Muscle gain vs fat gain tracking?!

[Boudicea31]

How do you tell for sure?! lifts have all gone up (but could this be practice and technique) I don't think really look any different and my measurements are the same too. I feel a bit firmer I think but have gained 5lb in 3 months- eek! I eat healthily (roughly 50% carb/20% protein/30% fat) but fairly generously -around 1700 cals a day. 5'7 and now 145lb. not sure whether to be proud or panicking!! I tried to do a low carb 1400 cal diet this week but felt so weak in the gym that I gave in after 3 days! How do you guys keep track of your gains and how tk you know for sure what's going on with your body composition? What changes have you noticed in your body most? Don't want to carry on gaining 5lb every three months!

[suzannecanthecan]

Initially strength gains are largely due to improved neuromuscular efficiency but after that they tend to be correlated with increased muscle size and / or density.

If I've gained fat I can tell because I can see the fat, same goes for muscle.
5lb isn't much, remember that muscle tissue is almost twice as dense as adipose tissue.

Probably keeping track of waist measurement would be one of the best ways to monitor body fat?

[sleepwhenidie]

I really think that scales should be used very rarely (for example when skis or levels of anaesthesia need setting ) They can drive you crazy and don't actually tell you anything meaningful about your body or health. How you feel and how it looks tell you all you really need to know! As Suzanne says, measure your waist if you must, or even get a friendly PT with callipers to check BF% but if you are training and eating well and according to your hunger, you shouldn't gain weight.

Re diet I'd focus on a greater proportion of protein than 20% if you are trying to get stronger, reduce sugar and processed/white carbs to a minimum for better health - stick to wholefoods.

[PoppyShakespeare]

ohmygod there's a weights room

since when?!

[suzannecanthecan]

?What we need is some sort of home body scanner, surely someone will invent one soon :o

[sleepwhenidie]

Sorry, to clarify my 'gain weight' comment, most people need excess calories (1700 and 20% protein unlikely to provide that) in the form of protein to gain muscle, but I believe there is a short honeymoon period when people start weight training when they do gain some muscle quite quickly and lose fat at the same time (very hard normally).

[sleepwhenidie]

at Poppy - since a campaign at Easter!

[suzannecanthecan]

Re honeymoon period, Sleep, I agree the further you are from the upper limits of your potential for muscularity the faster your gains.
Returns diminish as you move towards your personal limits.
Same principles apply to cardiovascular efficiency.
However individual responses to training vary, under the same training regime some progress quickly others hardly at all.
It's probably a bell curve though with extreme high and low responders as outliers ?

[PoppyShakespeare]

brilliant!

[Littlepumpkinpie]

My coach gets the calipers out on me measures 12 different areas of my body. He weighs me then does a calculation on the computer. Then he tell me fat loss % and muscle gain. Photos taken regularly so you can compare are great to see progress