Is it possible not to put muscle on while bulking and lifting?

lucygoesrawr · February 2015

I'm asking for my husband. He is absolutely convinced he isn't gaining muscle, only fat. His weight gain is an average of 1lb - 1.5lb a week. He's been bulking since late November/early December. Had to stop squatting and deadlifting in December due to an injury, but was still doing overhead press, bench press and chin-ups. He started deadlifts again late-January and squats early February. He has just gotten back up to his pre-injury weights in these lifts. This is part of the reason he thinks he might have only gained fat. He has gained 15lbs overall. We have progress pictures, and yes, he has clearly gained fat, but personally I can see tiny changes that indicate more muscle, but he can't. We were using (inaccurate) scales for the body fat %, so even if we're using our calipers correctly, we don't have old data to compare with.

I just want to know if he could possibly have just (or mostly) gained fat. I don't think 1lb of weight gain a week is too much? There could be disorders I don't know about that could cause this. I think he's just struggling with insecurity, to be honest, but I don't want to keep telling him he's wrong and reassuring him if he potentially has a medical problem.

On another note, I help with the calipering and am pretty bad at it. Our records with the calipers actually indicate he is losing lean body mass and replacing with fat. This worries him as well, but surely this should be disregarded as we both know I haven't gotten the hang of it yet?

lucygoesrawr · February 2015

Programming should be fine, we're doing Starting Strength.

No_Finish_Line · February 2015

if your at or near your genetic potential, yes one could eat surplus calories and make negligible gains in muscle mass.

if he's recovering muscle he previously had, there's a good chance a significant amount could be muscle, but even in that instance a pound of muscle per week is quite unrealistic.

I would think the majority is fat, but some portion of that is muscle

ndj1979 · February 2015

did he take starting measurements? That would be an easy way to track progress...

aboldish22 · February 2015

You are always going to gain some amount of fat on a bulk or surplus diet. As long as he was lifting like you stated, he is going to gain muscle as well.

DopeItUp · February 2015

I could see potential issues with low testosterone and/or insulin resistance problems causing major fat gains and minimal muscle gains. Genetics play a big factor in general on top of that so there's definitely a potential. I know when I bulk I feel like I just get fat BUT when I do my next cut then I can start to see the gains I've made. It's really slow though, it has taken years to make real impact.

If he's gaining a large amount of fat he may want to scale back the calories a bit and focus on gaining .5-1lb/week or something along those lines.

Having said that, he's only been bulking a handful of months, and he wasn't squatting/deadlifting for some/most of it so gains were probably fairly minimal regardless. Even in optimum conditions.

lucygoesrawr · February 2015

zachbonner - Thank you!

No_Finish_Line - He has only been lifting since late summer last year, so he shouldn't be near his genetic potential.

Ndj1979 - Unfortunately not

We'll have to start.

DopeItUp - Well, he says he put on a lot of muscle through puberty (which he then lost due to barely eating while ill for a year or so), so he shouldn't have low testosterone levels - unless a medical condition could change that.
I thought if he was doing other lifts, the extra calories would just be used for the muscles he had been lifting with?
He's gong to drop his calories a bit so he's gaining less than a pound a week. That's probably a good idea - maybe it'll help him feel a bit better too.

Thanks for the replies. I shall continue to reassure him that he hasn't just put on fat, then. He's not so much worried about the percentage, just that he thinks he might have an inability to gain muscle at all.

silentKayak · February 2015

Of course it's possible. If he's eating over maintenance, he'll gain muscle and fat. If he's not working that hard (not lifting the right amounts, in the right ways, on the right schedule), it'll be all or mostly all fat. He's sure not gaining a pound a week of muscle. At most you'd be lucky to put on one pound of muscle a month.

AliceDark · February 2015

He's doing Starting Strength, but not squatting or dead lifting? I can't back this up, but I'd think that gaining 1-1.5 pounds per week and just doing upper body lifts wouldn't be ideal.

Cortelli · February 2015

I had some ticky-tack injuries that kept me from my regular program for many weeks. I don't think I lost any significant muscle mass during that time, but was surprised by how much strength I lost.

So I am not surprised that your husband lost some strength. Doesn't necessarily mean he has lost muscle mass, nor that he wasn't adding some if he was still able to do some upper body work during the recovery period. If in the future (knock on wood) I have to step back from lifting due to some injury or other reason for a period of time, I'll likely move to maintenance even more quickly than I did during my first experience.

Would be curious of others' experiences with strength losses as I was pretty surprised at how much strength one can gain during a deficit and then again surprised at how much strength can fade when not regularly working.

Chieflrg · February 2015

If he wasn't doing deads/squats chances are he wasn't putting on as much muscle. Possibly .25lb a week. I would hazard he was gaining more fat than he wanted. He should be fine, though I would consider tapering the cals down a touch.

SideSteel · February 2015

Gaining at that rate AND not training lower body at all makes it very likely that he's getting fat way faster than he should. But, if his upper body lifts are making progress then he's likely still gaining muscle.

lucygoesrawr · February 2015

Sorry, I should clarify - he has been back to squatting/deadlifting again for around a month now.

lilwoozy · February 2015

Here's my $.02

If your husband quit doing squats and deads but didn't decrease overall intake accordingly, then he definitely would be taking in too many calories. Therefore the added fat . Since he is now adding those exercises back in, it might not make sense to cut out the calories now.

On the issue of his perceived "not able to gain muscle.". . I am not familiar with Starting Strength, but guessing by the name it's a strength training program. Assuming it's well designed (which going by the exercises you listed, it sounds like it is), the scale or the calipers is not the correct way to judge progress. The better question is, Is he making strength gains from week to week? The answer to that question will tell you whether he's gaining muscle or not.

Another way of saying that is to make sure that his (or anyone's) goals and exercise program are lined up. If your goal is to be stronger then let strength gains be your guide. If you simply want to look good naked (who doesn't, obviously, but you know what I mean

) then choose a workout that's designed around that.

Anyway, congrats to him for starting an exercise program. It'll pay off for years to come.
Keep it up!

StrongLikeMule · February 2015

1 - 1.5 lb per week is definitely on the high side. I'm sure he's gained muscle if he's consistent with his training and progressing, but a lot of that weight is going to be fat. Most people can't gain more than .5 lb of muscle per week unless they're a beginner, a teenager, or taking steroids. I would drop his calorie intake so that he's only gaining .5 to (at most) 1 lb per week. That range has worked well for me without gaining too much fat. Slow and steady wins the race.

Is it possible not to put muscle on while bulking and lifting?

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