If I am wrong about natural muscle gain expectations, I want to know about it! My video on Natty muscle gain expectations (at bottom of this page) has gotten a lot of people riled up. Many of these trolls make up all kinds of stuff to “prove” that they are right and that I am wrong. People desperately want to believe that its possible to gain muscle fast and get very angry when you trounce on their dreams. The below post from June 5, 2018 is different. This is someone who seems not only sincere and has data. Its very instructive to talk about this :
Scooby’s reply
First, I appreciate the work you put into this post. Second, I regret calling it a “Muscle Gain Calculator” but I could not think of anything else to call it – MuscleGainPredictor sounds bad. Third, there is a big difference between saying something is not possible at all and saying that its really unlikely as I did in this video. Yes, there are genetic freaks but only 0.0001% need apply.
About your results, it sounds like you are not one of those just making things up to brag as you have real before and after measurements – way to go! THANK YOU for measuring. I still find it difficult to believe that anyone can add 16lbs muscle in 2 months. My first suspicion is weighing problems. I know from first hand experience that you simply cannot step on the scale once at the beginning and once at the end to decide weight gain. You MUST weigh yourself carefully and that requires daily morning measurements for the entire two month experiment and then plotting a best fit line between the measurement points like this: https://scoobyswork.shop/how-to-weigh-yourself-accurately/
The last thing I will say is that its REALLY hard to measure bodyfat accurately no mater what method you are using. skinfold caliper, electronic device, bodypod, and dexa scan all have big accuracy and repeatability problems. The only truly accurate way to measure muscle gained is to eat exactly at your TDEE so that your bodyfat remains exactly the same. The easiest and most accurate way to do this is to measure your waist with a $4 tape measure each morning with your gut sucked in as much as you can. If your waist measurement remains the same, your bodyfat is the same – its that simple. The reason this is absolutely the best way is that the waist is the predominant fat storage facility and even small variations in fat deposits cause an easily measurable change. Here is more info on gauging progress with a tape measure: https://www.sweat4health.com/measuring-your-fitness-progress/
Lastly, what is important is that you have a true idea of how much muscle you actually gained. The reason is that in the future you will be trying different training methods and you want to be able to compare your gains to what you just experienced and draw conclusions from that (factoring in the newbie effect). Here is what I would suggest you do right now as I assume you just finished this muscle gain spurt. Immediately cut down until your bodyfat is exactly the same as it was in your starting photo then re-weigh yourself and see your actual LBM gained and compare that to the 16lbs you predicted. Then take an after photo in exactly the same spot with the same amount of flexing in the same lighting. Compare those two photos and ask yourself if that looks like 16 lbs of muscle gain to you.
If I am wrong about natty muscle gain expectations then I want to know about it! I would really like to get in touch with you to follow up further. I would love to see before and after photos (headless is fine), workout records, weigh measurements, and bodyfat measurements. I want people to know what is and what is not possible as well as what is reasonable to expect. If you are willing to share this info, please get a free membership at sweat4health so you can share it with me and then cancel within 30 days so you do not get charged.
Text of post
When I cut and pasted the content from the users post it lost the formatting. Adding the text here just so its google searchable:
Scooby was wrong. I just exceeded scooby’s 1 year expectation only within 2 months. Here’s the proof. *2 months of muscle gain result (60 days) * – Height : 5’9 (176 cm) – Weight : 151 lbs —-> 173.3 lbs (78.6 kg) – Body fat % : 12.1% —-> 13.9% – Lean Body Mass : 133 lbs —–> 149.3 lbs (67.7 kg) *2 months Total Lean Body Mass Gain : 16.3 lbs * % Scooby’s calculator Step 1: How Long Seriously Lifting? Less than 2 years (I’m a beginner) Step 2: Enter Your Age 20 – 30 years old (I’m 26) Step 3: Enter Your Nutrition 3 square meals a day (Actually, I eat 4- 5 meals a day but it doesn’t appear to the list) Step 4: Enter Workout Time 5-7 hours hardcore weightlifting a week (I used to do 9 hours but now i do 6 hours) Step 5: Enter Your Genetics Average genetics (I’m a hard gainer (I was 5’9 136 lbs before I decided to gain weight it was just 75 days ago.) but hard gainer’s number came out ridiculously low, I already way pass that 1 year gain in 2 months so I chose this) Step 6: Enter Your Height 176 cm (5’9) % Result Expected Total Yearly Lean Body Mass (LBM) gain — 10.4 lbs (1 year) *What I’ve actually done in only 2 months — 16.3 lbs * (2 months) What if I’m actaully naturally muscular? (Which is ridiculous. Again, I was 136 lbs) Expected Total Yearly Lean Body Mass (LBM) gain — 15.8 lbs (1 year) *What I’ve actually done in only 2 months — 16.3 lbs * (2 months) Don’t mistake about it. I wrote “Lean body mass” number. Not a body weight. If someone is suspicious about it, I can upload each of the charts( Initial, 1st month, 2nd months) First month, I ate at least 3,500 kcals a day (Even up to 5,000). I trained push/pull/leg split 90 minutes 6 times a week. Second month, I just ate frequently not to lose gains. I trained full body 120 minutes 3 times a week. That’s not a lot of training but I’ve never missed one. That’s it. I just ate quite a lot, slept fine, trained normally. I didn’t do anything special and of course it’s not over. I’ll do this, like forever. Anyway, can you explain it Scooby? I know there’s a lot of factors involved but I just followed your calculator, it said I will gain only 10.4 lbs within “a year” and it was totally wrong. I’ll wrote this comment everyday until you reply… (I’m just kidding lol) :o