Not gaining much muscle

jayres67

I've been going to a gym 2-4 times a week since may. When I played football during highschool I was much stronger than what I am now. I haven't really seen any max go up since i've started lifting again. Shouldn't muscle memory have already started to come back? I am about 40 lbs lighter now from when I played football and worked out during highschool.

My food diary and exercise routine are open. Thanks for any advice on changing my routine/ect.

GrAlVt

Your daily calorie totals are really low. It's really hard to build muscle when losing weight, but even more so when you have such low intake. I don't know your height, but there's no way you're only burning 1200 calories or less a day when you're going to the gym at least twice a week.

Your body has probably already done all it can with neuromuscular adaptation. To go any further, it needs to grow muscle cells. Even if all of your current intake was protein, it would still be hard, because it's probably always burning the protein you take in just for energy. To build muscle, you need to be in an anabolic/muscle creating state (which usually follows after strength training or other intense exercise) and sufficient protein in your system to synthesize new actin and myosin, which make up muscle filaments.

So, short version, you're eating very little right now. One of your days in the past week you only logged 660 calories. Not only are you sabotaging your muscle gain by doing so, you're also sabotaging your ultimate metabolism.

DavPul

Yeah, unless you're 4 foot 6, you're about 1000 calories light per day if you're hoping to gain any muscle. Didn't check the routine because you have to fix the food first

jayres67

Thanks for the advice.... I am about 6'3 235... I was on an hcg activator program for a little while, so it has been hard for me to ease my food intake up again. I still plan on dropping a few more pounds of fat, but I would like to put on some muscle too. Thanks for the help, i'll try to start eating a better diet.

Helloitsdan

OP set your MFP custom to TDEE.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

On lift days double your carbs and halve your fats and keep protein at about 1g per pound of LBM.
Youll notice your calories should be well above the intended target of TDEE if you do this.
Hitting above TDEE only on lift days 3-4x a week will help you build good lean muscle while minimizing fat so long as you arent wasting time in the gym.
Lifting in a program the promotes both heavy strength work as well as hypertrophy will help meximize gains.
Look into Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting strength if you are new to lifting.
Or
Wendlers 531 or PHAT if you are 1 year or more experienced.