Josh — Happy to hear you are ready to get back into shape. I think those goals are definitely reasonable. Shooting for lb of fat loss per week is a very reasonable goal.

So focusing on losing as much fat as possible without losing muscle you may get lucky and put on some muscle as well , then once you are leaner adding a few pounds to your frame I think is reasonable. You may find that once you are lean you may be very strong and fit and like the way you look, so you may not want to put on those extra 5lb.

You sound like a good candidate for my BuiltLean Program, so I encourage you to seriously consider it: BuiltLean Program. Hey Marc, nice article! Could i really gain another 26lbs of pure muscle? Macias — I think gaining another 20lb sounds reasonable.

Just remember to be patient. Never touched steroids in my life. And at my veins are popping out. Landon — You may be standard deviations from the mean, so yes, a statistical outlier.

Do think Danny makes a good point about water weight and body fat accuracy as well. Generally speaking, when i see a guy fully lean out, he weighs AT LEAST pounds less than he thought. Fat allows more muscles to be retained, once you lose the fat the amount of muscle you can have in your body is greatly reduced.

The fatter you are the more muscles you can have, the leaner you are the less muscles you can have. very good artical, i am 6ft and 16 yrs old, been going to the gm 4 months and have put on 2 stone.

From 10 to 12 however not all muscle of course, i would nt mind being As i am still growing how do i be realistic in my goals? First off I wanted to start by saying, Great article!!!

I found it to be a great read. I was looking all over the web for viable sources of information that I could compare to my own research and studies.

I wanted to ask about your thoughts on my particular situation. Im a college student in athletics Football and Track. Ive been lifting for about 2 years and its geared towards both of them. Not as heavy as other football players, but more lifting then the average track athlete.

example: I lift like a football player M-F Wed off but the lifts are many reps but focused on explosiveness. Im lanky and lean but decently strong bench press is not impressive.

Im not exactly sure of my body fat, but ive been on a strict diet and I take in about grams of fat a day. My weight amazingly doesnt really drop.

Fluctuating between and during track season. During football its in between less running , and for me to have that NFL appearance and weight I usually take creatine. I would like to hear your recommendations on how to achieve while still maintaining my lean ripped look and speed of , or is it physiologically impossible without cheating hgh,steriods,creatine, etc.

My goal is to stay natural. First off, your stats are the real deal. Very impressive. I think the first question to consider is if the scale weight is that important to your success.

My guess is if you are looking to go pro etc. My thinking is you never know something is possible until you try. Most athletes have a periodization type of lifting scheme with off-season, pre-season, in season, etc.

Given you are also a track athlete, it sounds like your periodization scheme is a little different than most other athletes. Then you can focus on the core, compound movements like deadlifts, bench, squats etc.

If it gives you the edge you need, it may be worth taking it while making sure to drink a lot of water. I took creatine for years when I was a college athlete. To gain muscle, you should basically be stuffing yourself with food every hours. Just my two cents! Marc, Anything like the max lbm for women?

Understanding the body fat percentage is easy enough given your other charts. Part of that depends on how much effort they put into the development of lbm.

A more athletic girl will have blb. Not sure what the theoretical max is though. which equates to 30 reps total. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you. James — you are right, the fatigue vs.

failure debate is one that will continue for many years to come. Several research reports have shown that strength increases are certainly comparable going to fatigue vs.

There are others who get great results going to fatigue instead of failure. Can you please explain it as it relates to my height and weight? In order to apply the BuiltLean. com formula, you need to know your body fat percentage. First and foremost i have never understood what is meant by a natural body builder.

Sure they are not taking steroids and peds but are they on suplements and if so what types? generally speaking. Also an nfl player by the name of Maurice Jones-Drew fascinates me. However this assumptions of mine seem to not weigh up as most believe he is just genetically gifted.

