Discerning Fat from Muscle

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dpr73
dpr73 Posts: 495 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I apologize in advance for all the questions. But I have one more thing that's been bothering me as I attempt my bulk. When I start seeing gains, how can I know that this is mostly muscle and not fat? I am counting calories very closely, I lift four to five days a week using a training program, and think I'm gaining slowly (though at a month in it's tough to tell what my gaining is really like). Is it obvious? I often get tripped up here...after originally losing a lot of weight, I sometimes fearthe surplus will take me back towards where I was rather than the right direction (muscle).

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  • jolive7
    jolive7 Posts: 283 Member
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    You should definitely do a body fat test - either pinch test with calipers or get a dexa scan. Although the pinch can be inaccurate, if you are using that same method each time it will be a great comparison. I do mine about once a month, for me it is the best test because my weight stays relatively the same
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    You look in the mirror and gauge how fat you are.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    edited October 2016
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    This is the hard part of bulking. If you are gaining at a moderate rate and progressing with your lifting you should be gaining muscle (and some fat too unfortunately). Take regular measurements, progress photos.. and try your best to focus on the parts that are growing positively..ex. your back, arms, quads, glutes etc. I never bothered with expensive BF% tests.. I just looked for progression.. as long as I wasn't gaining too fast and the inches weren't piling too quickly in the wrong places I just kept at it and trusted the process (btw don't measure yourself at the end of the day.. food volume and bloat alone can be discouraging).
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    abdomen measurement at the belly button.

    Most people gain fat first in the belly - if you know you don't - measure the other spots.

    But you will gain fat when eating in surplus for bulking muscle - you decide how fast you want the muscle and that determines how much extra fat you'll get.

    When the waist gets up there, you decide if time to slow down the bulk or cut.
  • sskly48
    sskly48 Posts: 28 Member
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    track your body fat once a week is the best way I've found.
    Everything else is LBM (lean body mass)
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    arditarose wrote: »
    You look in the mirror and gauge how fat you are.

    this plus tape measure...
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    ndj1979 wrote: »
    arditarose wrote: »
    You look in the mirror and gauge how fat you are.

    this plus tape measure...

    Yep. Though there could be muscle included in measurement increases. The mirror will really tell you if you're fat lol.
  • se015
    se015 Posts: 583 Member
    edited October 2016
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    dpr73 wrote: »
    I apologize in advance for all the questions. But I have one more thing that's been bothering me as I attempt my bulk. When I start seeing gains, how can I know that this is mostly muscle and not fat? I am counting calories very closely, I lift four to five days a week using a training program, and think I'm gaining slowly (though at a month in it's tough to tell what my gaining is really like). Is it obvious? I often get tripped up here...after originally losing a lot of weight, I sometimes fearthe surplus will take me back towards where I was rather than the right direction (muscle). [/q
  • se015
    se015 Posts: 583 Member
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    You can do it just by comparing pictures or looking in the mirror, OR you can actually measure your waisteline and stomach. You obviously don't want those areas to grow too much, although both will grow no matter what when you bulk that's just the reality of things. Most importantly if that's your concern you need to get yourself a handheld body fat % device, or you can use calipers whichever you prefer, either method will work if you are CONSISTENT with which tool you use to measure. So don't measure body fat with calipers and then handheld device, use ONE device and keep using that for accuracy. If you maintain body fat % great, if it jumps more than 4 or 5% you know you've gained some fat. Those are the best ways of knowing. Also if you've gained significant amount of weight in a short amount of time, unless you're using steroids, that's an indication you put more fat on than muscle. Muscle takes a long time to grow so if you gain weight it should be slowly.

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