Were's the muscle?

Goatgirl8

I know you burn more calories, gain strength and tone up when you build muscle. But how long does it take to build a pound of muscle? I'm strength training three times a week and doing cardio at least five times a week. When can I expect to notice the difference?

hesn92

how much are you eating? You need to be eating over maintenance and getting lots of protein. I think, for a beginner, 1 pound in a month is really awesome?

Determinednoob

Woman on a surplus might do 2 in the first couple months if she does it right. After that probably one or less.

wellbert

Woman on a surplus might do 2 in the first couple months if she does it right. After that probably one or less.

I think I recall that women can gain about 9-12lbs of muscle in the first year of training, if eating TONS of food and working out very hard.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

If you are weight training while dieting you won't gain a significant amount of muscle. However, what you'll do, which is awesome, is retain as much muscle as possible, with the result of losing mostly fat (most people lose fat AND a good amount of muscle). As you lose more fat your muscles will reveal themselves. They are there now, just hidden.

zaph0d

Assuming you are in calorie deficit, you will probably add litle or no muscle mass.

_stephanie0

the past year i've done little to NO cardio and ate quite a bit of food (1700-2100 calories) and lifted very heavy 5-6x week and gained about 8lbs. it's hard, keep at it

edited to correct my herp derp spelling mistakes

californiagirl2012

I know you burn more calories, gain strength and tone up when you build muscle. But how long does it take to build a pound of muscle? I'm strength training three times a week and doing cardio at least five times a week. When can I expect to notice the difference?

For women you are not going to gain much. However the key for showing the muscle is losing the fat. I lift really heavy and what finally made my muscles show was losing the fat. I'm really lean now so the muscles have a ripped look, but If I allowed myself to gain a bit more fat I'd have a softer more toned look. And then if I gained even more fat you wouldn't see the muscle. How do I know? I've been a weight lifter and runner for over 30 years and spent most of time either fat or obese until last year at age 50. I had the muscle all those years but it was covered by the fat.

Oh and you can build muscle in a calorie deficit. I did it and I have the pictures to prove it below.

My story here and links that show my various pictures with different "muscle experiments"

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/752246-i-m-afraid-to-try-an-new-weight-lifting-program-now

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/752246-i-m-afraid-to-try-an-new-weight-lifting-program-now

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/745151-i-got-a-compliment-from-rusty-moore-from-fitness-black-book

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/742284-lets-see-some-muscle-chicks-real-ones

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/746754-how-to-get-abs-with-pics

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/734011-desserts-always-make-me-wake-up-ripped-with-pics

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/734137-the-new-me-pictures-not-posing

luv2bfitandhealthy

Bump