I swear my body doesn't have the ability to gain muscle

batorkin

- 3 years ago I was 6'2" 270 pounds.

- A year of diet and exercise got me down to 145, but I still had a lot of fat around my stomach.

- In an attempt to fix my skinnyfat problem, I bulked from 145 to 175 over 6 months. I lifted 3-5x a week using various machines in the gym. My workouts were about 60 minutes long. I usually target 3 sets, 10-12 reps, and I don't wait more than a minute between sets. I push until I can't do another rep. I also made sure to get ~180g protein/day and ate almost no processed foods. Plenty of fruits/veggies/chicken, tracking everything.

- I felt like I was getting fat again, so I cut back down targeting 1 pound/week over the next 6 months. I still got ~180g of protein a day and 6 months later I was back down to 145 and looked the exact same as before!

- So I bought a scale that reads body fat/muscle weight. It claimed I was at 10-11% BF (yet I still have lots of fat around my waist). I started a faster bulk this time, getting my daily protein, and ended up at 170 (15% BF) in 2 1/2 months. The scale claims I only gained 2 pounds of muscle in those first 2 weeks and none in any of the other weeks. Yet, I gained 23 pounds of fat. My Bodyfat % just keeps going up and up at this point and muscle mass stays the same - plus I'll lose that measily 2 pounds of gained muscle when I cut back down.

I do cardio 3x a week (running/cycling and eat back the calories 100%). I lift 3-4x a week with one leg day. I. Just. Don't. Get. It. I'm at the gym 5-6 days/week doing one or the other, and it feels like my body is broken from being obese for 20 years. My lifts do increase, so maybe the scale is just wrong. However, I asked two friends and they both said they've seen no changes in me since the initial weight loss 2 years ago.

Close to giving up on this and just accepting that I will forever be skinnyfat.

rileysowner

1. Are you using a program made by a professional or just making it up yourself?
2. Perhaps bulk and cut is not for you. You may want to research recomposition.
3. Measurements and photos can be helpful.

jenncornelsen

Those scales are completely inaccurate for one. I also would highly recommend seeing a professional trainer if its at all in your budget, someone who specializes in body building could really help get you on the right track.

batorkin

rileysowner wrote: »

1. Are you using a program made by a professional or just making it up yourself?
2. Perhaps bulk and cut is not for you. You may want to research recomposition.
3. Measurements and photos can be helpful.

I don't follow a program because I lose motivation with them and skip days. I do whatever I feel like doing making sure to hit all the major muscle groups at least twice a week. I didn't think a program would be needed for someone just trying to get a "normal" non-skinnyfat build. I am not looking to get bulky.

I think come spring, I will cut back down to ~11% BF and start working on recomp instead. Eating at maintenance and just living a healthy activity lifestyle. It *should* balance itself out soon or later I'd think...

jenncornelsen wrote: »

Those scales are completely inaccurate for one. I also would highly recommend seeing a professional trainer if its at all in your budget, someone who specializes in body building could really help get you on the right track.

That's what I am hoping since my lifts are improving. There were 2 weeks where it said I lost 2 pounds of muscle despite all my efforts (which was really demotivating). In my mind, I know there's just no way I am gaining fat and losing muscle with 180g/protein a day + lifting 4x a week. I am pretty sure that's impossible unless I have something seriously wrong with me.

giancarlov1191

Building muscle takes time, patience, and consistency. You should make a program and stick to it, with progress overload (tracker and recorded so you know that you're progressing).

PAV8888

It sounds to me as if you're doing some form of circuit training with lots of volume.

Is this the optimal way to produce hypertrophy and grow muscle mass? I don't know. Which is why I would follow a program designed to get the results I wanted. As opposed to trusting that I knew what I was doing when I didn't!

I am fairly sure that most programs would even have instructions as to what to do after missed sessions and / or when having to resume after a longer interruption.

