Unable to put muscle on

Congrats on the weight loss!
A couple of things.
First, you are in a fairly aggressive calorie deficit and that is antithetical to building muscle. You can help to diminish muscle loss with weight training but you won't gain.

Second, you say you are "in the gym". What kind of program.

Third, you are 56 and don't have the anabolic hormones you had when you were 25. I'm 66 so I get this.

1550 is pretty low for a male. Especially if your training with intensity at all. What are your stats. Height, current weight and TDEE if you know it?

sunbeam236 wrote: »

Hello
Can someone give me advice I am 56 yrs old and over the last 12 months I have lost 3 stones I am in the gym 3/4 times a week but Im finding hard to put muscle on I am on about 1550 calories a day is this to low

Your calories are way too low. Congrats on the weight loss, but unfortunately like everyone said here, you don't gain muscles at a caloric deficit, especially one that is so low such as yours.

fb47 wrote: »

sunbeam236 wrote: »

Putting my calories up i find i put to much fat back on its hard to squeeze 2400 calories in a small window

If 2400 calories makes you gain weight way too fast, then you are dirty bulking. You need to find out what is your maintenance and then add 200 calories. The weight gain will be slow (weight gain should be somewhere near 0.3 lbs to 0.5 lbs gain per week), but that will help you build muscles. But before deciding to do that, are you lean at this moment ??? When I mean lean, I am talking about under 15% body fat, if not then you have a choice of either continuing your weight loss or go for a recomp, but in both cases, you are not going to build much muscles at a short period of time.

Agreed! And to add, there is a whole spectrum between 1550 and 2400 calories. Find your maintenance and use.

Have you ever had a full set of bloodwork done? At your age, that might give you the answer.

sunbeam236 wrote: »

Putting my calories up i find i put to much fat back on its hard to squeeze 2400 calories in a small window

Try a reverse diet to start putting back 100 cals per day each week. If you increase your calories too rapidly you are more susceptible to fat regain due to a thermic gap you've developed from the weight loss. Reverse dieting will help you get back to the caloric intake you need while giving your body time to readjust.

Dr Layne Norton has some excellent videos on this subject on YouTube such as his one https://youtube.com/watch?v=A3gTGLulLnI

Calorie deficits and muscle gain don't really go together. Being in a calorie deficit is necessary for fat loss but it doesn't support growth.

In very early days of lifting, or in very overweight people, it can be possible. It's certainly not optimal though, and most gains will be small and/or short lived. Gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time is incredibly difficult.

If your goal right now is to gain muscle I would recommend a small caloric surplus, or at the very least try out maintenance and see how that goes for you. If you keep any surplus small, fat gain while inevitable will be minimal. If you're gaining fat quickly, your calories are too high.

There are websites where you can calculate TDEE, or you can estimate by using what MFP gives you for maintenance (this should include all activity) and go from there. The average man is recommended 2500 but this may be different for you depending on weight and activity. If you start out with maintenance calories you can trial and error it and adjust from there. Then once you're staying the same you can add 250 a day for roughly 0.5lb gain a week (small caloric surplus)

If you're finding it difficult to eat the required calories in such a short window of time, you will have to think about expanding the time frame with which you eat.