Looking to build lean muscle
traumanurse870
Posts: 18 Member
Hi, I am looking to build lean muscle, no dirty bulks. Body fat % around 13%. Anyone have pro tips, regime, suppliment, or routine recommendations?
Thanks!
Thanks!
1
Replies
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All muscle is "lean" muscle. There is no such thing as fatty muscle. That being said, eat a slight, say 250 calorie, surplus. get adequate protein, 1 grams per lb of lean body mass is a good place to start, and utilize a lifting program that has a strong hypertrophy element. 2 that some immediately to mind are PHUL and PHAT. Both are a stair step progression of strength and hypertrophy.
This will help you gain muscle and minimize fat gain. Some fat gain is inevitable. But, gaining muscle and minimizing fat will make the cut easier once you gain.19 -
^All good advice. I might add that you'll need plenty of patience too. Doing it properly may well be a very slow process so don't get impatient and end up dirty bulking anyways.5
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Thanks fellas!2
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Barbells are your friend here
https://www.andybaker.com/category/power-building-hypertrophy-training/1 -
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Hey I’m in the exact same boat. I’m currently 5’10”, 170lbs 13.4% BF according to an impedance scale, consistently for several months. I was down around 12%, 160lbs when I started lifting about 4 months ago. I’m still doing lighter weight and quite a bit of core exercise to help avoid injury. Hoping to start a more serious muscle building program in a couple more months. I wonder if there’s a way we can stay in touch as support and motivation. Maybe a little friendly competition.
Btw I’ve messaged mfp as their daily calorie goal for me seems out of wack. It’s over 3000 calories and over my body weight in protein. I’m excruciating about 4xwk for about an hour but that seems like a lot of food.0 -
Craiger2019 wrote: »Hey I’m in the exact same boat. I’m currently 5’10”, 170lbs 13.4% BF according to an impedance scale, consistently for several months. I was down around 12%, 160lbs when I started lifting about 4 months ago. I’m still doing lighter weight and quite a bit of core exercise to help avoid injury. Hoping to start a more serious muscle building program in a couple more months. I wonder if there’s a way we can stay in touch as support and motivation. Maybe a little friendly competition.
Btw I’ve messaged mfp as their daily calorie goal for me seems out of wack. It’s over 3000 calories and over my body weight in protein. I’m excruciating about 4xwk for about an hour but that seems like a lot of food.
You can set your own calorie goals on mfp. You would be better following the tdee method and setting your calorie goal and macro split. Use a tdee calculator or better still your own calorie intake and weight loss/gain figures to set your calorie intake then alter it depending if your bulking or cutting.0 -
swierzbik1 wrote: »Eat properly and train hard, that's literally it. Unfortunately even with it being so simple, most people cannot even cover these basics.
How do you know you are 13%BF. Dexa?
I used the "US Navy Method" hip, waist, neck, heigth, and weight measurements.0 -
Craiger2019 wrote: »Hey I’m in the exact same boat. I’m currently 5’10”, 170lbs 13.4% BF according to an impedance scale, consistently for several months. I was down around 12%, 160lbs when I started lifting about 4 months ago. I’m still doing lighter weight and quite a bit of core exercise to help avoid injury. Hoping to start a more serious muscle building program in a couple more months. I wonder if there’s a way we can stay in touch as support and motivation. Maybe a little friendly competition.
Btw I’ve messaged mfp as their daily calorie goal for me seems out of wack. It’s over 3000 calories and over my body weight in protein. I’m excruciating about 4xwk for about an hour but that seems like a lot of food.
Depending on your activity level 3,000 isn’t that much, but yes you can set your own macros depending on what your weight is doing. I don’t use MFP to set my cals as it would actually be too low for me.0 -
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You're better off just visually estimating your body fat. Here's some examples:
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The first two replies are very good. I would also say that there several thoughts with protein intake, some say 1g if protein per kg of body weight, and others say 1g/lb. I’m 32 years of age and 190lb. And have a hard time building muscle. But keeping to 1g/lb is just magical for meeven with my genetic make up. With proper diet, lots of sleep, and a consistent workout (not that that strict, though hypertrophy training is ofcourse the best of the best). All this kept up and your body will do the rest of the work.
