What's a good rate of weight gain for muscle gain

whyflysouth
whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
edited September 22 in Food and Nutrition
I started overweight, cut back on the calories, did more cardio and some weight training and ultimately hit my goal weight about 25 pounds lighter than I started. I brought my body fat from roughly 22% down to about 13.5% (at least according to the impedance body fat monitor), this was all in about a 6 month period. Anyways, I got to a point where I felt I really needed to put on more muscle mass before I cut down the body fat any more in order to reach the goal I was striving for.

So, for the past 2 months or so I've been eating at or slightly above maintenance, lifting heavy and I've gained back about 12 lbs and I'm not sure how much of it is fat or muscle. I'm not even sure what's a healthy rate of muscle weight growth for someone who's looking to put on a muscle. Also what's odd is that the weight appears to come in waves, like for 3 weeks it might fluctuate by 1 or 2 pounds, and then after the fourth week it'll be a solid 5 lbs. So some of it I'm sure is water weight, but my question is, if I'm looking to bulk, what's a good rate of weight gain/calorie surplus for me to follow such that the extra calories go towards muscle and not fat?

This also goes back to the goals in MFP when it asks me if I want to gain 0.5 lb a week or 1 lb a week, etc.

Replies

  • mzenzer
    mzenzer Posts: 503 Member
    What is your body fat % after the 12 pound weight gain?
  • joshuajimmy
    joshuajimmy Posts: 2
    Hey! My trainer said that gaining 1lb a month is GOOD to gain muscle! If you are achieving that, you are above average.
  • sullydog101
    sullydog101 Posts: 9 Member
    I'm curious too, as I am in the same boat as you. I just lost about 30 lbs over 5 months and want to bulk muscle back up, but don't want to gain back fat.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    So for starters, bioelectrical impedance is a very inaccurate BF% measurement, it's best you know that from the start, they depend on the electrical resistance to fat in the body and rely greatly on the hydration level, any difference in hydration means a different resisitance and therefore a different body fat measurement. Better to have a test done at a lab with a bod pod, or a DEXA machine, I realize these are more expensive, but they are far more accurate and reliable results. Testing yourself to often for BF changes is really unproductive anyway.

    As to how much muscle you can expect to put on. For 90% of people out there, the maximum you can expect to gain is 1 to 2 lbs a month. I know that sounds low, but muscle is not gained easily, and without a very rigid program, you won't gain a lot. I've heard of body builders gaining 3 lbs a month, and even a wrestler friend of mine in college who went up in weight class from 165 to 173 in just under 3 months, but this was a college wrestler who worked out 3 hours a day, ate a super clean rigid diet, and had a nutrition coach monitoring their food. And he still gained only about 8 lbs in about 11 weeks. He looked huge though, you'd be shocked how big 10 lbs looks if it's all muscle.

    So I'd say a significant portion of your gains are a combination of glycogen from activation of dormant existing muscle, body fat, and other water weight fluctuation. That would be my guess. You could probably count on 2 to 4 lbs of it being muscle depending on how clean you ate and how you worked out.
  • joshuajimmy
    joshuajimmy Posts: 2
    Sorry, Just re-read ur question. You need to eat enough protien to gain muscle. If you are like me and 13.5% body fat, u need 264 grams or protien a day to gain.

    a hard boiled egg white has about 10...
  • whyflysouth
    whyflysouth Posts: 308 Member
    Yeah I was thinking this thing is not very accurate as one day it'll show me at 18% then the next day, same time of day in the morning, etc. I'm at 16%, but lately it's been putting me at 16% so if I were to trust it, it would mean that I've gained 2.5% of body fat back... But yeah I question it's accuracy. I think I will just go ahead and put the money down to do a bod pod thing every 3-4 months or so.

    So 1-2 pounds a month is what I should expect in muscle gain, then does that translate to the same 3500 cals per pound value, meaning over a month period I should eat very close to maintanence with only a slight bit more that would equate to 3500 over the duration of the month?

    That puts it at around 116 cals/day above maintenance for 1 pound, and 233/day cals above maintenance for a 2 lbs gain in one month.

    So given that, now to gain muscle mass what are the percentages of carbs, protein, and fat that that maintenance + 233 cals per day should be divided by?
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    Yeah I was thinking this thing is not very accurate as one day it'll show me at 18% then the next day, same time of day in the morning, etc. I'm at 16%, but lately it's been putting me at 16% so if I were to trust it, it would mean that I've gained 2.5% of body fat back... But yeah I question it's accuracy. I think I will just go ahead and put the money down to do a bod pod thing every 3-4 months or so.

    So 1-2 pounds a month is what I should expect in muscle gain, then does that translate to the same 3500 cals per pound value, meaning over a month period I should eat very close to maintanence with only a slight bit more that would equate to 3500 over the duration of the month?

    That puts it at around 116 cals/day above maintenance for 1 pound, and 233/day cals above maintenance for a 2 lbs gain in one month.

    So given that, now to gain muscle mass what are the percentages of carbs, protein, and fat that that maintenance + 233 cals per day should be divided by?

    that's a far harder question to answer, it depends on the amount, type, and intensity of exercising you are doing, what kind of mass you want to create, whether you want functional strength or just bulk. Also it's a bit of a tweaking game as everyone is slightly different genetically, so what ever we say here is going to probably need modification anyway.

    but generically, I would say to be between 150 and 250 calories over your TDEE (maintenance plus exercise calories) every day, and to eat between 25% and 35% of your calories as proteins (complete proteins, I.E. either meats, or paired vegetable proteins so you complete them). The more you work out, the closer to 35% you should be, and most of the reduction for other calories should come from carbs.

    It's important to note, that almost anyone who is trying to gain muscle mass will gain a bit of fat as well, even body builders do this, they have a bulking phase, and a cutting phase where they stop trying to gain and go into body fat reduction which is basically the same intensity (but possibly different types) of weight training with reduced calories (maybe 100 cals less than TDEE), so I wouldn't expect to be able to gain all muscle and no fat, that's not very realistic. Keeping your attempt to maybe 1 lb per month would allow for minimal fat gain, but will take a lot longer (it's probably safer though).
  • TrainingWithTonya
    TrainingWithTonya Posts: 1,741 Member
    You've already gotten some great information on what you've probably gained, but I wanted to add that muscle isn't 3500 calories per pound like body fat. It is actually only about 600 calories per pound. So, you don't have to eat a whole lot extra to add muscle and if you go over what you need to add the muscle, the excess will be stored as fat. So, personally, I'd recommend just adding an extra 25-50 calories a day in the form of protein to gain muscle without storing as much fat. And definitely focus on heavy weight training in order to be able to focus the gain toward muscle mass.
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