What are your thoughts on hm? John — Natural bodybuilder refers to someone not taking steroids, or any other steroid like supplements. Creatine and other similar types of supplements are allowed generally speaking. I remember I saw this monster guy in the gym who was putting up lb on the bench like it was a toothpick.

I asked him how the hell he got so jacked, and he just started laughing. It turns out he was a pro football player for the Jets who blew out his knee. With all that said, some guys are literally lb full of muscle freshman year in college. I could do neck bridges for the rest of my life and not get a neck half his size!

So long winded answer that yes, I think he has exceptional, one of a kind genetics and was probably pretty huge at a young age. anyway am i supposed to measure at the ankle joint ,where the ankle bones pop out?

also at the wrist where the wrist bones pop out? I originally lost the previous weight by doing a lot of jogging but now I fear I may have gained muscle in the wrong places.

Any dietary or work out advice? Dakota — Congrats on losing a substantial amount of weight. Oftentimes I find people look bigger when they get leaner and have more shape. Also, once you are at a lower body fat percentage, you can better assess your physique with measurements etc.

So unless you are already down to a low body fat percentage, I would strongly recommend focusing on that first, then worrying about building muscle. I have a ton of articles on this website about losing fat without losing muscle, so definitely search around.

I do plan on adding more articles soon about muscle gain specifically. Thanks for the comment and good luck! Either your formula is wrong or im a complete genetic freak.

I for one am jealous you can pack on so much muscle. giving me lbs. I have large wrists and ankles so could probably carry more muscle as i do not feel at the peak. I think focusing on losing fat without losing muscle is a very smart idea, because you will actually look even bigger if you lose 20lb of pure fat.

While that may be great news to a degree, I am pretty disappointed as it seems I can no longer put on mass. Can I still make strength gains at least? Or at this point am I physically maxed out. What goals could I achieve at this point. Nice article btw, I do appreciate it.

FYI, your strength can certainly increase without increasing size, which is called neuromuscular efficiency. If you are new to the gym, that I would guess you could substantially increase your strength. Love the article just wanted to get a better understanding.

A pound of muscle burns around 13 calories a day, whereas a pound of fat tissue only burns about 4. If you're bulking, though, you may be needing food more than this discrepancy accounts for. That being said if you're putting on muscle, you're definitely working out more often, and inherently burning more calories throughout your day.

Gaining strength can even help our blood composition. Our muscles use both glucose and fatty acids for fuel. This keeps our blood sugar levels down. Elevated blood sugar can cause long term effects, such as blood vessels damage and a higher risk of heart disease, stroke, and nerve problems.

Increasing muscle mass can improve your everyday functionality. Many aspects of life become easier as you get stronger—no more losing your breath going up a single flight of stairs, or dropping your heavy grocery bags.

Yes, there are the obvious aesthetic benefits to adding muscle mass to your frame. Your clothes will fit better, some people might consider you more attractive, and you'll feel more confident.

Those are all big reasons that drive guys to spend hours in the gym pumping iron in the pursuit of gains. There's no shame in making your aesthetic a reason to get in the gym - it still leads to all the other health benefits. While there's so many reasons to focus on muscle building, there's more to it than just showing up to the gym, hefting some weights, and calling it a day.

You'll need to be a bit more intentional for effective muscle growth. To build muscle, you must push your muscles to the limit, then let them recover and grow stronger as they do.

And to do this, you must create the proper recovery environment for them when you're not in the gym. This means your quest to build muscle involves a host of variables over a hour period. The things you do in the gym to push your muscles to the limit count. So does the "work" you put in during the other 20 or so hours when you're away from the gym, everything from rest to nutrition to active recovery.

All of this can affect how you build muscle. One of the best ways to get started is to understand and define what muscle-building actually is. Muscle hypertrophy is the increase in growth of muscle cells, and it's a process that's often kickstarted by resistance training.

