muscle gain- constructive advice?

amandaeve · June 2016

I joined a health club last November with the specific goal of gaining 5 lbs. of muscle (while staying at the same overall weight). It is a good club and I meet with a certified trainer regularly. I am not new to health clubs, but this is the first time I’ve had such a specific goal. It is now June and I’ve basically had negative success since then. I tend to overeat, so I can understand not being at the right ratio, but what I don’t understand is why I am not seeing any muscle gain, and have seen some loss. I feel like I am working as hard as I can, but am not seeing results. I’m happy to hear advice from those who have been there. I am really beginning to question my goal and if it is actually attainable (my trainer thought it would take 6 months). What important detail am I missing? What should I focus on?

My routine:

Weight lifting: 3 times a week, about an hour a time. I have a push day and a pull day. Have increased weight load 15-60 lbs. this year. I do 3 sets, the trainer picks the reps each week (between 8 and 20). While I’ve lifted weights most of my life, this has been the hardest as I have never increased weights so aggressively before. It is hard, but I do push through.

Cardio: I am a cyclist and ride 8-15 hours (65-120 miles) a week, year round, both as a commuter and recreationally.

Food: I track here. I am pretty accurate with my tracking. Trainer set my goal at 2000 calories a day, 30% protein/25% fat/ 45% carb. I had a higher protein ratio one month and was so fatigued I couldn’t maintain it. I tend to overeat 100-300 calories a day and have difficulty keeping fat intake low enough, but I do meet 30% protein goal most of the time. I enjoy "clean" eating, but by no means follow a strict diet.

Other: I also meditate/stretch/yoga about an hour a week to try to stay comfortable and less sore.

About me:
39 year old female. I have a sedentary job, GoogleFit says I walk about an hour a day on average.

Date Weight Body Fat %
2/6/16 156 29.3
3/3/16 151 27.3
4/6/16 157.5 29.4
5/6/16 157 28.8
6/3/16 158 30.4

pinggolfer96 · June 2016

If you're progressing in numbers on lifts, then that means you are making successful strength gains. You don't have to see weight gain when strength also increases. Also, if you're not gaining weight then you need to eat more. You're not going to lose and build at the same time. Building muscle happens in a surplus and vice versa in a deficit for fat loss (with some muscle loss possibly). Eat more and get on a proven program. Maybe your trainer has you on some easy cookie cutter. Try a proven routine such as strong lifts or 5 by 5. Also like you said, you have been increasing weight lifted, so that's a good sign, I'd honestly eat more if your wanting to gain. It will come with some fat gain depending on the surplus, but you can always do a mini cut

Erik8484 · June 2016

1. You can trust a scale to measure your weight, you can't trust it to accurately measure your bf%. That includes the machine your gym may have that involves standing barefoot on a device and holding paddles in your hands. If you concluded you haven't put on any muscle based solely on a bf% reading from a scale, reexamine your conclusion.

2. It's hard to put on muscle, and it takes time. Certain things make it easier, including folowing a good program and eating at a caloric surplus.

3. Youve gained 2lbs over 120 days. That indicates that your caloric surplus is tiny (i.e. you either burn more than you/your trainer thinks, or you eat less than you think).

Consume more calories.

lemmie177 · June 2016

amandaeve wrote: »

I am not seeing any muscle gain, and have seen some loss.

How are you determining muscle loss? From your body fat percentages? How are you measuring body fat? If that's a recent profile pic, I really don't think you're 30% body fat.

I tend to agree with pinggolfer: if you're seeing strength increases, I wouldn't worry too much. BUT I'd also expect YOU to notice a positive difference in your body after so many months. I'd suggest you take measurements and use calipers (not bioimpedance) to measure bodyfat. I would guess you're making more progress than you think you are.

I also suspect you're not recovering well between workouts. This is cause you often mention how workouts are hard, you have trouble adhering to your trainer's diet plan without fatigue, and do yoga/etc to be "less sore" (meaning you're somewhat sore on a regular basis?). If it were me, I'd cut down on the cycling until you're recovering well (that also means less calories to work with).

I'd also find a macro goal that's easier to stick to, not necessarily for your 5lb-muscle goal, but just cause I think you'd be happier. Personally, I set my protein at a minimum of 1g protein per lb of lean body mass. Then just eat within your calorie goal, and find whatever carb/fat ratio gives you the most energy/least cravings. Seems like your protein is a bit high, which is fine, but at some point it becomes unenjoyable, especially since you said high protein made you fatigued. This'd give you more wiggle room to put more carbs around your workouts. I know nutrient timing is practically taboo around here, but I think it'd help you with recovery. I've been happy with my progress in recomp by cycling calories/carbs around my heavy strength workout

Chieflrg · June 2016

The trainer gas you doing a recomp. It's takes much longer to see results than the bulk/cut cycle. Your frustration is not unusual. I've done a recomp only once in the 30+ years of lifting and it was very slow process.

I wouldn't advise the SL or 5x5 as previously suggested. Those are strength programs not hypertrophy programs. You'll gain mass faster with higher reps with progressive overload vs. lower reps with a overload.

Lastly remember muscle gain has a lot to do with genetics.

amandaeve · June 2016

My profile pic is 4 years old. I weigh 15 lbs. more than I did at that time, but I don't know what my lean mass was then. The body fat is calculated at the health club with a scale and a hand held sensor. My measurements vary a tiny bit month to month, but really the only variation I've seen is in my stomach, which goes back and fourth. I have slightly more definition in my quads and biceps, but not significantly so. I drink a lot of water, so I'd say that was messing with the sensors, but I am not seeing visable results either.
I can eat 120g protein, but struggle getting more. This type of exersize leaves me feeling much, much, much more tired than how I used to lift weights in past years. I now lift the highest weight I can possibly lift, before I only struggled the last rep or two here or there.
I am willing to try eating more than 2500 calories, but am a little afraid to. I used to be fairly overweight, and it took a lot of work to loose that weight (85 lb.). I don't know that I want to be stronger badly enough to put myself through through "loosing weight" again. 10 or 15 pounds, sure, but even 30 is more than I want to subject myself to.

muscle gain- constructive advice?

Replies

Categories