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Trying to build lean muscle

HovaJAL
HovaJAL Posts: 1 Member
edited November 2024 in Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
I am a 31yr old male trying to build lean muscle. I am 5ft 10in and weigh 130 lbs. my current macros are: protein 126g, carbs 317g, and fat 84g. I currently only workout once a week because of my busy schedule, but my schedule will soon change, so I will be able to workout 3-4 times a week. I am new to myfitnesspal, and I have some questions. How can I build lean muscle? I feel like my fat and carb intake is too high. I and currently reading a book titled, "Power Eating." The book states that in order for you to burn muscle you should go 40% carb 30% pro and 30% fat. The communities input will be very helpful to me. Thank you.

Replies

  • MrMacro
    MrMacro Posts: 1 Member
    Macro ratios are important, but less important than overall calories. As you have said you wish to build "lean muscle" i assume you wish to gain muscle whilst limiting if not totally eliminating any fat gain? Your best bet is to figure out your TDEE and eat another 200/300 calories on top of that. This small caloric surplus will allow you to build muscle and restrict any fat gains (In my experience fat gain itself is unavoidable when building muscle but you can seriously limit it). This calorie intake combined with progessive overloading in the gym will allow for around a half pound per week muscle gain. Now whilst some claim you may be able to build more muscle in other ways quicker, i view this as a superior way as it allows for muscle gain with very limited fat gain.

    As for macro ratios i actually keep a more simply philosophy. Hit your protein minimums and your calorie goal, and let carbs and fats fall where they may. Now whilst some out there may decry this as a suboptimal strategy, for anybody living in the real world with a job and busy lifestyle its borderline impossible to fine tune every macro, as such try to hit 0.8-1g of protein per lb of bodyweight and make sure to hit your overall calories and all shall be well. As a side note make sure to still get in your essential fats however for health reasons. This method allows me personally to still achieve results and fit it around my life.

    Just as a quick side note i understand you said you work out? I assume this is strength training/weight lifting? If not , you won't be packing on much muscle

    As a final footnote just regarding what "protein minimums" are, some studies have shown good muscle gain at much lower intake ratios than i specified above, however personally for peace of mind i simply followed this rule as it was more easily calculable and also helped me feel more satiated
  • jessef593
    jessef593 Posts: 2,272 Member
    MrMacro wrote: »
    Macro ratios are important, but less important than overall calories. As you have said you wish to build "lean muscle" i assume you wish to gain muscle whilst limiting if not totally eliminating any fat gain? Your best bet is to figure out your TDEE and eat another 200/300 calories on top of that. This small caloric surplus will allow you to build muscle and restrict any fat gains (In my experience fat gain itself is unavoidable when building muscle but you can seriously limit it). This calorie intake combined with progessive overloading in the gym will allow for around a half pound per week muscle gain. Now whilst some claim you may be able to build more muscle in other ways quicker, i view this as a superior way as it allows for muscle gain with very limited fat gain.

    As for macro ratios i actually keep a more simply philosophy. Hit your protein minimums and your calorie goal, and let carbs and fats fall where they may. Now whilst some out there may decry this as a suboptimal strategy, for anybody living in the real world with a job and busy lifestyle its borderline impossible to fine tune every macro, as such try to hit 0.8-1g of protein per lb of bodyweight and make sure to hit your overall calories and all shall be well. As a side note make sure to still get in your essential fats however for health reasons. This method allows me personally to still achieve results and fit it around my life.

    Just as a quick side note i understand you said you work out? I assume this is strength training/weight lifting? If not , you won't be packing on much muscle

    As a final footnote just regarding what "protein minimums" are, some studies have shown good muscle gain at much lower intake ratios than i specified above, however personally for peace of mind i simply followed this rule as it was more easily calculable and also helped me feel more satiated

    This exactly. Hit your calorie goals and total protein intake. Make sure to keep up with progressive overload in order to stimulate muscle growth
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    MrMacro wrote: »
    Macro ratios are important, but less important than overall calories. As you have said you wish to build "lean muscle" i assume you wish to gain muscle whilst limiting if not totally eliminating any fat gain? Your best bet is to figure out your TDEE and eat another 200/300 calories on top of that. This small caloric surplus will allow you to build muscle and restrict any fat gains (In my experience fat gain itself is unavoidable when building muscle but you can seriously limit it). This calorie intake combined with progessive overloading in the gym will allow for around a half pound per week muscle gain. Now whilst some claim you may be able to build more muscle in other ways quicker, i view this as a superior way as it allows for muscle gain with very limited fat gain.

