Am I wasting my time?

jswigart

I am 63 years old and worked hard to loose 100 lbs and have maintained this for several years it is a big fear for me to gain weight. However, I have recently begun to increase my protein and calorie intake to about 200 cal above maintenance. I am lifting heavy weights every other day. I have seen a weight gain so far of 5 lbs in a month time. I can’t say that it has been muscle gain though. AND IT SCARES ME.
At my age can I expect to see much muscle gain?

JAY

PAV8888

If you are measuring accurately 200 Cal above maintenance does not even come to 2lbs. So 5lbs caused by the extra food cannot be.

The simple fact that you have increased your exercise and food in your system can have a disproportionate effect on your weight. Weight changes are also not fat changes as you well know.

Trending weight apps are your friend and more than one or two weigh-ins are required to establish a trend.

As for the rest of it... I wish I had your moxie and the short answer is YES, you can see GAINZ and NO, you're not wasting your time. Though obviously not as many GAINZ for the effort as you would have seen in the past!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3117172/

comptonelizabeth

I'm 62 and am here to gain weight. When I first started lifting and increasing my calories, I was really excited to see how fast I seemed to be gaining, BUT, it settled down and plateaued after a while. I've learnt from people on here (far more experienced and knowledgeable than I am) that this is common in the early stages, so If I were you I would give it time and make sure you're logging everything accurately. And yes it's possible to gain muscle at our age and also incredibly important for our health!

quiksylver296

If you are really interested in muscle gain, it may be worth a trip to the doctor to have your testosterone checked. If it's low, a T supplement will make a huge difference.