#228 ‒ Improving body composition, female-specific training principles, and overcoming an eating disorder | Holly Baxter, APD
Holly Baxter, an APD and competitive bodybuilder, shares her journey overcoming an eating disorder and depression through consistent therapy and self-compassion. She also details her approach to female-specific training and nutrition for physique improvement, muscle gain, and fat loss, including the importance of reverse dieting.
Deep Dive Analysis
14 Topic Outline
Holly Baxter's Background and Early Athletic Career
Struggle with Eating Disorder, Depression, and Trauma
The Journey Towards Mental Health and Recovery
Reconciling Bodybuilding with Eating Disorder Recovery
Setting Realistic Physique Goals for Female Clients
Principles of Muscle Building for Women
Holly's Approach to Lower Body Resistance Training
Holly's Approach to Upper Body Resistance Training
Nutrition Strategies for Muscle Gain Phase
Nutrition and Training for Fat Loss Phase
The Importance of a Post-Diet Reverse Diet
Female-Specific Training Considerations: Hormones and Cycles
Training Considerations for Post-Pregnancy and Menopausal Women
Holly's Evolving Perspective on Longevity and Wellness
6 Key Concepts
Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)
A subjective measure of training intensity, typically on a scale of 1-10, indicating how hard an exercise feels. An RPE of 8 means you could have done two more repetitions before failure.
Repetitions in Reserve (RIR)
A measure of training intensity that indicates how many more repetitions a person could have performed before reaching muscular failure. An RIR of 3 means three repetitions were left in the tank, while RIR 0 means failure was reached.
Myth of Accidental Muscle
The misconception that women will easily become 'too bulky' from resistance training. Holly explains that significant muscle gain requires extreme consistency, specific training, and often takes many years, making accidental bulkiness highly unlikely for most women.
Metabolic Adaptation
The body's adaptive response to prolonged calorie restriction, where it becomes more efficient at using energy. This can lead to a lower basal metabolic rate and increased difficulty in losing fat, especially if weight loss is too rapid.
Hyperphagia
An excessive, extreme desire to eat more than what is physiologically required by the body, often experienced post-diet due to hormonal changes that impact appetite regulation.
Reverse Diet
A post-dietary strategy involving slow, incremental increases in calorie intake week by week. The goal is to gradually raise maintenance calories, improve metabolic function, and prevent rapid weight regain after a fat loss phase.
8 Questions Answered
Eating disorders are alarmingly prevalent, with 60% of high school females in the US reporting struggles with low confidence, negative self-image, and body image. The prevalence is greater in females but is also increasing in young boys.
Yes, individuals with binge eating disorder and bulimia often maintain a normal to above-normal body weight, especially if they are highly active, making their struggle invisible to others.
Natural female athletes can gain approximately one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of fat-free mass over an eight-week period, though individual results vary based on genetics, training consistency, and diet.
To optimize muscle hypertrophy, women should aim for 1.8 to 3 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body mass, similar to men, with the absolute total target adjusted for their typically lower lean body mass.
The recommended maximum rate of weekly weight loss should not exceed 1.5% of an individual's body weight per week to minimize the risk of metabolic adaptation and preserve muscle mass.
Women generally have a greater percentage of type one muscle fibers and are better at utilizing fatty acids, making them less fatigable during training. This allows them to tolerate and benefit from higher rep ranges (8-15 reps) more effectively than men.
Research suggests that during the luteal phase (when progesterone is high and estrogen is low), women may subjectively experience decreased strength and performance. Conversely, performance may improve during earlier parts of the cycle when progesterone is low, leading to recommendations for deloads around the menstrual cycle.
It may not always be realistic to return to the exact pre-pregnancy scale weight, as women often build significant muscle mass over time through exercise. Focusing on body composition and overall health rather than just the number on the scale is often more beneficial.
23 Actionable Insights
1. Prioritize Mental Health Support
Engage in consistent, regular therapy (e.g., weekly sessions) to address underlying psychological issues, past traumas, and dysfunctional beliefs, as this is foundational for overall well-being and recovery from conditions like eating disorders.
