rate of muscle gain

Muscle gains for women is about 12lbs per year and for men is 24lbs per year. Go testosterone!

How come only 2-3 months of SL? That's a great way to burn fat and build muscle, maybe the best way.

What is considered a "good" rate of increasing muscle?

I started out a year ago weighing 232lbs, BF% 56.2. I now weigh 196, BF% 46.3.

If my calculations are correct, I have lost 30lbs fat and gained 6-7 lbs muscle. So I'm gaining muscle at a rate of about 1/2lb per month. Is that a "good" rate or am I getting excited about nothing? BTW, my main exercise in walking (3.8-4.0mph), although I did a 2-3 month stint of SL5x5.

I hate to burst your bubble but I doubt you have put on 6-7lbs of muscle in a year if you are not lifting heavy weights the entire time and getting enough protien.

Walking is not going to build muscle.

There are occassions where people can put muscle on at a deficet but those occassions are morbidly obese or noob gains and noob gains are typically only a couple of oz...

But if you are not consistently lifting and eating enough protien you are not putting muscle on...

I am not sure of what calculation you did or where you got the bf% because any online calculator is not going to be accurate and neither are most ways of measuring unless it's a displacment test or Dexa scan...but that being said

•total body weight x body fat percentage = weight of body fat
•total body weight - weight of body fat = weight of lean body mass
And I did the calculations

Weight BF% Fat Lbs LBM
232 0.56 130.38 102
196 0.46 90.75 105
So there is an increase in LBM of 3lbs(half that might be muscle due to newbie gains) as LBM is not just muscle it consists of muscle, bone, organs etc...everything that isn't fat.

Per Scooby if during your lifting phase you were eating properly you might have gained 1.6lbs per newbie effect and if you continued to lift for the entire year and ate at maintenance or above you might gain 5lbs

from your stat's there's no way to predict muscle growth, unless you tested LBM as an absolute number instead of via percentage you can't make any kind of deduction as you're missing the correct variable to do so.

I.E.

LBM includes bone and connective tissue as well as muscle mass, exercise (almost any type) will increase both bone density and connective tissue density, thus you can't determine how much of those you gain by just subtracting body fat from total weight.

It's almost impossible to be at a TRUE calorie deficit and gain any significant muscle mass. The reasoning is because the body essentially only has two states, catabolic and anabolic. In laymens terms catabolic states are shrinking or reduction, anabolic means a growth phase.

There are exceptions to this, where the body uses stored energy (Fats) to make up the difference and for short periods dip into an anabolic state, but to maintain this new mass all the reports I have read require you must be extremely strict in your diet, be very close to maintenance, and have a relatively high intensity workout schedule utilizing both heavy weights and high intensity cardio activity.

I don't preach attempting to build muscle while in a caloric deficit, it's too difficult and prone to cause clients to fail and/or quit. Rather I preach maintenance of existing muscle mass along with a moderate (5 to 15% below TDEE) deficit along with a balanced workout schedule consisting of multiple days of whole body heavy lifting, 1 day of HIIT training, and 1 to 2 days of light to moderate cardio. It's a balanced approach which has the benefit of introducing clients to new ways to train and keeps them from becoming bored.
when I train advanced clients (a few hockey players, a few baseball players, and 1 football guy thrown in) I do actually train them with almost all HIIT and a little bit of full body olympic lifting. Things that build their agility and leg/core strength, and most of those guys can throw on 1 to 2 lbs a month during their off season, but it's their performance that they really smile about, I do periodic testing of pre-made agility, power, and functional strength drills and to a man, each one of them improves through out their off season. I had 1 hockey player that actually increased a full 20% in an off season ( about 6 months). Granted he hit it hard and was very strict with his routine, but hey, he went from 3rd line D to 1st line and an all-star birth in college, and for the first time in his career he didn't have any injuries during the season (other than a few bruises and a broken tooth...figures).