Increasing Lean Body Mass

NCchar130

So I've read lots of posts on here and articles elsewhere about the impossibility of adding muscle while eating at a deficit. This makes sense to me. So I'm curious about some results I had using the body fat calculator found here: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/

I used it at the very beginning and went in and plugged in my original numbers again which showed 49% body fat and about 110 pounds of lean body mass.

When I plug in my current stats, it shows 36% body fat and 118 pounds of lean body mass.

I know it's just a calculator and that without some real test performed on my body, I won't really know for sure, but I did find that curious since it shows an 8 pound gain in lean body mass. Since lean body mass is everything besides body fat, what else could it be besides muscle? I have been relying on such calculators to set my goals and now I'm kind of doubting the numbers I get there all the way around.

I have been eating at a deficit since July. I do cardio 3x a week and strength training 3x week.

Any thoughts?

dave4d

I've read many articles that have said that the only time that one can gain muscle mass at a deficit is when one first starts an exercise program. Since most articles are written for experienced bodybuilders, by experienced bodybuilders, most articles are geared towards them, in which case, they will state that one can't gain lean muscle mass while in a caloric deficit.

I'll have to look around for the link. It has been a while since I've read it, and I can't remember which site, or article it was in.

AZKristi

It really depends on how big the deficit is... with a moderate deficit of only a few hundred calories per day, there's no reason why you can't add lean body mass.

I believe it requires about 2800 calories to build a pound of muscle. The key difference is what causes the gain. You gain fat simply by eating too many calories - this is very easy. You gain muscle by strength training which causes very minor damage to the muscles. If you are eating enough protein, your body will have what it needs to repair those muscles. The process of repairing those muscles is what causes the increase in muscle mass. So, obviously this is much slower than gaining fat. It takes a significant amount of time to gain a pound of muscle. You can easily lose a pound of fat each week, but you will never gain a pound of muscle that fast, even eating at a surplus. So, the number of calories needed to repair/build muscle is relatively small if you look at how many calories you need per day.

now_or_never12

I could be wrong but to my knowledge those calculators are an estimate. I wouldn't take the information they give as total truth. It's just like the bathroom scales that measure body fat.

Best way to gain lean mass if you want to build muscle is a small deficit if any at all. Eat more protein and concentrate on strength training and less cardio. THat will help you gain lean muscle mass. It will be slowly but it can be done.

Acg67

So I've read lots of posts on here and articles elsewhere about the impossibility of adding muscle while eating at a deficit. This makes sense to me. So I'm curious about some results I had using the body fat calculator found here: http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/

I used it at the very beginning and went in and plugged in my original numbers again which showed 49% body fat and about 110 pounds of lean body mass.

When I plug in my current stats, it shows 36% body fat and 118 pounds of lean body mass.

I know it's just a calculator and that without some real test performed on my body, I won't really know for sure, but I did find that curious since it shows an 8 pound gain in lean body mass. Since lean body mass is everything besides body fat, what else could it be besides muscle? I have been relying on such calculators to set my goals and now I'm kind of doubting the numbers I get there all the way around.

I have been eating at a deficit since July. I do cardio 3x a week and strength training 3x week.

Any thoughts?

LBM =/= to muscle and bf calculators are usually quite terrible at estimating LBM

NCchar130

LBM =/= to muscle and bf calculators are usually quite terrible at estimating LBM

Yeah, I was kind of leaning toward not taking anything from the calculator as gospel truth - just didn't think (if it was at all accurate) that I'm adding pounds of organs/bones/skin

Tilran

I've read many articles that have said that the only time that one can gain muscle mass at a deficit is when one first starts an exercise program. Since most articles are written for experienced bodybuilders, by experienced bodybuilders, most articles are geared towards them, in which case, they will state that one can't gain lean muscle mass while in a caloric deficit.

I'll have to look around for the link. It has been a while since I've read it, and I can't remember which site, or article it was in.

^^ This.

When you have not done alot of lifting in your life, muscle grows much easier then if you are already muscular. I've also read studies that show muscle growth and LBM increase while in deficit and maintainance. This was also affected by age as younger people were gaining at a faster and more steady rate then older people.

DanaDark

As far as calculators go online for body fat percentage, be cautious with those as they rely on your measuring body parts on yourself. If you are off by half an inch or squeeze in a bit more than before or aren't measuring exactly at the same spot, the numbers can be totally off.

As for gaining muscle during a caloric deficit...

The body has two systems for muscle/fat. Anabolic and Catabolic. In the Anobalic state, it can create muscle and fat, in the Catabolic state, it breaks them down.

The two are not mutually exclusive. Think of is as A + C = 1.0 At maintenance A = C, at surplus A > C, and at deficit A < C.

The higher A is (the Anabolic state), the greater the ability to create muscle/fat is. Additionally, regular cellular repair is done in the Anabolic state. Things like walking, breathing, scratches, etc. all damage cells and require repairs.

If you start off without a lot of muscle, despite being in a deficit, you could create muscle so long as the rate of anabolism in the body is enough to cover all your cellular repairs with some left over to be used to grow muscle. Body builders and other more muscular people usually need a surplus of calories to maximize anabolism in the body because they are already using up a large portion of their Anabolic state simply performing cellular repairs (more muscle means more tissue to repair, this also costs energy which is why muscle improves calories burned throughout the day).

So, starting off, you can gain some muscle, up until the rate of anabolism in the body matches the cellular repairs required daily. If you start with a 500 calorie deficit and very little muscle, you can gain muscle for a while. Once you no longer make gains, you can go to a 250 calorie deficit instead and resume gaining muscle due to the lower deficit allowing for more anabolism.

Simply put: the body is not nearly as simple as we'd like. Most people trying to gain muscle go full fledged caloric surplus to ensure the highest rate of anabolism possible in the body for muscle gains.