how many pounds of muscle can you expect to gain?

[smurfitup]

i've been working out consistently for the past 6 months (cardio+lifting 5 days/week), and i've lost about 40 lbs, while gaining a decent amount of muscle. however, i have no idea how to quantify the amount of muscle i've gained. i'm not jacked or anything, but i'm lifting between 1.5-2 times the amount that I did when I first started. I 6"1, 230 right now. Any estimates? Anywhere online I could figure this out? Thanks.

[shemp]

If you have a before and after body fat % it is simple to calculate your fat loss and any gain in lean body mass I assume you would attribute to muscle gain.

[maniacut]

It's easy for beginners to put on muscle in the first few months I think. But after that it tapers off considerably and I've seen an article referenced in this forum that it's pretty much impossible to gain more than 2lbs of muscle per month or 0.5lbs per week. I forget if the athlete was elite level or just recreational but had been at it for some time but the article did assume optimal diet and training.

[mattnxtc]

In optimal conditions I think you can gain maybe a lb a week at the very most...but nobody is working in those conditions. Likely you havent gained all that much muscle but you have increased your CNS ability to handle the weight.

[thirddan]

ive raad various articles that site between .25/.5lb all the way up to people gaining 20lbs in a couple months...i think that it mostly depends on genetics how much muscle vs fat you can add in a certain time span...

[shemp]

Its very hard to come up with reasonable numbers behind a +20 lb gain in lbm over a few months except for extreme cases.

Eg, OP has lost 40 pounds, hypothetically his bf% could have gone from 30% (obese) to 18% (getting there) without him having gained any muscle. And if he'd gained 10 pounds lbm, he would be at the point be where many folks begin looking quite fit (<14%).

Much more likely that the overwhelming majority of his transformation is due to fat loss, and a *maybe* couple pounds lbm gain. (Which is awesome, btw. Keep up the good work.)

edit: I should add I don't know what I'm talking about and not pretending to, btw. I have mastered the use of a calculator though so if you tell me how much you weigh and your body fat % before and after-- I can tell you your lbm gain (which may? be identical to muscle gain... or close enough)!

[Thremp]

I wouldn't be surprised to see gains in LBM mostly from diet and not so much actually working out over the first few months as the majority of gains are CNS related in the beginning.

[smurfitup]

Hmmm, thanks for the responses guys. I figured it would be difficult to determine this without knowing my body fat % before and after. unfortunately, i don't have those numbers. i guess i'll just keep up my regiment and hopefully reach my goal (200) in the next 5 months or so.

[dethgrind]

[ QUOTE ]
I wouldn't be surprised to see gains in LBM mostly from diet and not so much actually working out over the first few months as the majority of gains are CNS related in the beginning.

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This sounds pretty interesting to me. Can you recommend any articles or authors that go into more detail on this?

[mattnxtc]

go and look up Chad Waterbury articles on t-nation...he talks about the CNS a lot.