheat, & a bunch of other oaty-things.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

What everyone else said.....about adding muscle. You don't weigh that much at all, sounds like you could definately use some more muscle. Which usually means an increase in calories. You said you are eating a hi protein, low carb, mod fat diet. What is your total calorie intake?

Also, 17%bf is good, but it isn't THAT low. It's low, but like MS said, without flexing, I doubt you'll see any definition at that percent.

How long have you been training HARD? How often do you train/workout? How much cardio?

 

[rez]

my cals are around 1500 i think.

sinse hurting my lower back 4 months ago I cant train THAT hard..so my focus has been on active recovery (slowly building up strength - weights), cardio and pilates. So diet is really important to keep things undercontrol.

I dont eat any wheat products as im allergic to them, along with oats, corn etc. My carbs therefore come from vegies and small portions of fruit. I think I will start carb rotating to see some improvements?!

 

[MS]

Try adding in some legumes if you're not allergic to them (beans, lentils, soybeans, chickpeas, etc...). These are positively the lowest GI starchy carbs you can eat. They'll fill up your muscles without causing an insulin spike/crash. They also have some protein in them which is a bonus!

I must say that 1500 cals is on the high side for cutting for someone with your LBM, especially if you're not training hard. But since I don't think you need to drop any more weight, I wouldn't suggest you drop you calories either. I don't really know what you can do if heavy training is not an option.....it will be very hard to gain muscle or lose much more fat without some intensity in your weights sessions.