Gaining muscle as a newbie

I know that the amount of muscle a person gains is going to vary wildly depending on many factors, but would it be reasonable to think you could gain a lb of muscle per month with good diet and routine? How far over maintenance do you need to be to gain muscle? I eat about 15cal x body weight.

Very reasonable.

Well not knowing your age, weight, and your daily activity level (to determine metabolic rate), its would be hard to say, but i think that 15 cal x BW would be a good start.

Female, 26yrs old, 129lbs 5'2', blonde (ha ha), on a 3 day split lifting 3 days on, one day off. My workouts are about an hour long. I currently eat about 1900 calories, carbs/pro/fat is about 40/30/30, so I'm eating around 140g protein daily...

Phone #? Ha ha

Ok.....hmmmm

129 lbs x 11 = 1419 basic caloric need x50% (metabolic factor, dedicated exerciser under 30 yoa) = 709 additional cal's 2128 total cal's

Add muscle + 500 cal's daily, you should gain 1 lb of muscle per week. Lose - 1000 cal's daily, you should lose 1-2 lb per week.

Your carb/pro/fat split sounds about right, keep it up that way. Good luck.

luck.

So you're saying I should be eating 2600 calories per day? That's almost

I was able to gain ~20 pounds of muscle in two years when I first started eating to gain weight. The pace is slowing down over time though, at least for me.

I ate enough to gain 1-1.5lbs a month, then dieted a couple times a year to lose any extra fat I picked up along the way.

I know.......I'm 'maintaining' right now at about 3100 cal's per day. Six meals a day......my co-workers think all I do is eat !!

I wouldn't aim to gain weight that quickly. You can't gain 52lbs of muscle in a year, most of the it would be fat.

You could even try adding 250 cal's per day.....theoretically then it would be 1 lb per 2 weeks then. Theoretically of course

How does age factor into this formula? I am age 73, 5'6, weight 133. I work out with weights two days a week, say 45 minutes, and do cardio walk/run for 30 minutes three days a week. I have neither gained nor lost weight in the six months I have been training. I have gained muscle in my legs, but my upper body needs more muscle. I am sure my weight routine is nowhere as challenging as that of determined, but could you give me some guidance in increasing muscle more?

Over the past two weeks my calories averaged 1369 a day and were 37% carbs, 31% protein, and 32% fat (12% saturated). My average protein intake was 104 grams per day.

I want to make some changes in my weight routine but I also need to consider if I need to make changes in calories or protein amount as well.

Hi Brux and others, can you calculate how many calories I should eat?, on web sit it calculates about 3100 to maintain, so I eat 4000 (its a bit hard...) to gain weight a bit..I'm a man, 37 of age, 6', 170 lbs, I'm training since 1 month, 3 times/week, (3 x 8 repetitions of 6 to 8 exercices)I eat 150g protein (it's hard too...)...I have thin arms and legs ;-(( and I hope I will change a bit for next summer (5 months)...

tks for your advice, Joss