questions about gaining muscle mass

wallerinaprincess

So when you are doing a lot of strength training, and eating right, and you dont see the results on the scale, you know you are gaining muscle, right? How long does it take to build 1 lb of muscle? How fast does this occur? I have not been keeping track of my inches for a while. Just curious! Also, we know muscle weighs more than fat, but HOW MUCH more? Anyone know? Thanks!

kaytbognar

Muscle and fat actually weigh the same, but a pound of muscle is denser and takes up less space than a pound of adipose tissue. As for the difference in volume, I don't know but someone else here might.

In terms of seeing results in terms of muscle gained, it all depends on how much protein you're getting, how frequently you're strength training, how much sleep you're getting and if it's quality sleep. I suspect it probably take a few weeks to really notice a difference.

It sounds like you and I are in similar places, I just started strength training and it's got me impatient to see results.

khskr1

I heard somewhere that it takes a female about a month to gain 1 lb of muscle. I have NO IDEA where I heard that and have never researched it. But muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle. This difference is the mass. Muscle takes up less space than fat. And here's another "I think I heard" that it takes up about 75% less space than fat?? Again, I don't remember where I heard these, but I'll be researching it for sure!

khskr1

I was so far off it wasn't funny!! Muscle takes up about 18% less space than fat. I only did a quick search since I'm at work!

iplayoutside19

If you think about what the human body had to do 10,000 years ago to maintain itself....hunt, eat enough food to survuve, and stay warm. Muscle Mass requires more calories to maintain than fat. That being said the human body does not like to add muscle because it's counter-intuetive to it's survival. That is why it takes a LOT of protien, and consistant strength training to gain muscle. If you have been in a calories deficit you an almost forget about it.

If you just started strength training the extra weight could be your muscles retaining water.

SHBoss1673

it's more than just adding muscle and removing fat. There are other things that happen when we start a new exercise routine. One of the main cuprits to a lack of results while starting to exercise is the concept of renewed muscle activity.

See, when we don't exercise muscle for a long time, 2 things happen, most everyone knows that muscles atrophy (get smaller), and that's true, but what most people don't realize is that they also become partially inactive. See if the muscle is one that is used in every day life (take the calf for example), you will always use it somewhat, so there's only a certain amount of atrophy that happens. BUT, muscles are made up of muscle fibers, and the less power we need, the less fibers are used (it's actually a little more complicated than that but this is good enough for our purposes.). The thing about muscle is, it requires energy AT THE POINT OF USE, which means glycogen stored at or close to the muscle. If a muscle becomes partially inactive, less glycogen is stored at the muscle because less fibers need energy at the muscle. When we begin exercise, the body reactivates dormant muscle fibers, and starts storing more glycogen. Glycogen is a fluid of water and glucose molecules, and it's relatively heavy, you can add up to 2 or 3 lbs in glycogen stores when you start working out. Also for various reasons, as you work out, your body needs more water as well, this can add another pound or three to the equation.

So while yes, you can gain muscle mass by working out, it takes a long time to gain significant muscle (usually about 1 to 2 months per pound for most people). This is why, even though you are in caloric deficit (and yes, it's true, it's almost impossible to gain muscle mass while in a caloric deficit, but not impossible to reactivate existing dormant muscle fibers, making you functionally stronger without gaining muscle mass), you can actually gain weight on a new exercise routine (well, technically there are LOTS of reasons for that, but these are two big reasons).

I don't know if this makes sense to you or not, but that's the long answer to why many people who begin new routines don't see change for weeks or months, especially people who aren't obese.

paddlemom

Ok, so is this why, despite the fact that I joined a gym a month ago and I am going faithfully I am not seeing ANY drop in my weight? I am typically at at 500 - 1000 calorie deficite per day, so while I'm not expecting to drop like a stone, I should be seeing a slow drift downward. I have been so discouraged, since I have added eliptical work, weight training and aerobic tone/cardio classes to my otherwise exclusive swimming.

Also how long does it take to build up stamina? I can't seem to get to a point where I am feeling more energized after a workout - I'm not over- exercising - I do about an hour - 1 1/2 hours every other day. When I try to do back to back days, I am totally worn out.

SHBoss1673

Ok, so is this why, despite the fact that I joined a gym a month ago and I am going faithfully I am not seeing ANY drop in my weight? I am typically at at 500 - 1000 calorie deficite per day, so while I'm not expecting to drop like a stone, I should be seeing a slow drift downward. I have been so discouraged, since I have added eliptical work, weight training and aerobic tone/cardio classes to my otherwise exclusive swimming.

Also how long does it take to build up stamina? I can't seem to get to a point where I am feeling more energized after a workout - I'm not over- exercising - I do about an hour - 1 1/2 hours every other day. When I try to do back to back days, I am totally worn out.

