Gaining muscle weight increase goals

RoyalMoose11
RoyalMoose11 Posts: 211 Member
in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
My new goal after losing ~105 lbs is to focus on adding muscle. It's odd to think about adding weight but, after all this work, I'm cool with trying to get stronger and really looking stronger too :)

I'm trying to figure out what is a good place to start with MFP and settings. I'm tracking macros at 40p/30/30, TDEE is at lightly active for work and I log my other work outs to eat back calories (I'm highly active outside work with StrongLifts, playing a sport twice a week, running three days a week, and swimming once a week for recovery). I'm currently a male at 213lbs, 6'5, unsure of body fat because of some loose skin :(.

I know MFP has weight gain settings- I'm assuming I should change to those from maintain. Should I start at .5 lbs a week? Or a different setting? I'd like to add some muscle by summer time (obviously) but want to be smart about it.

Any feedback welcome!

Replies

  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    congrats on your progress…

    yes start off with .5 pound per week gain and see how it goes…

    are you planning on doing compound movements and lifting heavy?
  • RoyalMoose11
    RoyalMoose11 Posts: 211 Member
    I am doing compound lifts with StrongLifts (Squat/Bench/Barbell Row on Day A and Squat/Overhead Press/Deadlift on Day B) and adding 5 lbs each week to the 5x5 set. I hit my first wall last week with the bench but that might have been because of not eating enough before working out (ran in the morning and hadn't eaten back calories to refuel by the time I lifted at 6pm).
  • 212019156
    212019156 Posts: 341 Member
    Focus on getting stronger and you will get bigger. This means lots of compound movements sets of 5 or less.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
    It sounds like you have already been lifting for a bit and gone through any newbie gains.

    You can do 1/2 per week weight gain goal and that is fine. However, given you are a 28 year old male, you can get away with a 1 lb/week weight gain goal to maximize your muscle gain, with about 1/2 your added weight coming in the form of muscle.
  • RoyalMoose11
    RoyalMoose11 Posts: 211 Member
    if you gain a pound and it;'s half muscle I'd assume the other is fat. I'm assuming that's why people do the bulk/cut cycle? Any thoughts on how I should approach that?

    I have been lifting since late November.

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