Gaining Lean muscle mass

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fudokung
fudokung Posts: 31
in Food and Nutrition
I think I have lost enough weight and body fat now. Weighing at 134 pounds with 5'8 height (19 year old male).
I am looking to gain some lean muscle. I do around 20 mins of cardio most days of the week as well as resistance training for around 30 mins.
I have been eating around 1800 calories during my weight loss days. Do I need to up my calorie intake? Because I dont think my old calorie intake amount is enough to fuel my muscles..... I am scared of eating too much calories from lean meat and other quality calories. What should I do?

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  • DianaPowerUp
    DianaPowerUp Posts: 518 Member
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    To build muscle, you will need more calories, yes. And, once you have more muscle, you will need more calories, since muscle burns a lot of calories. How much more? I don't know the answer to that one. That may take a little research on body building/increasing muscle size. Just make sure that the cal. that you add are "clean". You'll need a lot more protein in your diet, too.

    Btw, I've started doing this myself a few wks ago - I increased my cal. by almost 300 cal/day, I'm eating "cleaner" and I'm eating waaaaay more protein and waaaaay less carbs. What I've noticed (even after a few days of this), is that I am STILL losing weight, but my body is changing, and I can see more muscle and better definition, which is what I wanted.
  • fudokung
    fudokung Posts: 31
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    thanks for ur opinion,, thats great for u.
    Many people have said I look just a bit too skinny. So the fact that some say you can have a calorie deficit and build muscle is not true right?

    I am just scared that if i eat around 2300 calories a day (500 more than what I used to) it is a bit too much but I guess I already need around 2000 calories just to have enough to go through a day so is 2300-2400 calories a day realistic??
  • tross0924
    tross0924 Posts: 909 Member
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    If you want to gain muscle, you're going to have to eat at a level where you gain weight. You can set up MFP for 1/2 lbs weight gain per week.

    Then you want to focus on lifting as heavy a weight as you can 8-10 times. The weight should be heavy enough that you can not physically complete a muscle contraction with the weight on number 11. If you can do 11 you need to lift more weight and maybe do a few less. Also focus on lowering the weight as controled as possible. Resistance during the elongation of the muscle causes the majority of the "damage" needed to increase muscle size.

    As far as which exercises to do, you can go to different body building websites and find lots of journals and routines to download for free.

    GL and happy liftin!
  • reymemo
    reymemo Posts: 8
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    It's the same idea to build muscle as it is to lose the weight, except you're going to have to add 500 cals daily to add 1 pound a week. Make sure youre taking enough protein for your body weight at least 1g./ pound of lean body mass. There is alot of explaining to this on this guys website including a calorie calculator if you want to build muscle. Scoobysworkshop.com -check out the nutrition tools.

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