Gaining muscle - when?

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Aust1967
Aust1967 Posts: 68 Member
edited February 18 in Fitness and Exercise
I've just started walking for exercise (I bought a FitBit) - before this I wasn't doing anything at all for exercise. I'm curious if anyone has any opinion (or facts, for that matter) as to how much exercise a person has to do to start gaining muscle - in short, when can I start blaming weight gain on "adding muscle" as opposed to "eating too much"? :bigsmile:

Thanks for your input!!

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  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    I've just started walking for exercise (I bought a FitBit) - before this I wasn't doing anything at all for exercise. I'm curious if anyone has any opinion (or facts, for that matter) as to how much exercise a person has to do to start gaining muscle - in short, when can I start blaming weight gain on "adding muscle" as opposed to "eating too much"? :bigsmile:

    Thanks for your input!!

    There is a fair chance that you may never be able to blame weight gain on muscle mass. Gaining muscle is EXTREMELY hard....for a male. It's exponentially harder for females.....

    Gaining muscle takes hours of progressive overload strength training, a diet that is on point (with a caloric surplus), and testosterone. Outliers can gain muscle on a deficit (extremely undertrained, morbidly obese, returning athlete), but those gains very rarely effect the scale.
  • RobsGirl_lds
    RobsGirl_lds Posts: 211 Member
    I've just started walking for exercise (I bought a FitBit) - before this I wasn't doing anything at all for exercise. I'm curious if anyone has any opinion (or facts, for that matter) as to how much exercise a person has to do to start gaining muscle - in short, when can I start blaming weight gain on "adding muscle" as opposed to "eating too much"? :bigsmile:

    Thanks for your input!!

    There is a fair chance that you may never be able to blame weight gain on muscle mass. Gaining muscle is EXTREMELY hard....for a male. It's exponentially harder for females.....

    Gaining muscle takes hours of progressive overload strength training, a diet that is on point (with a caloric surplus), and testosterone. Outliers can gain muscle on a deficit (extremely undertrained, morbidly obese, returning athlete), but those gains very rarely effect the scale.
    This unless you are training to gain muscle and eating to support the muscle growth you aren't gaining muscle.
  • Aust1967
    Aust1967 Posts: 68 Member
    Well, this isn't good news at all! :grumble:
  • gerla_k
    gerla_k Posts: 495 Member
    Well, this isn't good news at all! :grumble:

    There are other reasons why you can gain "temporary" weight. If you recently started an exercise program, you may gain some weight- your muscles retain water to repair themselves. This happened to me after i started T25- i gained about 4-5 lbs right away- then when your body adapts to the new workout your weight drops. Don't get easily discouraged :wink:
    ETA: I'm not sure if you get water retention from walking though.
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