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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a true mesomorph.

I am a former college soccer player, track runner.

I have incredibly muscular thighs.  Very-well defined legs--but no skinny jeans.  I also have very muscular 'guns' as people call them.

My entire life it would take me very little time to put on muscle.  Roommates' parents in college used to comment on my build.

I am a size 4, 46 years old.  I am an odd mix of seeming petite--but pretty stacked.

I married guy who has body builder guns and 12-pack and a genetic propensity in his mid-40s to maintain that appearance with little time.

Strangely enough, my 8 and 10-year old boys have defined guns and abs...one looks like a little meathead and they just play regular kid sports like soccer---we don't have them lifting weights.

I don't know why it's hard to understand that some of us women bulk.  I have been this way since I was 13.[/quote]

Congratulations on your genetic gifts.  This isn't what this thread was about though.  It was about a person who surely is not "incredibly muscular" balking at a little water retention in her delts and traps and asking how quickly she could lose the size if she stopped lifting.  To that question, I would say the answer is quickly, and probably more quickly still if you take some anti-inflammatories and try to minimize the use of your arms for a few days.

To your points...couple issues.  First, I suspect our definitions of "incredibly muscular" and "very well defined" are different, but even allowing that you have world class genetics for hypertrophy, is the implication that after an initial adaptation, your legs (or whatever) would just keep growing at an absurd rate indefinitely?  Until you looked like a female Ronnie Coleman?  Has anyone ever seen anything like this happen to a woman who wasn't using anabolics?

Look, we all start from different places, but we're not really the unique snowflakes we often like to believe ourselves to be.  To wit, the female body tends to store fat and retain water in the hips and thighs...many women are also very sensitive about measurements and clothing fit in these regions, so a small change is noticeable and if you are preoccupied with the size of your ass and legs, you may freak out if you swell a little.  Just rest assured that this doesn't portend of some miraculous capacity to slap on muscle mass indefinitely at a staggering rate.  It's an initial adaptation that, for one thing, has already happened, so it's not going to get worse...and, for another, will GO AWAY once the tissue adapts to the repeated microtrauma.  Actual lean tissue accrual happens very very slowly, over months and years...it is not something you are going to be able to notice or measure on a week-to-week basis, even if you are the genetic cream of the crop.  That's just reality.

I think the real issue here is people who are carrying a tad more fat than they realize experiencing some muscle swelling and fluid retention, which just pushes the fat out and gives a soft, bloated look.  Obviously this does not look that awesome.  Understand building lean tissue is a long-term investment in your health, strength, and metabolic power.  In the long run you'll be a lot leaner and almost certainly take up less space than you do now while being more useful in general.[/quote]

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