2. Cultivate Self-Compassion & Forgiveness
Treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding you would offer a client or best friend. Reduce self-judgment and negative self-talk to foster a healthier mindset and make progress in personal growth.
3. Recognize Addiction as Ongoing Recovery
Understand that recovery from psychological conditions or addictions is a continuous process, not a destination. Maintain awareness and commitment to new behaviors, as the desire to revert to old habits can persist.
4. Define Specific Physique Goals
Clearly identify what you want your physique to look like, using visual examples (e.g., social media figures) to help your coach understand your aspirations. This helps in setting realistic expectations and designing an appropriate program.
5. Find an Evidence-Based Coach
Seek a coach who is evidence-based, experienced in powerlifting and bodybuilding, and ideally has specific experience working with women. One-on-one training is highly valuable for learning optimal techniques and movement pathways.
6. Implement Progressive Overload Training
Start new resistance training programs with low volume (e.g., one working set per exercise) and gradually increase sets, reps, and intensity over time. This ensures adherence, minimizes injury risk, and facilitates muscle growth.
7. Master Basic Movement Patterns First
Begin with bodyweight exercises like squats to learn proper movement patterns before adding external load. This builds a strong foundation and confidence, especially for intimidating exercises like barbell squats.
8. Utilize RPE/RIR for Intensity
Use Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) or Repetitions in Reserve (RIR) to gauge and progressively increase training intensity. Aim for RPE 6-7 initially, progressing to RPE 8-9 (near failure) as you advance to optimize hypertrophy.
9. Optimize Protein Intake for Muscle
Maintain a consistent protein intake between 1.8 to 3 grams per kilogram of lean body mass daily. This is crucial for muscle building and retention, and consistency prevents negative impacts on energy balance.
10. Strategically Manage Calorie Intake
During muscle building, aim for a 10-20% calorie surplus above maintenance, adjusting based on comfort with body fat gain. During fat loss, target a weekly weight loss of no more than 1.5% of body weight to preserve muscle mass and metabolic health.
11. Implement a Reverse Diet Post-Fat Loss
After a fat loss phase, slowly and incrementally reintroduce calories week by week to find your new maintenance and restore metabolism. This helps prevent hyperphagia and promotes sustainable results.
12. Allow Adequate Rest Between Sets
Take sufficient rest between working sets (e.g., until heart rate is below 100 bpm) to ensure full recovery. Rushing sets can lead to fatigue, reduced performance, and hinder progress.
13. Prioritize Compound Multi-Joint Lifts
Incorporate compound exercises like squats and deadlifts early in your workouts, as the first 6-8 working sets tend to yield the best returns. These movements efficiently target multiple large muscle groups.
14. Address Muscle Imbalances with Single-Leg Work
Include at least one single-leg exercise per session (e.g., single-leg RDLs) to correct discrepancies and improve stability. Begin with opposing arm/leg for greater stability, progressing to same arm/leg as you advance.
15. Focus on Seated Hamstring Curls
Prioritize seated hamstring curls over prone variations for better isolation and tension on the hamstrings due to the starting position. This helps in optimizing hamstring hypertrophy.
16. Incorporate Pull-ups Consistently
Program pull-ups into your routine consistently, even starting with assisted bands, and progressively decrease resistance or add weight. This builds significant upper body strength and can lead to impressive gains over time.
17. Consider Female-Specific Training Adjustments
Acknowledge that women may tolerate higher rep ranges (8-15 reps) better due to muscle fiber type differences and may benefit from deloads scheduled around their menstrual cycle to account for hormonal fluctuations impacting performance, mood, and energy.
18. Learn to Weigh Food & Eyeball Portions
Dedicate time to weighing your food and learning what specific portion sizes look like. This lifelong skill improves dietary precision, calorie awareness, and adherence to nutrition goals.
19. Unfollow Aesthetic-Focused Social Media
Curate your social media feed by unfollowing accounts that solely focus on extreme aesthetics or promote unrealistic body ideals. This helps protect mental health and reduces negative self-comparison.
20. Prioritize Functional Fitness & Longevity
Shift your focus from extreme leanness and aesthetic ideals to long-term health, functional fitness, and maintaining bone density. Resistance training is crucial for preventing age-related conditions like osteoporosis.