It's the adaptation our muscles experience from continual exposure to progressively overloaded forms of resistance training, which then results in an increase in our muscle fiber size, both in diameter and length. Essentially, you need to push your muscles hard, often by lifting heavy loads for reps, stimulating the release of muscle-growing hormones and other metabolites.

Our muscles get physically larger through the act of strategically consistent and harder workouts. Remember, effort is one of the most definitive drivers of muscle gain over time.

However, it's just one of the drivers. That effort needs to be coupled with a desire to push your body farther than you might think it's capable of. This is something called "progressive overload. This doesn't mean going heavier and heavier with the weights in every set and every single workout, because sometimes, that's not possible.

Over-focus on going heavy in every single workout, and you set yourself up for injury and disappointment. No, progressive overload takes place over months and months of working out.

Sure, if you're new to the gym, you may add major pounds to the bench press, partly because you're just learning the exercise. But the longer you're in the gym, the harder it is to make gains. This is why it's incredibly important to have a plan in place and build a framework for your training and nutritional habits that coincide with your goals.

Note, your muscle building strategy doesn't need to be so rigid that it leaves no room for fun. In fact, you can still eat meals you enjoy, and you don't need to spend hours in the gym, as long as when you're training and fueling yourself strategically a majority of the time.

The goal is to create a muscle building plan that is realistic for your goals and needs. The tips below will help you—whether you're a beginner or somebody who's hit a frustrating training plateau—build muscle with a strategic and realistic means.

The more protein your body stores—in a process called protein synthesis —the larger your muscles grow. But your body is constantly draining its protein reserves for other uses—making hormones, for instance. The result is less protein available for muscle building.

Shoot for about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, which is roughly the maximum amount your body can use in a day, according to a landmark study in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Split the rest of your daily calories equally between carbohydrates and fats.

In addition to adequate protein, you need more calories. Use the following formula to calculate the number you need to take in daily to gain 1 pound a week. Give yourself 2 weeks for results to show up on the bathroom scale.

Biceps curls are fun, but if you want to put on muscle, you have to do more to challenge your body. And one key to doing that, says Samuel, is working through so-called "multi-joint" movements. Instead, you want to do exercises that challenge multiple joints and muscles at once.

Take, for example, a dumbbell row. Every row rep challenges biceps, lats, and core if your form is strict. Using multiple muscle groups allows you to lift more weight, says Samuel, a key stimulator of growth more on that later.

And it pushes you to use muscles together, just as you do in real life. Let's face it, if these products performed as well as they claim, everyone who wanted larger muscles would have them.

This is clearly not the case. What follows are four truths that science has revealed about building muscle. A person's ability to put on muscle mass is limited by their genetics.

Through proper training, good nutrition and adequate rest, a person can maximize their genetic potential, but they cannot exceed their genetic limitations. The fat-free mass index FFMI — a calculation similar to the Body Mass Index BMI — is used to identify the proportion of a person's lean body weight i.

Studies reveal that a person cannot achieve an FFMI greater than 25 to 26 without using steroids. Not only is there a limit to overall muscle mass, but there is also a limit as to how quickly a person can add muscle. Contrary to what some websites and trainers at the gym claim, it is not possible to add 10 pounds of muscle per month.

Although numbers are difficult to find, one researcher claims that under ideal circumstances good genetics, disciplined training and nutrition , a person can add no more than an ounce 28 grams of muscle a day, which would translate into about two pounds a month.

Of course, this gain cannot be sustained month after month for years. The same researcher indicates that the greatest gain in muscle mass he has recorded in an individual in a year is 18 pounds; again, under ideal circumstances and without the use of steroids.

The bottom line: Respect your limitations and work within them. Work towards strong, healthy muscles that function well rather than big ones. Muscles only grow in response to being challenged.

When muscles are sufficiently challenged, muscle fibers are damaged and small tears are created. As these tears get "patched up," the muscle grows. The best way to challenge a muscle is to forcefully contract it against a resistance, such as through weight lifting.

To maximize results it is best to train the major muscle groups e.