I'm a 22 y/o female who is wanting to do a clean bulk....uggh I hate that word! Since I am female, I have a major fear of gaining weight and have been brainwashed by society into thinking that I have to do cardio or I will gain weight. In the past year I have learned a lot about lifting weights and have changed a lot of my thinking in that way, however I am still scared. I have lost 2 pant sizes by lifting 3 times a wk and doing cardio 5+ times a wk, and I do not want to go back up to a size 13.

Now that you understand a little of my mindset, I'll explain what I want to do to my body. (attached pic is what I want to look like) I want to increase the size of my muscles. I shed a lot of the fat in the past few months and I am starting to see definition, but I don't like the size of my muscles. They are way too small I want them to be a lot bigger.

I am already eating clean 90% of the time, and I don't like supps, I've been thinking about using creatine, but I haven't decided yet. For lifting I am doing NROL for Women. I just started NROL last week and I am really enjoying it. For those of you that are not familiar w/ it: 2 workouts alternating MWF
Workout A: squats, push ups, rows, step ups, and prone jack knife. Workout B: Deadlifts, shoulder press, lat pull down, lunges, and ball crunches.

Here's where my question comes in: NROL does not suggest doing a lot of cardio b/c the calories you burn take away from building muscle. I understand that, but they suggest doing a kickboxing class or spinning, which I could do, but I want to run. I enjoy running and I don't want to give that up. So if I run for 30 min or do 10 min of HITT once a week, is this going to be counterproductive to gaining muscle?

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Keep your cardio- Your heart is just as important. I would keep cardio up at 1-2 times a week on a bulk. If your not gaining weight- don't drop the cardio; just eat more.

Keep the cardio but eat more carbs + protein. If you are trying to build muslce, you want your body in anabolic state (calorie surplus). Immediately following the workout, consume some fast digesting protein (whey) and carbs (white bread, fruit, you know quick absorbing energy). Then the rest of the day just eat slow digesting stuff and as long as you are in surplus, you body should be building muscle.