And that's an extremely good rate for a woman! Research suggests that a guy can optimally put on about 2lbs a month of muscle in their first year of heavy lifting, and a woman can look for 1lb/month. Differences in hormone profiles just make it a lot more difficult for women to build muscle, even when doing things perfectly.  Hams believing they're magically transmuting fat into muscle and gaining 5lbs in a week just make me laugh. What's really occurring is the obeasts are vastly overestimating the caloric burn of their workouts and either subconsciously or consciously "rewarding" themselves with more food, which just leads to more fat gain than anything. It's hilarious that they actually believe they can lose weight without getting their diets in check.