Be cautious of protein supplements though. Take Whey protein just right before or right after workouts, or both. It’s too fast absorbing for your body to use it all of there isn’t an immediate demand for it might go straight to your gut. All other protein should be natural. Fish with omega3s are the best, tuna/salmon/cod. Chicken is the next best. Turkey is magical as well, severely underrated. So far, the best protein bang per calorie that I’ve seen. I also use egg whites, but people have said that it’s one of the slowest absorbing proteins.
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tlopez2608 wrote: »The first two replies are very good. I would also say that there several thoughts with protein intake, some say 1g if protein per kg of body weight, and others say 1g/lb. I’m 32 years of age and 190lb. And have a hard time building muscle. But keeping to 1g/lb is just magical for meeven with my genetic make up. With proper diet, lots of sleep, and a consistent workout (not that that strict, though hypertrophy training is ofcourse the best of the best). All this kept up and your body will do the rest of the work.
Be cautious of protein supplements though. Take Whey protein just right before or right after workouts, or both. It’s too fast absorbing for your body to use it all of there isn’t an immediate demand for it might go straight to your gut. All other protein should be natural. Fish with omega3s are the best, tuna/salmon/cod. Chicken is the next best. Turkey is magical as well, severely underrated. So far, the best protein bang per calorie that I’ve seen. I also use egg whites, but people have said that it’s one of the slowest absorbing proteins.
I've never seen any research papers indicating you need 1g of protein per kg of body weight per day when building muscle. That's a very large amount of protein. The only high-protein nutrition protocols I've seen are for cutting, mostly to help with satiety, and even then 1g/kg would be at the VERY high end for those body builders who find high protein diets help them when cutting to very low body fat percentages.
Most research I've seen indicates the range of 0.7-1.0 grams per pound of body weight, per day is more than sufficient for building muscle.
https://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/0 -
OP hasn't logged on since asking the question. Case closed?0
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RE: the bolded. I'm not sure what you were thinking about the 1gr per kilo thing but that is less than what you've, accurately, recommended. Most research indicates 1 gram per lb of lean body mass but very few people accurately know their LBM. So, the .7 to 1 gr. per lb of body weight is a good safe ballpark.tlopez2608 wrote: »The first two replies are very good. I would also say that there several thoughts with protein intake, some say 1g if protein per kg of body weight, and others say 1g/lb. I’m 32 years of age and 190lb. And have a hard time building muscle. But keeping to 1g/lb is just magical for meeven with my genetic make up. With proper diet, lots of sleep, and a consistent workout (not that that strict, though hypertrophy training is ofcourse the best of the best). All this kept up and your body will do the rest of the work.
Be cautious of protein supplements though. Take Whey protein just right before or right after workouts, or both. It’s too fast absorbing for your body to use it all of there isn’t an immediate demand for it might go straight to your gut. All other protein should be natural. Fish with omega3s are the best, tuna/salmon/cod. Chicken is the next best. Turkey is magical as well, severely underrated. So far, the best protein bang per calorie that I’ve seen. I also use egg whites, but people have said that it’s one of the slowest absorbing proteins.
I've never seen any research papers indicating you need 1g of protein per kg of body weight per day when building muscle. That's a very large amount of protein. The only high-protein nutrition protocols I've seen are for cutting, mostly to help with satiety, and even then 1g/kg would be at the VERY high end for those body builders who find high protein diets help them when cutting to very low body fat percentages.
Most research I've seen indicates the range of 0.7-1.0 grams per pound of body weight, per day is more than sufficient for building muscle.
https://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
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tlopez2608 wrote: »The first two replies are very good. I would also say that there several thoughts with protein intake, some say 1g if protein per kg of body weight, and others say 1g/lb. I’m 32 years of age and 190lb. And have a hard time building muscle. But keeping to 1g/lb is just magical for meeven with my genetic make up. With proper diet, lots of sleep, and a consistent workout (not that that strict, though hypertrophy training is ofcourse the best of the best). All this kept up and your body will do the rest of the work.
Be cautious of protein supplements though. Take Whey protein just right before or right after workouts, or both. It’s too fast absorbing for your body to use it all of there isn’t an immediate demand for it might go straight to your gut. All other protein should be natural. Fish with omega3s are the best, tuna/salmon/cod. Chicken is the next best. Turkey is magical as well, severely underrated. So far, the best protein bang per calorie that I’ve seen. I also use egg whites, but people have said that it’s one of the slowest absorbing proteins.
