HELP ME! Shifting from Weight Loss to Muscle Building

Great job so far! Those are impressive results. I am no expert by any means. I started with the following article and moved on from there: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/over_40_beginner_training.htm (Yeah, I know it's a site for bodybuilders, of which I am not, but the site has an incredible amount of information). I would suggest not changing your intake and adding strength training for a time and see how that goes. If you find you need to up the calories to make it through the weight session or in order to add more lean muscle mass, then you can do so at that time. Just my opinion. Good luck!

I agree with kingdom220 when he stated: I would suggest not changing your intake and adding strength training for a time and see how that goes.

The thing is, you have to stimulate your muscles to grow, and that is done with weight training, mental focus and intensity.

From what I read, it seems you want to put on lean muscle. Get a lean body look. I would suggest you take a look at this program: http://realmensworkoutreviews.com/review-of-rusty-moores-visual-impact-muscle-building

It has 3 phases, one to enhance muscle size, one to enhance muscle density and strength, and one to get ripped lean.

Give it a try and you will start seeing the results you want.

All the best to you.

Awesome job on the weight loss! Here's a few tips I'll suggest that you start with listed In order of importance:

1. Cut out the steady state cardio. Gaining mass is hard, and cardio eats into mass at a rate that would surprise you. Maybe do 1 or 2 sessions a week if you just can't stop yourself, just know that it is detrimental to muscle building when you're doing it. If you're not massively overeating your bodyfat percentage should continue to go lower during strength training. Note: bodyfat% will go lower, but your bodyweight may not. But you'll look better, and that sounds like what you want.

2. Get stronger. Muscles growth is triggered by muscle stimulation, not how much you eat. Yes, you'll need to eat more, but getting stronger comes before getting bigger. So let's work on that part first. Use a training log to make sure you increase your lifting amounts each week.

3. Eat your maintenance amount to start with. Then start adding calories from there as you start lifting heavier. I doubt if you want to go from being lean to being fat. Yes, if you eat 3000 calories over maintenance while lifting heavy you'll gain more muscle than if you eat 1000 over, or 500 over. But you'll probably also gain even more fat. So you'll put on 5 pounds of muscle to go with 15 pounds of fat, and then you'll "cut" and lose the 15 pounds....along with about 2-3 pounds of the muscle. Why not grow a bit slower and not have to go thru a massive cutting phase?

4. Gradually increase your calories over maintenance. You'll have to figure out the right number for yourself, but it sounds like you're good at making adjustments (that's the fun part, right?). Just know that A) MFP is lying to you; Not only do I burn way more calories at strength training then it gives me, but MFP doesn't figure in how much more you need to eat on Tuesday just to repair the muscles you damaged on Monday. it's probably a lot more calories than you think. But like I say, go slower and not have go thru infinite cutting cycles. You're going to gain some fat, but you can limit it.

Good luck!

ps. In that last part I'm not knocking MFP. MFP is seriously awesome and has helped me to a ridiculous extent in losing weight. But it's designed primarily as a weight loss app, not muscle building. You can easily reverse the protocols to gain weight, but it won't necessarily by muscular weight. Plus there is still major disagreement regarding the science of how many calories strength training burns/requires.

Best I can tell, and a few others I've talked to are similar, maintenance calorie burned when you have some degree of DOMS and are recovering from strength training is 20-25% higher than maintenance when you are not recovering from strength training.

For me the numbers are ~2400-2500 when not recovering and ~3000-3100 when recovering.

Sounds about right. That's similar to what I've found for myself. I'm usually in the 3500-3800 range but I'm 6'1", 245 so it tends to be high. The reason I advise for people to experiment for themselves is because everyone has a different idea of what constitutes "heavy" lifting. Different exercises, machines vs free weights (sounds like he's using machines now), number of sets/reps, etc. Even tho my workout partner and I do the exact same exercises I'm lifting much closer to my my 1RM than he is, and if affects my recovery. And I need more calories to recover when deadlifts and squats are part of the program, and less when we take a month to use lighter weights with slower rep speed. So it depends.

For the OP, he's just getting into strength training, and it's usually a 2-3 month ramp up to get used to the lifting routine and during that period the weights are (relatively) light. That's why I wouldn't recommend he start eating 600-900 additional calories right away. They'll be soreness, yes, but not that massive soul sucking draw that you get after heavy squat day. As always, everything is IMHO.