21. Adapt Expectations for Life Circumstances
Be realistic about what can be achieved with physique goals, especially for individuals with significant time constraints like mothers. Adjust programs and expectations to align with available time and resources.
22. Update Wardrobe for Body Acceptance
If your current clothes cause distress or negative thoughts about your body, consider getting a new wardrobe that fits and flatters your current physique. This can instantly improve mental health and reduce constant body-related anxiety.
23. Explore Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
For menopausal women experiencing low energy, motivation, or difficulty with body composition changes, consult with experts about HRT. Optimizing hormone levels can significantly improve quality of life and support adherence to active lifestyles.
7 Key Quotes
I really kind of grew up with this idea that unless I was the best at something or did everything and I excelled at everything, I didn't really have value as a human.
Holly Baxter
I think as soon as I really believed that I didn't want to purge anymore, I was exhausted, that's when things started to change.
Holly Baxter
It's not a great thing for females to be that lean. We're not meant to be that lean.
Holly Baxter
I can truly say that I am good with myself wherever I am. The things that will limit me from getting to the point of obesity or like an unhealthy body weight would probably be like, again, extreme habits, like taking anything to the limits where you're just completely careless with your food and careless with exercise and you just don't have any interest.
Holly Baxter
The point of exercise is to hit your hamstring. To hit your hamstrings, what's going to be the limiting factor? So grips are a no-brainer for me.
Holly Baxter
The last thing that you want to do is put together a program that is too difficult. And the next day they can't even walk. How well is somebody going to more likely to comply with that program?
Holly Baxter
I'm much more concerned with how much muscle mass we can put on you and how much we can increase the density of your bones as you age. And even if we never take an ounce of fat off you, which by the way, would mean you'd potentially even gain weight a little bit as you age. But if that weight is predominantly lean tissue, and we're maintaining the integrity of your skeletal structure, you're going to live a better life.
Peter Attia
3 Protocols
Initial Training Program for a Newbie Client
Holly Baxter- Identify client's ideal physique and health goals, using visual references if possible.
- Assess current status including scale weight, current body fat percentage (ideally via DEXA), and other biomarkers.
- Map a realistic trajectory for muscle gain, considering natural limits (e.g., ~1kg fat-free mass per 8 weeks).
- Start with a fairly low training volume, typically 3 days a week, with sessions lasting 30-40 minutes maximum.
- For each exercise, perform only one working set after 1-2 warm-up sets.
- Aim for an RPE of 6-7 (3-4 repetitions in reserve) for the working set.
- Prioritize learning proper technique for compound movements like bodyweight squats before adding load.
- Introduce basic squat and deadlift variations (e.g., goblet squat, Anderson squat, sumo deadlift) early to build confidence and strength.
- Include isolation exercises after compound lifts, focusing on desired muscle groups (e.g., leg extensions, hamstring curls).
- Design programs in 4-6 week mesocycles, progressively increasing volume (sets/reps) and intensity (RPE/RIR) over time.
- Tailor exercise diversity and program structure to client preference to ensure consistency and adherence.
Fat Loss Phase for Physique Improvement
Holly Baxter- Determine a weekly weight loss rate that does not exceed 1.5% of body weight to preserve muscle and minimize metabolic adaptation.
- Back-calculate the precise calorie deficit required to achieve the targeted weight loss rate.
- Initially keep the resistance training program largely the same, focusing on progressive overload to preserve muscle mass.
- Regularly track macro intake, weight trends, and use progress photos to assess fat loss.
- Educate clients on the value of dedicating time to weighing food to learn accurate portion sizes and caloric/macronutrient content.
Reverse Diet Protocol
Holly Baxter- Identify the client's new maintenance calories based on their weight loss during the final weeks of the fat loss phase.
- Gradually reintroduce calories week by week, making slow, incremental increases.
- Monitor weight trends closely and adjust calorie increases based on the client's response to avoid rapid fat regain.
- Be aware of and help clients manage the increased hunger and desire to eat more (hyperphagia) that often occurs post-diet due to hormonal shifts.
- Emphasize consistency in following the reverse diet, even though it may feel like a continuation of dieting, to allow for metabolic recovery.