Quote:
Originally Posted by Flabbibulin
Well, I had thought about mentioning the notion of new gym goers and obese people being able to see muscle increase at the same time as fat loss, but are we sure that an increase in strength always equates to an actual increase in muscle mass? For obese people, an increase in strength may simply be a benefit of starting to regularly exercise muscles that had been in a state of atrophy for years. I'll bet very obese people are carrying around a hell of a lot of muscle and have the potential to be very strong.
Also, the thing to take into consideration is always lean body weight and the ratio of fat to muscle. If an individual loses 20lbs of weight- say 15lbs from fat and only 5lbs from muscle, you could say they have had an increase in muscle from a muscle to fat ratio.
|
There's no reason for the average person, who is just starting to work out, to lose 5 lbs in muscle mass. That's the kind of thing you'd see in people who are on crash diets or people getting to sub 10% body fat.
As far as newbie gains, I'm not talking about just strength gains. I've worked out with lots of people who were unconditioned, and you can literally see the muscles grow. Biceps, an easily measurable muscle, will grow dramatically while the waist tightens and shrinks.
I get what you are saying, as for me, I need a bulk to grow muscle mass. I typicall will put on 15-20lbs and gain 5-7lbs of muscle during a bulk. I've been lifting weights for almost 20 years and I am relatively lean to begin with though. So for me to actually gain significant muscle mass takes about a 1-2 year process of 3-4 month calorie deficit followed by a slow bulk followed by a slow cut.