Trying to gain muscle

jswigart

I have lost 100 pounds in the last 8 months. I am 61 years old and this is the first time that I am at a healthy weight in my whole life.
I now wish to try to build some muscle. Everyone tells me that I have to eat more to gain muscle. I am scared to death to allow myself to begin gaining weight. Every time I try, it seems that I gain in my belly and not my muscles.
I am trying heavy weight with low reps. I try to do weight training every other day. I find that my muscles are always sore and don't seem to recover. Should the soreness go away befor my next training session?
I do cardio on the days I'm not weight training.
Any suggestions?

StealthHealth

You're looking good there pal.

with respect to the mindset of eating more you may find some useful stuff in this recent thread:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10433403/changing-mindset#latest

Specifically for you:

When you first increase the calories people often find that there is a bit more paunch due to increased volume of food and that they see a scale increase (due to more "in transit" food and an increase in water retention) this is rarely fat, although over time, calorific excess will lead to some fat (and hopefully some muscle) gain.

To tilt the gain towards more muscle and less fat:

• Continue with strength training.
• Make the calorific surplus minimal - for some they can build mainly muscle at a weight gain rate of 1lb per week. For us older guys this is unlikely and I think that you should be shooting for a maximum of half that.
• Keep the protein levels up - 0.8g per lean body mass in lbs is considered about right.
• Maintaining a decent level of dietary fat is also important for health, especially joint care.
• Rest and recuperation is very important when attempting to build muscle both from a muscle repair point of view but also to help reduce the risk of injury.

Best wishes

jswigart

Thanks

psuLemon

So there is a possibility that you can try and recomp (kind of offsetting muscle gain and fat loss). You do this by eating around maintenance levels, eating adequate protein and following a progressive overload lifting program (see below). This way you wont' so much have to worry about going through the mental battle of gaining fat back during a bulk. The main downside is the process can be slow.


http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

Recomp thread

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

jswigart

Thanks

deluxmary2000

Wow - I don't have much to help other than what was posted, but I wanted to say that you look great! And you've already got a decent amount of muscle going. Congrats on your weight loss!

Oh, and depending on how much cardio you're doing, you may want to cut down a bit since you're at your goal weight and your focus is now on building muscle.

jswigart

Thanks

ninerbuff

If I'm being honest, based on your age, there isn't going to be that much muscle gain UNLESS your testosterone levels are closer to that of when you were in your 20's to 40's. Even with progressive overload training and a slight surplus, the muscle gain would be quite miniscule to notice. Hormones are important to anabolism and as we age, those hormones reduce significantly.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

jswigart

I really appreciate your honesty. It is actually a relief to know this because I have been working so hard and trying to do everything right and haven't seen much gain. Even though it isn't what I want to hear, it is nice to know its not my fault.

ninerbuff

jswigart wrote: »

I really appreciate your honesty. It is actually a relief to know this because I have been working so hard and trying to do everything right and haven't seen much gain. Even though it isn't what I want to hear, it is nice to know its not my fault.

Oh, I've had this same conversation with clients your age and older asking the same. We train hard, eat right, etc., but see little results. What did made the difference for the ones that did gain was hormone therapy. That's entirely an individual decision and I would caution if that's your decision, to make sure you go to a clinic that has a really good reputation and a doctor in long standing.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

jswigart

Interesting option. I will consider it. Thanks. I may however settle for just toning for now.

StealthHealth

ninerbuff wrote: »

If I'm being honest, based on your age, there isn't going to be that much muscle gain UNLESS your testosterone levels are closer to that of when you were in your 20's to 40's. Even with progressive overload training and a slight surplus, the muscle gain would be quite miniscule to notice. Hormones are important to anabolism and as we age, those hormones reduce significantly.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Excellent post form @ninerbuff - as per usual.

ninerbuff

jswigart wrote: »

Interesting option. I will consider it. Thanks. I may however settle for just toning for now.