As to the rest of it, you just might find more mental balance by trying to stay at a healthy weight for a couple of years and avoid engaging in bulk/cut cycles till you consolidate your weight loss and your brain and self perception catch up to your current body shape.

You started a touch under obese. In a year you took that all the way to barely above the minimum for a healthy weight. Which is fast, low, and not necessarily healthy for every single individual of your stature.

Did I mention fast? I spent twice as much time losing a similar amount of weight and it still took me another 6 months after that to stop looking if my second leg would fit in my pants and to trust that the idiot walking towards me in the doorway actually had enough room to walk by!

By the time I would trust jumping in my second pant leg you had already "bulked" to a BMI of 22.5 (which is well within the healthy weight range and no-where near to being overweight). And then immediately turned around and lost to 145!

So you spent the year going from 145 to 175 to 145 and you're now at.... well I don't know where you're at because I am too confused! And I am not so sure that you are able to actually see the big picture. Which is that you're no longer 270lbs!!!! You ARE healthy. Yeah!

Did I mention that I would strongly suggest slowing down and smelling the roses?

cupcakesandproteinshakes

I think you started too high and bulked too quickly with a programme that sounds sub optimal to be frank.if you don’t get an appropriate amount of volume you aren’t gonna see gains.

Those scales aren’t very accurate.

You have to be patient with this. It’ll take years to build a muscular physique. Unless you are genetically an outlier. Or on steroids. Years and years. It’s a lifestyle not a quick fix. Whatever those 12 week transformation programmes say.

Honestly if I were you I would get on a decent hypertrophy programme with enough volume. You don’t have to cut or bulk if you are at a normal body weight you could just maintain that and train. Maybe forget about bulking for the time being.

I don’t know the details of exactly what you have been doing in the gym but it sounds like you may still be a novice. There are some good reputable programmes out there. I would suggest the barbell medicine beginners programme which I just bought for my 14 year old daughter. It isn’t free though. If money is an issue there are lots of free programmes. Look at the thread at the top.

There are also some very knowledgable voices on here and I’m hoping they will give you some input too.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

To add I wasn’t saying that the posters to date were not knowledgeable they are. Sorry peeps, I read the above post back and it sounds rude.

sgt1372

OP:

My impression is that you were doing too many rep/sets w/not enough wt in too long a workout session

To gain muscle mass, the recommendation is generally to do fewer rep/sets w/MAX wts in shorter workout sessions to promote muscle growth.

Doing too much cardio also can run counter to muscle gain.

If gaining muscle mass is your objective, I suggest that you try to find a trainer in a gym that specializes in bodybuilding to help you.

If that's not an option, try surfing the web. The problem is that there are all kinds of program suggestions and it's hard to know which one to pick.

As you already apparently know, what you do in the gym also has to be coordinated w/what and how you eat, which is another reason to work w/a knowledgeble trainer, if you can

One place to start looking is Ellington Darren's articles on HIT (high intensity training) for muscle growth which should NOT to be confused w/HIIT (high intensity interval training) for cardio vascular development.

I still have several of the books that he wrote in the 90's that formed the basis of his current muscle development program.

I'm NOT necessarily recommending Darden's approach BUT it would be as good a place as any for you to begin research on a better program than you are doing on your own now in order to achieve your goals to gain muscle mass and reduce BF.

Good luck!

sijomial

Poor quality training and lack of consistency are holding you back.

Suggest you stop using those scales as they can be dreadfully inaccurate and if you don't understand their limitations they can both be misleading and demotivating. If your lifts are progressing you are getting positive results no matter what a device that measure your electrical impedance may say.

Personally I find it peculiar you are motivated enough to put yourself through bulk and cut cycles without first optimising (or at least vastly improving) your training. Bulking with a haphazard approach to training is a recipe for very poor ratio of muscle to fat being gained - suggest you stop and simply maintain and train properly.

Unless you are young, untrained and male muscle growth is slow and requires patience and dedication.

