Gaining Muscle is NOT that easy.

katrina1025

How are you calculating and/or measuring your body fat and lean mass ratios?

Elizabeth_C34

How are you calculating and/or measuring your body fat and lean mass ratios?

My trainer has been doing it on a weekly basis since I started with calipers.

liftingbro

Maybe someone can help me understand my situation (I mean this in no condescending terms so please do not read it this way).

In early October of 2010, I was at 225 lbs and 47% body fat (equates to 120 lbs lean body mass). This is considered obese class 2 (morbid obesity). I lost 15 lbs in about a month from diet and light cardio alone and got down to 210, still well into obese category for me. I kept this off until December of 2010. I joined MFP at this point. I started lifting at this point with help from a trainer and maintained a caloric deficit. By the end of April, my body fat was 33% and I was down to 190 (equates to 127 lbs lean body mass). As of last week, I am at 188 lbs and 28% body fat (135 lbs lean body mass). This is a 14 lb increase in lean body mass in 10 months. In March/April, I had a family crisis and was eating a lot more than I normally did, but I kept up with the weight training. Otherwise, I've been at a consistent caloric deficit.

I don't entirely understand how this is working. My trainer seems to think that because my body fat percentage was so high and I was so heavy to begin with that this has something to do with the initial muscle gain. Since I've maintained my weight training, it's not gone away and continued to build. He told me when I started to not expect to gain any muscle but rather to become more defined instead. While I can see definition in my arms, thighs, and calves, I still have a lot of fat on my midsection and back and haven't seen much definition here at all.

I'd really like to understand this more than I do. I just know what my experience has been.

Any ideas?

That's what we call newbie gains and probably some margin of error with measuring your body fat.

liftingbro

How are you calculating and/or measuring your body fat and lean mass ratios?

My trainer has been doing it on a weekly basis since I started with calipers.

Calipers are notoriously inaccurate unless done perfectly each time. Calipers can be off by 2-10% from one measurement to the next.

Elizabeth_C34

How are you calculating and/or measuring your body fat and lean mass ratios?

My trainer has been doing it on a weekly basis since I started with calipers.

Calipers are notoriously inaccurate unless done perfectly each time. Calipers can be off by 2-10% from one measurement to the next.

The measurements seem to be precise, although I have no way of knowing if they are accurate. I have a weekly log going back to December, and they don't seem to fluctuate much.

Sidesteal

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Agrees with the premise of this post, entirely.

katrina1025

I think that with your current edit you have your answer. You have an average measurement of your total body fat composition. But our bodies are not made up only of fat and lean muscle. I'm sure if you have been working hard for that many months you will have some strength gains. But the fat/lean mass ratio is not exclusive. Don't forget we have others things that make up our bodies. So the 14lb number maybe inaccurate. Also as previous poster alluded to there is always a degree of error when dealing with measurements.

Either way your decrease in body fat is awesome! Keep up the hard work and be proud of your accomplishments!

Elizabeth_C34

I think that with your current edit you have your answer. You have an average measurement of your total body fat composition. But our bodies are not made up only of fat and lean muscle. I'm sure if you have been working hard for that many months you will have some strength gains. But the fat/lean mass ratio is not exclusive. Don't forget we have others things that make up our bodies. So the 14lb number maybe inaccurate. Also as previous poster alluded to there is always a degree of error when dealing with measurements.

Either way your decrease in body fat is awesome! Keep up the hard work and be proud of your accomplishments!

This makes sense. I guess I was a little shocked at how the numbers were moving.

Thanks! I'm pretty happy to be just "overweight" now.

Rae6503

I just officially switched to muscle gain mode! Kind of scared of the fat gain that will come with it but excited at the same time.

SergeantSunshine_reused

I just officially switched to muscle gain mode! Kind of scared of the fat gain that will come with it but excited at the same time.

Im going to be doing this soon! Good luck

ninerbuff

Maybe a mini rant.

I think women on here through out "you are gaining muscle" WAY too often. Gaining muscle is not as easy as you think ladies. doing the 30 day shred for 7 days sure isnt going to show a huge amount of muscle gain :P

From what I have read (numbers vary of course with different studies) a 12 week period of calorie surplus and a good lifting routine will show about a 4 lb muscle gain. If you are eating 1200 calories a day and not doing resistance training I highly doubt you are gaining muscle mass.

Like I said i think this is said WAY too much. If someone says they didn't lose or they gained one week, I see so many comments of women saying "its all muscle" or "don't worry its just muscle" and blah blah blah xD

/end rant

Bravo! What others don't also know is that to gain about a pound of lean muscle you will add .3 pounds of fat in the process. Even if you diet and nutrition were spot on, this would more than likely be the case.

ninerbuff

Since this is for women, I might add that even 4lb/12 weeks might be generous.

Very generous.

ninerbuff

burning fat is a piece of freakin cake compared to building new muscle

Love the "Dirk" avatar. I used to play that game back in the day.

MikeDailyIntake

Agreed Calories are a HUGE point of gaining mass, if you eat under your caloric intake you might just be burning muscle instead of building it!

ninerbuff

It takes a man a good solid month of weight lifting to gain 2 lbs of muscle. So yeah any of that "it's muscle" stuff is usually people that don't really understand how the body works.

Not if you're on calorie deficit though. You HAVE to be in calorie surplus. And 2lbs is generous too.

Birder150

Arnold S. in his BEST YEAR put on 25 pounds of muscle. And he had "help".

Rae6503

So in 6 months of heavy lifting, eating at a surplus, I as a woman should expect about 5-6 pounds of muscle and 1.5-2 pounds of fat?

MikeDailyIntake

The only way you're going to gain over 25 pounds of muscle in a year is if youre juicing, or you have freakishly strong genitics.

ninerbuff

Maybe someone can help me understand my situation (I mean this in no condescending terms so please do not read it this way).

In early October of 2010, I was at 225 lbs and 47% body fat (equates to 120 lbs lean body mass). This is considered obese class 2 (morbid obesity). I lost 15 lbs in about a month from diet and light cardio alone and got down to 210, still well into obese category for me. I kept this off until December of 2010. I joined MFP at this point. I started lifting at this point with help from a trainer and maintained a caloric deficit. By the end of April, my body fat was 33% and I was down to 190 (equates to 127 lbs lean body mass). As of last week, I am at 188 lbs and 28% body fat (135 lbs lean body mass). This is a 14 lb increase in lean body mass in 10 months. In March/April, I had a family crisis and was eating a lot more than I normally did, but I kept up with the weight training. Otherwise, I've been at a consistent caloric deficit.

I don't entirely understand how this is working. My trainer seems to think that because my body fat percentage was so high and I was so heavy to begin with that this has something to do with the initial muscle gain. Since I've maintained my weight training, it's not gone away and continued to build. He told me when I started to not expect to gain any muscle but rather to become more defined instead. While I can see definition in my arms, thighs, and calves, I still have a lot of fat on my midsection and back and haven't seen much definition here at all.

I'd really like to understand this more than I do. I just know what my experience has been.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I refer to lean body mass as simply my non-fat body mass. I don't have an accurate measure of my actual muscle mass.

While it is possible for an obese person to gain muscle even while on calorie deficit, I would doubt that it was that high. Did you do the same exact method of body fat measurement each time? If not, then the readings would be off.

ninerbuff

The measurements seem to be precise, although I have no way of knowing if they are accurate. I have a weekly log going back to December, and they don't seem to fluctuate much.

But even small fluctuations in water, heat and sodium can off set it because it would change the "thickness" of the pinch.