    As for macro ratios i actually keep a more simply philosophy. Hit your protein minimums and your calorie goal, and let carbs and fats fall where they may. Now whilst some out there may decry this as a suboptimal strategy, for anybody living in the real world with a job and busy lifestyle its borderline impossible to fine tune every macro, as such try to hit 0.8-1g of protein per lb of bodyweight and make sure to hit your overall calories and all shall be well. As a side note make sure to still get in your essential fats however for health reasons. This method allows me personally to still achieve results and fit it around my life.

    Just as a quick side note i understand you said you work out? I assume this is strength training/weight lifting? If not , you won't be packing on much muscle

    As a final footnote just regarding what "protein minimums" are, some studies have shown good muscle gain at much lower intake ratios than i specified above, however personally for peace of mind i simply followed this rule as it was more easily calculable and also helped me feel more satiated

    pretty much this...

    and I don't know what lean muscle is, I just work on adding or preserving muscle...

    I would suggest a structured lifting program like PHUL, strong lifts, all pro beginner, based on your level of experience....
  • HamsterManV2
    HamsterManV2 Posts: 449 Member
    edited March 2016
    At 5'10 130lbs, you are SKINNY. To reach your goals, we can attack this through nutrition and exercise.

    1) Nutrition: Eat at a surplus. Go on google, calculate your TDEE, and eat that amount of calories +500 surplus for 1lb of weight gain per week. That means make a myfitnesspal account and owning a digital weight scale, and tracking EVERYTHING you put in your mouth. Underweight people overestimate how much they eat, so you need to be consistent with this.

    2) Fitness: Lift. Eating at a surplus will allow you to build muscle at an excellent rate. By lifting, you will build muscle and some fat (vs not lifting and only getting fat). I assume you are a beginner at lifting. Programs like SL, SS, and ICF are all excellent for the novice to put on the most muscle in the shortest amount of time. You start with just the barbell on some exercises, but they key is you increase the weight each time you do it (i.e. you add +5lbs to the squat per session x3 per week = +15lbs per week or +60lbs per month... in 3 months you increase your weight lifted by +180lbs... show me any other program that can do that!). Trust the program. Just don't cheat and start at near your max weight, you will stall way too early.
    Don't get fooled by trainers or random people selling you BS and make you sweaty with no actually planned progression. The difference between training and exercise is that exercise just gets your sweaty and sore... training will be able to tell you how much you will lift by when, how much you will weight, how well you can progress, etc. Clear, measurable progress is infinitely better than exercise till you get bored and quit!
    For these program that I've listed, a young man should achieve 5 reps of: 1.5x bodyweight (BW) squat, 1x BW bench, 1.75xBW deadlift, and 0.75xBW overhead press. Some of your numbers will be higher or lower than these depending on limb lengths and whatnot, but it's good. Say you get up to 160lbs, that means you can expect repping over 200lbs on the squat, and hopefully more. Now that's good progression.


    Read this for more details

    Once you build your muscle and gain weight (like 30lbs or so), you can decide what to do then. You can run this program for a good 6-8 months, since you should be gaining weight during that time and thus your lifts will greatly benefit as time goes on.

    PS Building lean muscle is nonsensical. Muscle does not contain fat. I assume you mean build muscle and reduce body fat to look aesthetically pleasing.

    Edit: Definitely eat +500 calories over your TDEE, at least for the first 3 months. You can reduce your intake to +250 calories later on, but right now you need food to fuel your initial muscle gain. And you are underweight as hell.

    Once you get to where you want to be, you can eat at maintenance (at TDEE level) or on a cut (-250 to 500 under TDEE) to trim the fat and show your hard earned muscles. But you cannot build significant muscles without going on a bulk, which is what the nutritional parameters of these programs are asking you to do.

    In Depth Article about nutrition here
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