As far as the bolded above, not much of that is true. First, muscle protein synthesis takes place for up to 72 hours after a workout. So, there is no magic anabolic window of demand. Whey protein does have a slightly faster transit time as a liquid but that changes if it's consumed with other foods, eg, bananas, nuts, yogurt. Lastly, excess protein is the least likely macro-nutrient to be stored as fat. Your body will store available dietary fat first, then convert carbs via de nove lipogenesis. And then, only in a calorie surplus. Also, seeing as how whey comes from milk there is nothing "unnatural" about it.4 -
RE: the bolded. I'm not sure what you were thinking about the 1gr per kilo thing but that is less than what you've, accurately, recommended. Most research indicates 1 gram per lb of lean body mass but very few people accurately know their LBM. So, the .7 to 1 gr. per lb of body weight is a good safe ballpark.tlopez2608 wrote: »The first two replies are very good. I would also say that there several thoughts with protein intake, some say 1g if protein per kg of body weight, and others say 1g/lb. I’m 32 years of age and 190lb. And have a hard time building muscle. But keeping to 1g/lb is just magical for meeven with my genetic make up. With proper diet, lots of sleep, and a consistent workout (not that that strict, though hypertrophy training is ofcourse the best of the best). All this kept up and your body will do the rest of the work.
Be cautious of protein supplements though. Take Whey protein just right before or right after workouts, or both. It’s too fast absorbing for your body to use it all of there isn’t an immediate demand for it might go straight to your gut. All other protein should be natural. Fish with omega3s are the best, tuna/salmon/cod. Chicken is the next best. Turkey is magical as well, severely underrated. So far, the best protein bang per calorie that I’ve seen. I also use egg whites, but people have said that it’s one of the slowest absorbing proteins.
I've never seen any research papers indicating you need 1g of protein per kg of body weight per day when building muscle. That's a very large amount of protein. The only high-protein nutrition protocols I've seen are for cutting, mostly to help with satiety, and even then 1g/kg would be at the VERY high end for those body builders who find high protein diets help them when cutting to very low body fat percentages.
Most research I've seen indicates the range of 0.7-1.0 grams per pound of body weight, per day is more than sufficient for building muscle.
https://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
Oops. I was thinking it's my first day back to work in two weeks, I hadn't had coffee and I'm dreading the whole day. Obviously a great time to take a break and read MFP!
You're absolutely right. 1g/kg = 0.45g/lb. So 1g/kg is well below what someone who is looking to build muscle should be eating. And I didn't bring up the LBM issue because I didn't want to confuse things. And I obviously failed miserably at not confusing the issue anyway. Apologies to those that were confused by my poor conversion skills this morning. Hopefully you just read the link to the Henselman article and ignored my crap.
Thanks for catching my mistake @mmapags!6 -
RE: the bolded. I'm not sure what you were thinking about the 1gr per kilo thing but that is less than what you've, accurately, recommended. Most research indicates 1 gram per lb of lean body mass but very few people accurately know their LBM. So, the .7 to 1 gr. per lb of body weight is a good safe ballpark.tlopez2608 wrote: »The first two replies are very good. I would also say that there several thoughts with protein intake, some say 1g if protein per kg of body weight, and others say 1g/lb. I’m 32 years of age and 190lb. And have a hard time building muscle. But keeping to 1g/lb is just magical for meeven with my genetic make up. With proper diet, lots of sleep, and a consistent workout (not that that strict, though hypertrophy training is ofcourse the best of the best). All this kept up and your body will do the rest of the work.
Be cautious of protein supplements though. Take Whey protein just right before or right after workouts, or both. It’s too fast absorbing for your body to use it all of there isn’t an immediate demand for it might go straight to your gut. All other protein should be natural. Fish with omega3s are the best, tuna/salmon/cod. Chicken is the next best. Turkey is magical as well, severely underrated. So far, the best protein bang per calorie that I’ve seen. I also use egg whites, but people have said that it’s one of the slowest absorbing proteins.
