How do you know Lean gain? Fat?

Pascua_j wrote: »

I began increasing calories at the end of October and reduced my cardio in an effort to put on muscle. After a lifetime of trying to lose weight it is very difficult mentally to be okay with the scale going up. In 18 weeks I have gained 5 pounds is that slow enough for it to be muscle? I realize that typically you gain fat along with muscle but I'm trying to decide if I am on the right track....

Only you can really answer that. There's no sense really rushing the process unless you have a particular target date set or something.

There's other factors to take into consideration as well such as training age, sex, etc. As a female, you're more likely to gain at a slower pace than a male.

I personally don't see that as poor progress, but it's possible that you could be leaving a little on the table by being conservative.

All that matters is that you're making continual progress, it just make take longer. It's up to you to decide if you're comfortable with that pacing.

I'll be watching this because it's something I've wondered about.

Its going to be very difficult to judge where those 5 lbs went over 18 weeks. If you aren't tracking your body fat % or body measurements, I highly recommend it. That scale can be a very scary thing, especially for women.

Have someone measure you at neck, shoulders, arms, chest, waist, hips, thighs, calves. That will let you know if you are expanding or shrinking (despite what the scale says). I recommend measuring every week or two, depending on how quickly you are gaining.

Also, measuring body fat can help you know what exactly is happening inside your body. You can get someone to do caliper measurements on you, or I use an Omron HBF-306C body fat analyzer. They cost about $40 on Amazon. Quick and easy to use, I actually have mine at work doing measurements for coworkers as we start off our 10 week healthy quest program.

Good luck!