How Much Muscle Can You Gain In A Year... Really?
For anyone who feels trapped in the body of a skinny teenager,
putting on weight can seem painfully and frustratingly slow. Some
people gain muscle very quickly. Others, however, make little or
no progress at all.
If you're trying to figure out how much muscle you can expect to
gain over the course of a year, the simple answer is that there
is no simple answer.
Muscle growth is rarely a linear process and tends to come in
a series of "spurts."
No matter how hard you
train, how strict your diet is, or how many muscle-building supplements
you use, growth will never come at a predictable steady pace.
There are so many factors influencing your progress. Not many
people can do nothing but go to the gym, eat and sleep for months
on end.
Holidays, illness and injury all get in the way. Your partner
complains that you go to the gym too often and demands that you
spend more "quality time" together. You pull a few "all-nighters"
at the office and decide to skip training for a week, vowing to "start
fresh" on Monday.
And not everyone will build muscle at the same rate. Some
people are genetically predisposed to gaining weight, and will
see impressive results after only a few months. Others will build
muscle more slowly.
Researchers from the Netherlands, for example, found that men
with a "solid" build gained more muscle than men with
a "slender" build following a 12-week weight-training
program [7].
Although fat-free mass increased in both groups, the slender
guys gained only 0.7 pounds (0.3 kilograms) versus 3.5 pounds (1.6
kilograms) in the solid group.
While there are some variables that you can control, such as how
you train and what you eat, there are many that you cannot. Be
realistic. If you have a body designed for long-distance running,
it's unlikely that you'll be winning the Mr. America contest in
the next few years.
Your rate of progress also depends how close you are to the upper
limit of what you're capable of in terms of muscle mass, also known
as your ceiling
of adaptation. The closer you are to this upper limit,
the slower your gains will be. Someone who's been working out
with weights for 10 years will gain muscle a lot more slowly
than someone who's just starting out.
It's also normal to put on a little fat at the same time.
For every 5 pounds of muscle you gain, expect to add anywhere
between 2-5 pounds of fat. The amount of fat you gain will depend,
in part at least, on how much you eat. But it also depends on how
lean you are when you start to overfeed.
Studies show that during a
period of overfeeding, you'll gain more muscle and less fat if
you're naturally lean to start with [6]. Conversely, fatter people
tend to lose more fat and less muscle when they go on a diet. The
leaner you get, the harder it gets to lose fat without losing muscle.
So, for every 10 pounds of weight gained by someone who is overweight,
roughly 3-4 pounds come from lean tissue and 6-7 pounds come from
fat. But for every 10 pounds of weight gained by a lean person,
6-7 pounds come from lean tissue while only 3-4 pounds come from
fat. The term "lean tissue" doesn't necessarily
mean muscle tissue, as stored fluid and carbohydrate can also
contribute to gains in lean tissue.
The studies on which these estimates are based lasted a minimum
of 3 weeks and didn't include a structured exercise routine. With
a good weight-training program (see the Maximum
Muscle Plan in the Members-Only Area for several
highly effective split routines and total-body workouts) you can
expect gains with a superior muscle-to-fat ratio.
What if you want to build muscle without gaining any fat at all?
Although some people try
to gain muscle mass while maintaining a very
low level of body fat at the same time, this is actually very hard
to do.
Why? The issue may be psychological. If you've just spent the
last six months working your butt off to get a six-pack, the last
thing you'll want to do is put the fat right back on again. Someone
in this position may simply be reluctant to eat the quantity
of food necessary to gain a significant amount of muscle.
The problem may also be hormonal. Some studies show a link
between low body fat and low testosterone levels [5],
although it's hard to tell whether the preceding
diet or low body fat level itself was primarily responsible.
In any case, a chronic low testosterone level will make muscle
growth a long, slow process.
So, what does this all mean for you?
Based on the research I've looked at, as well as my own personal
experience, I'd estimate that the "average" person (if
there is such a thing) can expect to gain roughly 2-4% of their
initial weight in the form of muscle after six weeks of regular resistance
exercise [3, 4, 8].
For example, someone who weighs 180 pounds can expect to gain
anywhere from 3-7 pounds of lean mass over a 6-week period. For
every pound of muscle you gain, expect to add anywhere from 0.5
to 1 pound of fat. So, if you want to add 10 pounds
of lean muscle, expect to gain roughly 15-20 pounds in weight.
Remember that muscle growth is not a linear process, and you
won't keep growing at the same rate forever. Over the course of
a year, it's rare for most people to add more than 25 pounds of
muscle, although it's certainly not unrealistic to gain more than
25 pounds in weight.
So, if you're a beginner on a decent training and nutrition program, you might
be able to gain 25 pounds of muscle in your first year of training.
In year two, we can cut that number in half, giving
you a gain of 10-12 pounds. In year three, the gains will be
halved again, giving you 5-6 pounds of new muscle.
Unless you're a teenager with lots of natural
anabolic hormones flooding your system, someone with a genetic
predisposition towards rapid muscle growth, or you're using anabolic
drugs, gaining
more than 25 pounds of lean muscle in one year or less is very
hard to do.
About The Author
 Christian Finn holds a master's degree in exercise science, is a certified personal trainer and has been featured on BBC TV and radio, as well as in Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Fit Pro, Zest and other popular fitness magazines.
If you're stuck
in a rut with your current exercise and diet plan... fed up with
only losing a pound here and there... or still skinny after months
(or even years) of trying to build muscle and gain weight... click here now for instant access to his step-by-step muscle-building and fat-burning workout routines.
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