How much muscle mass

clmorris80

For a while when I started losing inches I was still gaining weight. I have been jogging about 3 to 4 times a week for 5 miles at a time in about 60 minutes (5 miles per hour). I want to get to125 pounds and I'm at 140 and I tell people I want to lose 15 more but they say that would be too much (i'm only 5'3). Does anyone know how much muscle mass you can expect to gain from my running?

clmorris80

For a while when I started losing inches I was still gaining weight. I have been jogging about 3 to 4 times a week for 5 miles at a time in about 60 minutes (5 miles per hour). I want to get to125 pounds and I'm at 140 and I tell people I want to lose 15 more but they say that would be too much (i'm only 5'3). Does anyone know how much muscle mass you can expect to gain from my running?

bugs_mom

i would go more by your inches then by weight. you are gaining muscle in place of fat so the scale will go up but inches will go down.

carvan

Good question. We have the same stats. I also run, but only 3x a week. I don't know if you do this, but maybe you should mix it up. Do you lift weights, that will speed up your metabolism. Do other cardio to 'confuse' your muscles. I do find with more cardio, the weight will go down, but lifting weights is important

mamakitty

When I increased my running and decreased my weight lifting I gained weight. I lost tone in my upper body. I think that my body adapted to the running and needed more muscle to keep my metabolism up. I have started lifting again and see a big difference.

firegirlred

I gained roughly 5 pounds of muscle and associated tissue at the same time I was losing. Between running and taekwondo only, I was trying to get to a healthy weight before I started bulking up again. I did the 5 pound gain in about six weeks, about the same time I was losing fat. So it looked like I had plateaued. But I run competitively again, so there had to be a significant growth.

clmorris80

I do a little resistance training too, but only about 1 to 2 times a week. What other cardio exercises would be good and cheap?

firegirlred

so many ways to go with this.....

(snickers)

songbyrdsweet

Chronic aerobic exercise (like endurance running) releases cortisol, which inhibits protein synthesis and promotes breakdown of skeletal muscle and body fat. If you're in a caloric deficit as well, you don't have the excess energy and building materials to synthesize new proteins, let alone do a good job of rebuilding what's already been broken down. Your body will resist a gain in muscle mass because it makes you heavier, making the aerobic exercise more difficult. In short, you can't expect to gain anything.

Weight gain associated with running can almost always be traced back to glycogen storage capacity and the water retention that comes with it. Any exercise will increase the demand for glucose. Glucose is stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen. As we become more active, our cells become more sensitive to insulin and will take up more glucose than usual. For every gram glucose we hold, we hold about 3 grams of water. Considering that some individuals can hold 1500 calories worth of glucose...that's a lot of weight. Glycogen will also cause the muscle to swell; this is why bodybuilders manipulate their carbohydrate levels for a show. You can add 10 lbs and a couple inches going from a depleted to fully-replenished state.

Alternately, if you're maintaining or in a caloric excess, you will experience a gain in mitochondrion, energy-producing organelles in your muscle tissue. They increase with aerobic activity to help produce more energy. While they probably won't cause any weight gain, they can cause the muscle to swell, resulting in muscle growth. However, 1-2 times per week even in a caloric excess is not enough of a stimulus to increase muscular endurance in this fashion because you will experience a detraining effect after about 3 days without training.

I'm not trying to burst any bubbles, but it's just not that easy to gain muscle mass, especially as a female. We have VERY low levels of testosterone, and our levels of growth hormone only peak during menstruation. Even men have a difficult time gaining more than 1/2 pound of clean muscle mass in a week.