I don't really know anyone that feels energized AFTER a good workout, well, not right away anyway. I mean, if you're working moderately hard, working for an hour should leave you tired, not energized, if you're energized after a workout, then you're probably not working hard enough. You can feel exhilarated after a work out (endorphin release), I've seen that, but I don't know about energized.
As to the reason why you haven't seen any loss, I couldn't say, it's a possibility, but I would have to look a lot deeper to come to any meaningful conclusions. All I can say is that, if you were losing before, and everything else is the same, then it's a strong candidate, but those are big ifs.

Building up stamina is a tricky thing, at first, you can build it up quickly, but after a certain threshold, your body just can't quickly climb the ladder any more, it needs to start adding multiple things, and changing many pathways in order to increase stamina. FYI, working back to back days and becoming tired isn't stamina, that's muscle fatigue, it's normal, you shouldn't work to failure 2 days in a row if you are still pretty tired from the first workout. I would try mixing up types. Like putting weight training between cardio, do 3 different cardio routines every week, change the order of the routines every other week...etc.

Azdak

Usually I prefer to use the term "fat free mass" instead of "muscle" or even "lean body mass". I think it is a lot harder to actually "build muscle" than most people think. Usually, when one starts a strength training program, almost all of the initial increases in strength come from increased neuromuscular factiliation--meaning you learn to recruit more muscle fibers and activate them in more efficient patterns, in addition to the changes that Banks described earlier. I believe a rough estimate is that one has to increase baseline strength levels by almost 100% before significant hypertrophy begins to occur.

There is also an overall increase in plasma volume, which helps to increase cardiac output and improve selective blood flow to working muscles.

That's why circumference measurements and skinfold measurements are so important when it comes to tracking progress, in addition to the scale. Even if the bodyfat % number you calculate from the skinfolds is not absolutely accurate, the changes in the actual skinfold numbers over time can be extremely helpful in measuring progress.

Azdak

Ok, so is this why, despite the fact that I joined a gym a month ago and I am going faithfully I am not seeing ANY drop in my weight? I am typically at at 500 - 1000 calorie deficite per day, so while I'm not expecting to drop like a stone, I should be seeing a slow drift downward. I have been so discouraged, since I have added eliptical work, weight training and aerobic tone/cardio classes to my otherwise exclusive swimming.

Also how long does it take to build up stamina? I can't seem to get to a point where I am feeling more energized after a workout - I'm not over- exercising - I do about an hour - 1 1/2 hours every other day. When I try to do back to back days, I am totally worn out.

I am piggybacking on to Banks' earlier reply on this as well--but these are good general issues.

With exercise training, variety is not just the "spice of life" -- it is absolutely crucial to long-term continued improvement. A big challenge to those of us trying to do daily or near-daily workouts is to build in "off days" without actually taking as many days off. You can do this by changing activities, sharply decreasing intensity, decreasing duration, or combinations of all three.

Here is a sample of my recent routine:

11/23: Cross Trainer 45 min--medium intensity + lifting
11/24: Stairclimber 25 min/Treadmill 20 min--easy intensity
11/25: Cross Trainer 30 min--hard intensity + lifting
11/26: Stairclimber 30 min; Treadmill Run 30 min--medium/hard intensity (thanksgiving morning!)
11/27: Treadmill Run-60 min--fairly hard intensity (thanksgiving penance!!)
11/28: Cross Trainer 32 min--medium itensity + lifting
11/29: Stairclimber 45 min --hard intensity
11/30: Cross Trainer 25 min/Treadmill Run 31 min--medium + lifting
12/1: Run outside--4 miles in 33 minutes--med/hard (aggravated chronic hamstring injury)
12/2: Stairclimber: 20 min easy
12/3: Rest
12/4: Run--22 min--slow--hamstring tightened up/ Incline Walk 30 min
12/5: Cross Trainer 20 min easy + hard lifting session
12/6: Stairclimber 45 min easy
12/7: Off
12/8: Cross Trainer-45 minutes med/hard intensity + easy lifting

So I am constantly rotating modality, intensity and duration. During the first part of that list, I was on an "upswing" phase where things were going well and so I was pushing a little harder on successive days. That is usually followed by a buildup of fatigue that requires backing off a little (also noticeable in the second half of the list).

Normally I also try to include cycles where I follow a period of heavier (for me) lifting with 2-3 strength workouts that involve primarily body weight, bands, and low resistances, as well as a couple of easy endurance cardio workouts in a row. I am moving into one of those right now.

It's not a perfect routine and I am always looking to tinker with it as my needs and preferences change, but it is an example of variety. I have been able to maintain a 6-7 days/wk routine consistently since March and push it pretty hard, on average. Overall progress can be steady, but day to day to day training progress should look more like a sawtooth than a linear line.