Eating more to gain muscle?

ocean26

hello! so I currently weigh 115 pounds after losing about 35 pounds but I'd like to put back on some muscle weight. I've been lifting weights every other day and i want to gain lean muscle. Should i maintain my daily caloric intake or do as i have been doing and eat an excess from 250-500 calories a day? (i take in about 70ish grams of protein a day)

fxst78

If you want to gain weight (be it muscle or fat) you need to eat more calories than you expend. As long as you are doing strength training you will build lean muscle and not gain fat.

You do however need to lift heavy (relative to you of course) weight.

Weighted Squats
Deadlifts
Bench Press
Shoulder Press
Bent Over Row

These exercises ensure your core muscles are working.

DO not use weight machines, use free weights.

aippolito1

You don't eat more to gain more muscle... you eat more to gain MASS but it's very different and complicated and I'm not sure EXACTLY how it works. If you want lean muscles, just follow MFP's plan. Eat your minimum calories and anything you burn off through exercise and do a lot of exercises using your own body weight and/or light weights. Use resistance bands, dumbbells, whatever you want. Plenty of people here have done just that and have gone from flabby to fit and toned with nice lean muscles.

fxst78

You don't eat more to gain more muscle... you eat more to gain MASS but it's very different and complicated and I'm not sure EXACTLY how it works. If you want lean muscles, just follow MFP's plan. Eat your minimum calories and anything you burn off through exercise and do a lot of exercises using your own body weight and/or light weights. Use resistance bands, dumbbells, whatever you want. Plenty of people here have done just that and have gone from flabby to fit and toned with nice lean muscles.

What you have described will not result in gaining any muscle. It is medically and physically impossible to gain muscle whilst on a calorie defecit. It is however possible to strengthen and condition muscles whilst losing fat on a calorie defecit. The OP wants to GAIN muscle. The only way to GAIN (muscle or fat) is with a calorie surplus.

Using muscles helps to burn more calories whilst resting and the bigger your muscles are the better. That is why a lot of people who lose weight put it back on because they lose muscle and fat thus reducing thier lean muscle mass and lowering the resting metabolism. The most important thing you can do once you reach your goal weight is to INCREASE your lean muscle mass. This is what the OP seems to be trying to do.