I've never seen any research papers indicating you need 1g of protein per kg of body weight per day when building muscle. That's a very large amount of protein. The only high-protein nutrition protocols I've seen are for cutting, mostly to help with satiety, and even then 1g/kg would be at the VERY high end for those body builders who find high protein diets help them when cutting to very low body fat percentages.
Most research I've seen indicates the range of 0.7-1.0 grams per pound of body weight, per day is more than sufficient for building muscle.
https://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
Oops. I was thinking it's my first day back to work in two weeks, I hadn't had coffee and I'm dreading the whole day. Obviously a great time to take a break and read MFP!
You're absolutely right. 1g/kg = 0.45g/lb. So 1g/kg is well below what someone who is looking to build muscle should be eating. And I didn't bring up the LBM issue because I didn't want to confuse things. And I obviously failed miserably at not confusing the issue anyway. Apologies to those that were confused by my poor conversion skills this morning. Hopefully you just read the link to the Henselman article and ignored my crap.
Thanks for catching my mistake @mmapags!
Of course. No problem. I figured it was just a brain fart as your posts are generally very accurate. Just a mistake. We all make them.
And I agree on the LBM thing. It's confusing for most. Eric Helms uses .8 grams per lb of body weight for just that reason.2 -
tlopez2608 wrote: »The first two replies are very good. I would also say that there several thoughts with protein intake, some say 1g if protein per kg of body weight, and others say 1g/lb. I’m 32 years of age and 190lb. And have a hard time building muscle. But keeping to 1g/lb is just magical for meeven with my genetic make up. With proper diet, lots of sleep, and a consistent workout (not that that strict, though hypertrophy training is ofcourse the best of the best). All this kept up and your body will do the rest of the work.
Be cautious of protein supplements though. Take Whey protein just right before or right after workouts, or both. It’s too fast absorbing for your body to use it all of there isn’t an immediate demand for it might go straight to your gut. All other protein should be natural. Fish with omega3s are the best, tuna/salmon/cod. Chicken is the next best. Turkey is magical as well, severely underrated. So far, the best protein bang per calorie that I’ve seen. I also use egg whites, but people have said that it’s one of the slowest absorbing proteins.
As far as the bolded above, not much of that is true. First, muscle protein synthesis takes place for up to 72 hours after a workout. So, there is no magic anabolic window of demand. Whey protein does have a slightly faster transit time as a liquid but that changes if it's consumed with other foods, eg, bananas, nuts, yogurt. Lastly, excess protein is the least likely macro-nutrient to be stored as fat. Your body will store available dietary fat first, then convert carbs via de nove lipogenesis. And then, only in a calorie surplus. Also, seeing as how whey comes from milk there is nothing "unnatural" about it.
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So how do you program mfp to accurately track the goal of gaining muscle without adding much/any fat or even cutting fat. It seems you only have the choice to say I want to gain, then it gives you a high calorie count.0
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Craiger2019 wrote: »So how do you program mfp to accurately track the goal of gaining muscle without adding much/any fat or even cutting fat. It seems you only have the choice to say I want to gain, then it gives you a high calorie count.
The most efficient way of building muscle is with a calorie surplus...gaining fat along with muscle is inevitable with a calorie surplus. You can gain muscle and cut fat doing a re-comp and eating right around maintenance, but it's a long process and while you can put on some muscle, I've never seen anyone put on significant mass in a re-comp...they just look to be "in shape"1 -
Craiger2019 wrote: »So how do you program mfp to accurately track the goal of gaining muscle without adding much/any fat or even cutting fat. It seems you only have the choice to say I want to gain, then it gives you a high calorie count.
@Craiger2019
As well as the options for choosing a rate of weight gain you can also manually set a precise calorie goal if you prefer.
It's often used by people that use an external site such as a TDEE site to calculate their goal as well as people that want to make incremental changes based on their weight trend.1 -
Craiger2019 wrote: »So how do you program mfp to accurately track the goal of gaining muscle without adding much/any fat or even cutting fat. It seems you only have the choice to say I want to gain, then it gives you a high calorie count.
Are you talking about recomp? Then you can set your goal to maintain. You can also set it to gain 0.5lb per week or you can manually set your calories (your TDEE which I have done in the past to gain a slow 1lb per month)1
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