advise on lean muscle gain??

If you want to gain muscle you first have to reaize that you will need to eat at or above TDEE. Your body will not build tissue (fat or muscle) at a calorie deficit.

You should engage in resistance training using heavy weights twice a week. (If you can do 12 reps you need to increase the weight.)

You should eat 1 gram of protein for every pound of your lean body weight, or 1 gram for every pound of total body weight x 0.8.

Your fat grams should equal your body weight in pounds x 0.4.

Make up the remainder of your calories with carbs.


You will gain some fat doing this, so you will want to alternate several weeks of this program with several week of your weight loss regimin. Unfortunately you cannot gain only muscle and you cannot lose only fat, but by alternating these programs you will get where you want to be.

Congrats on losing those 10 pounds!

In addition to what was mentioned above, I would also cut back on the cardio. Cardio increases a calorie deficit, so if you are trying to gain mass, cardio tends to work against you.

I wouldn't be able to guess about your calories, it really depends on your calculated TDEE and what your personal results from eating at that level would be.

For me, I still cutting and I eat between 1800-1900 calories a day. I do 4 strength training sessions per week and 1 cardio workout. I also walk a minumum of 12,000 steps per day (about 6 miles or so). For me to gain mass without changing up my exercise, I would eat around 2200-2300 calories. At least, that's probably where I would start out. For reference, I am 5'5" tall and weigh 135 right now.

If you eat above TDEE you will gain muscle and fat. If you eat below TDEE you will lose muscle and fat. Heavy weight lifting will alter the muscle/fat ratio as you lose or gain.

You can not eat below TDEE and gain muscle. In other words, you can't lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. That's why you cycle your regimins like I mentioned. Body builders refer to this as bulking and cutting.

I'm not sure what you mean by "lean muscle" because there is only one kind of muscle and you are either building (requires a calorie excess), losing it (calorie deficit), or maintaining it (calorie balance).

I wish we could talk more about this, and I apologize for being so curt in my response, but it's past my bed time and I am outta here!

I'm 5'2 also and weighing in at about 120. The scale says I'm fat and I believe it, lol! It's okay, because like previously said, with muscle gain comes fat. I want that muscle right now.

ETA: I aim for 1 to 1.5g protein per lb of LBM