You're welcome. And if you need more info, feel free to PM because I have vast knowledge of how HRT clinics work and the pros and cons.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Sued0nim

Well I think you look great

Keep training even if gain is slow slow ...preservation of what you have is important

I agree with @StealthHealth (like that's unusual) but think he meant 0.8g protein per lb bodyweight not per lb lean mass

middlehaitch

Wow, you are doing and looking excellent!

You really have got some of the best in these forums helping you out.
I can say nothing that they haven't said as I have learnt so much from them myself.

As a petite 62 yo woman I have the same problem you have. Probably worse as l never did any exercise until I was 54.

I just have a couple of suggestions-

Instead of doing the heavy low rep routine, not sure which it is, have a look at All Pro. (It is in @psulemon's link above)

It is a progressive compound routine that increases reps (8-12) instead of weight. It also has a high, medium, and low day. This will probably help with the DOMS, muscle soreness. It biased a bit more towards muscle growth rather than strength.

A recomp has been mentioned as you do not want to add extra weight after losing.

Personally, I tried that over the winter while doing cardio on my off days and it left me almost burnt out even though I believe my nutrition was on point.

I have just started up again (2weeks) and all I am doing is a brief cardio warm up on the rowing machine then lifting 3x week. This is leaving me with energy to live. I honestly can't believe the difference in my performance!

(I will add in 30min optional low intensity cardio when I am well settled in my routine and have my calories adjusted correctly.)

What I am saying I suppose is- if you want to lift in a recomp- make that your only focus.

Also if you do a recomp- eat back your workout calories. You will really, really need them for recovery.

I am seriously considering doing a clean bulk (+200) . Results on a recomp are hard to come by at out age. I have gained good strength, but actual muscle gain is minimal, probably more so for me as a woman.

As has already been mentioned, protein is very important at our age. At a maintenance of 100-105lbs I aim for 90-100g protein a day. I top up my shortfall for the day with a protein drink.

There is a lot of info on the benefit of adequate protein and fats as we age.

Here is an interesting article.
https://www.iofbonehealth.org/preventing-sarcopenia

Cheers, h.

Guys, if I am saying anything that would be detrimental to @jswigart correct me please- I like to learn.

jswigart

Thanks for taking time to help.

baptiste565

You look great. Keep training hard and try not to get too caught up in testosterone levels and all that. They are what they are.

sgt1372

jswigart wrote: »

I may however settle for just toning for now.

OP: Sounds like a good idea.

Losing 100 lbs in 8 months is pretty incredible. That's 12.5 lbs/mo or about 3 lbs a week. I assume you lost most of that weight in the earlier months and that the rate of loss tapered off over time. You don't say what your current weight and BF is but you certainly lost a lot of fat as well as LBM (lean body mass) as a result of the weight loss.

The question is whether you like your current weight now. If you do and don't want to gain weight again, then your only recourse is to go for a recomp (and toning) which will result in the loss of additional fat and an increase in you LBM by doing exercise/weight training and adjusting your diet accordingly.

I'm 65 and that's what I'm doing now after losing 21 lbs from 196 to 175 and reducing my BF from about 25 to 20% in the past 3 months. Current objective to maintain my weight at 175 but reduce my BF down to 15% so that my LBM will increase correspondingly. I also want to increase my strength (and muscle in the process). So I am engaged in a fairly aggressive weight lifting, Cross-Fit and cardio program to achieve this.

Of course, LBM is not the same as "muscle" and is estimated on Livestrong (based on a prior sports medicine study) to be only around 56.5-65.1% of a man's body weight, but if you increase your LBM you will increase some muscle mass as well. Just not as much as you think it will.

Good luck in your efforts whatever direction they may take.

jswigart

In answer to sgt1372, I currently weigh 146, down from 246 when I started. My original goal was to get to a healthy weight. There were a lot of plateaus and discouragement along the journey but I can honestly say now that it was all worth it.
Now that I am at a healthy weight I would like to work on muscle gain.
Thanks to every one for your help and insights. J