Calorie Target for Muscle Gain?

Part of it is how much weight you use. Adding muscle mass means using weights that you can only do between 3 and 12 reps per set. More than 12 is really cardo, less than three is going to be mainly strenght. I've found webMD has a lot of useful articles on weight lifting, both to tone and to add. Check there, they may even have one that you're looking for.

that was more a dollar than it was 2cents, haha

up the weights

Yeah he's awesome.

Also check out Markos from PTC Frankston, in victoria, australia.

And Christian Thibadeau, he's the one who has written the most of the stuff on t-nation.

Thanks. I'm starting to convince myself that part of the problem is that I'm not eating enough calories to significantly build muscle. I think I might try adding 200-300 calories a day to my intake in the form of a protein drink. I currently drink them when I exercise, but I always stay within my 'maintain weight' calorie target regardless. Maybe if I go outside my target range and give my body those extra calories in the form of protein, it will help. Does that make sense?

Any calorie addition should be REAL food, not a shake. You should find out if your a hard gainer first. All the rest of the advice is sound. You should educated yourself with a few different training strategies. You will need to find what works best.

Explore:
High Volume Training
High Intensity Training (low Volume)
Split Routines vs Full body.

I've set my MFP goal to "Maintain Current Weight" and I stick to the calorie target religiously. But am I supposed to be using a "Gain Weight" target?

Continue to lift heavy. I think a 4-8 rep range may be a little better as the higher you go the more likely it is that you will be working towards strength as oppossed to all out mass.

???
no. stay with i mentiond already. Low reps is for strenght, higher ones for size...

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The vast majority of supplements have little to no benefits for a natural lifter. Be careful with T-Nation. There is some good advice there but mostly it seems to be orientated to marketing above performance. Nothing beats good diet, focused exercise, consistency and time.
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T-nation is quality.
They mention the average guys/beginner etc that the supplements etc arent neccessary...
Of course they are promoting certain products...how else would they make cash?

Their whole focus is on bulding muscle by using correct exercise and nutrition. The promo **** has to get dropped in...just ignore it.

Just focus on your big lfts mate. Squat, Deadlifts, Bench, Pullups, Dips, Standing overhead press, Power Cleans.

You want all these in your plan. forget BB curls, tricep extensions, leg curls, etc unless your above an intermediate level.

What are your current 1RM's? you should use this figure to plan your attack and starting rep ranges.

If you are unsure about how much you can lift in 1 go, spend the next week testing yourself out.
Your probably below intermediate. like most folks on here i would imagine. no offense intended there.
An intermediate lifter would be able to lift 2.5x his bodyweight for deadlifts. If you can lift this much, then awesome. otherwise, focus on those lifts for a good while! and just remember that progression is the key.

Yeah if you can pull your workouts back an hour, that would be beneficial.
Still take your shake immediately after working out. then eat real food 1/2 hour after, then again before bed. this will be better than what you have been doing.

also, check this out. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_neural_charge/neural_charge_training
i love it.
Also read this one. http://www.t-nation.com/strength-training-topics/423

If you're working out late at night and want to maximize your results your post-workout nutrition needs to contain some mix of whey and casein protein.

Whey protein will digest more rapidly and provide for immediate post workout recovery.

Casein protein (cottage cheese is a great source) digest more slowly and will provide protein throughout the night as you sleep.

???
no. stay with i mentiond already. Low reps is for strenght, higher ones for size...

I should have clarified that a little better and you're right that it does come across as a little counter intuitive if you are applying the term "strength" correctly. This is why I said a little later that this guy should try different training strategies to see what works for him.

This comes down to volume load and the most efficient way of triggering hypertrophy / fast twitch fibres if mass is what you are after. The difficulty I have with the higher rep range (8-12) is that lots of people use it as a reason to cheat on their reps because in their mind they think they have that much more to do. Form therefore goes out of the window and the tendency is to use increased momentum to complete the lifts. It is therefore easier to up the weight and get layman "stronger" (as opposed to power lifter stronger!)

If you ask people to recruit a heavier weight and work within a lower rep range then it just about eliminates the possibility to use momentum and forces you to focus on the lift. You pretty much have to slow down creating a greater likelihood of sufficient stress over time on the muscle to create microtrauma etc. Of course this balances out with the possibilty of using poor form if the weight is just too heavy.

IF (and that's a big if) people are using correct from including rep speed then yeah a 8-12 rep range is probably preferable for a balance of overall growth and strength. However, most people, especially if they are not a particularly experienced lifter simply do not do so. There's obviously a degree of crossover within the 4-12 rep range but overall I think the lower range brings the most benefits to the most people if they are working out by themselves without the assistance of a good trainer / athlete.

Ultimately all this talk of differnet rep range is probably overkill though and I apologise if my previous lack of explanation made it even more confusing! If you work with good form and progressive overload anywhere within the 4-12 rep range you will be just fine

We will have to agree to disagree on T-Nation though. I have seen it change out of all recognition in ten years and it has become a glorified marketing site. "I, Bodybuilder"? No comment. That's just my opinion though.

I'm glad I found this thread. This is exactly the information I was looking for. I want to lose about 10 pounds of fat and gain about 10 pounds of muscle. I've got the losing part down, it's the strength training I'm not familiar with. I'll be checking out all of the sources advised here.
Just last night a friend of mine told me that I was doing it "wrong". Not a, "You're going to hurt yourself" wrong, but just that I needed to add more weight and less reps. So this thread popped up at a good time for me.

A question, on average, is what I'm trying to achieve doable by the end of April. It's my sons birthday and we always like to take him to the beach for the weekend so that was my target goal.

I don't want to discourage you, but I also don't want you to be disillusioned into thinking this is going to happen. I'm not saying it's impossible. I think it's very probable that you can achieve half of that stated goal. Your body relies on a calorie deficit to lose fat and requires a calorie excess to build muscle. Another factor that plays into your equation is that the human anatomy adds muscle mass at greatly slower rate than it burns bodyfat.


I think by the end of April you can certainly have the ten pounds of body fat that you wish to lose off. You can probably lose those ten pounds and then some. You can also certainly improve your muscle TONE in that time frame. The definition of muscle tone is "tension in resting muscle" meaning that your muscles even when not doing anything will be poised for action and ready to respond. They'll look damn good too ;-). I think you will be hard pressed to gain that much muscle MASS in that time frame while keeping your body in the caloric deficit required to lose that much body fat that quickly.

I'm not discouraged. That was a question that I really had no idea of the answer to. I knew it took longer to build muscle mass, I just didn't have any knowledge of a feasible time frame. Just another thing for me to research. I do have a little bit of muscle built up from over the years that are starting to show as I lose the fat, so it's all good. Besides, I'm one of those crazy people who "likes the journey" just as much as the "destination". So, thanks guys. I'm sure I'll be reading a lot more of your posts.

I would say it's probably less than that, but that's still not much.