Well done on losing so much weight. Now you have fixed your major issue it's time to start taking a much longer term view of what you want you body to do for you for the rest of your life.

lynn_glenmont

Your surpluses are too large on your bulks (5 lbs a month the first time, 10 pounds a month the second time -- of course the majority of the weight you're putting on is fat!)

Your deficit on your recent cut was too large (1 lb a week when you're moving from the middle of a healthy BMI range for your height to near the bottom of a healthy BMI range -- that's not a muscle-sparing approach.)

We can't really judge whether your workouts are well designed to build muscle during your bulks and preserve muscle during your cuts, since it's just random stuff you do that you haven't described, or can't describe because it's random. Yes, adding weight to your lifts is generally what you want to be doing, but some of that can come improvements in your body's ability to use the muscle it already has.

ecjim

batorkin wrote: »

- 3 years ago I was 6'2" 270 pounds.

- A year of diet and exercise got me down to 145, but I still had a lot of fat around my stomach.

- In an attempt to fix my skinnyfat problem, I bulked from 145 to 175 over 6 months. I lifted 3-5x a week using various machines in the gym. My workouts were about 60 minutes long. I usually target 3 sets, 10-12 reps, and I don't wait more than a minute between sets. I push until I can't do another rep. I also made sure to get ~180g protein/day and ate almost no processed foods. Plenty of fruits/veggies/chicken, tracking everything.

.

Nice job on the weight loss
What machines? What excercises are you doing? 3 sets, 10 - 12 reps of what? What exercises? what weights are you using? You have told us nothing about your exercise program. Be honest with yourself for a minute. Do you have the knowledge and experience to design a good exercise program?
Your best bet is to pick a full body beginner's program and follow it for a few months. The program should include Squats, Deadlift, Overhead Press , bench and pulls/ row . Lift full body 3 X per week. There are several to choose from - Starting Strength, Gray Scull, one of the 531 programs. Dan John Mass Made Simple. The point is pick one and follow it. If you get bored with it, I don't know what to tell you. Building muscle take time and effort. If you are doing everything right, under ideal conditions , the best you can do is gain a few ounces of muscle per week. If you do a random hap hazard program , those are the results you will get.

JBanx256

There is a very good reason that the vast majority (if not all) of the people with impressive, muscular physiques follow a solid, proven training program - they WORK. Throwing some slapdash workout together obviously isn't getting the job done for you. You say you lose motivation on a real training program. Hate to tell you, but motivation is fleeting and sometimes you just have to pull on your big boy pants and rely on discipline. Not trying to be harsh, but that's just the reality of it. I mean, I'm sure most people aren't "motivated" to get out of bed on a cold dreary day and go to work at a job that doesn't make them jump for joy, but they do it anyway, right? Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do in order to achieve your goals.

I'll echo what a couple others have said also in that finding a good trainer who knows what they are doing will help you a TON, both in setting up a training program that provides sufficient stimulus for muscle growth as well as getting you on the right track with your diet. Patience is key. If you bulk up too fast, of course the majority of your "gains" will be in bodyfat. If you cut too fast, of course you're going to lose muscle mass. A good trainer/coach will set you up on a nutrition plan that has a reasonable, productive rate of gain/loss (depending on your phase) with some structured maintenance phases and will monitor your progress and adjust accordingly as needed.

Totally disregard the bodyfat/muscle mass readings on your scale; they are pretty worthless. If they pop up on the display automatically and you can't force yourself to ignore them, a couple pieces of electrical tape will hide them and alleviate that heartburn-causer.

sardelsa

It sounds like you are following inadequate programming.. random exercises typically yields random and sub-optimal results. You are also bulking way too fast (yes despite going to the gym and eating lots of protein, there is only so much muscle you can gain per week, the rest will be fat), on top of that cutting way too fast and losing more muscle. Patience and adjusting your expectations will be key.

Everyone above has great advice on the next steps to take so I would listen to them. Good luck