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Hi there. I have been doing training for about 4 months and i must say, my result have been exciting. In my first 3 weeks of training i saw improvment. I had put on 3 inches on my chest. Thats right 3 inches in three weeks. My trainer "Lifter", who i give all credit to. He had tought me to Squat, Bench press(which i no longer do), Dips and pull downs. I have to say that Squat is my fav. Lifter is a advance body builder and you can find him on this forum. Back to me now! I started doing squat at 88 lbs and now 4 months later i am now squating 192 lbs. That is just over double my start weight. And my body weight is 71 kgs. The one thing i find difficult to understand is my body weight. I have been eating like its going out of fashion and i only put on 1 kg. I know that fat turns into muscle but i find i′m missing out on something. If you want any advice from me and what my routine is, dont be affraid to post.

We all can gain a lot of strength with relatively small size gains. It′s especially true for beginners who gain a lot of strength simply because of inter and intra muscles coordination. As long as you add weight to the bar you are doing it fine.

In your case you gained 1kg and decreased bodyfat (?) so you gained more than 1kg of pure muscle in 4 month. That′s not BAD at all !

Vincent′s right. The increases in neuromuscular efficiency can provide substantial strength increases without added muscle mass especially since you are a begginner and your muscles heretofore have probably not been required to work very efficiently. However, you said that you gained 3 inches on your chest, which leads me to believe you almost had to have gained more than 1 kg of muscle mass. Your weight may have not changed much but your body composition may have, meaning that you may weigh the same but have a much lower bodyfat %.

As far as gaining weight goes I know how hard it can be. I am an ectomorph with a fast metabolism. To give you some idea I weighed 130 pounds with about 10% bodyfat 6 years ago at age 19. Today I weigh 180 pounds with about 14% bodyfat (and none of it came easily as my genetics are on the shallower end of the pool). In those years of struggling to gain I have come to one conclusion, albeit a simple one, about gaining weight (notice I said weight not muscle mass). If you eat enough YOU WILL GAIN WEIGHT period. It all comes down to the maintenance calorie intake level that Mike talked about in his books. If you daily exceed the maintanence level on a consistent basis you will gain weight, you have to. Whether or not that weight gain is fat or muscle mass is another question. If your strength is increasing then you have to assume that eventually some of that weight you are gaining will be in the form of muscle mass, at least once you have reached the point where your neuromuscular efficiency is at its peak (your muscle fibers can′t find more efficient ways to work together to produce more strength so your body is forced to create new fibers i.e. increased muscle mass). If you are noticealby gaining too much fat then taper off your calorie intake slightly. But its mainly just the laws of nature: If you put in more than you need then you will have to either gain muscle or fat. So what I am saying is that while you may be eating a lot you obviously are not eating enough so eat more (I know its hard, ive been there, eating when you′re not hungry, force feeding yourself to the point that you gag and almost vomit). Some guys have it a little easier than others as their resting metabolism may be a little slower so they don′t burn as many maintenance calories which means they can eat less and gain. However those of us with industrial furnance type metabolisms have to keep cramming it down.

Eat, Train, Rest, GAIN!!!!!!

Thank for those replies. I fully understand now. I have a fast metabolism and its bit of a bummer. I also play soccer and just wondering if this will interfear with my training? Also can you tell me where or how i can get hold of my minimum calorie intake of food?

Luv2Squat your daily maintenance level of calories is the amount of calories you need on a daily basis to maintain your current bodyweight. This amount is different for everyone as we all have different metabolisms and activity levels. Mike outlines a way to figure your personal maintenance level in his books. Basically get a calorie counting book (The Fat Book is a good one) and figure up how many calories you eat each day for a week. Add the sum of those seven days and divide by 7 to get an average daily calorie intake. Now, if you didn′t gain or lose any weight that week (small fluctuations of a couple of pounds notwithstanding) then that daily average is also your daily maintenance calorie level. In other words that′s about how many calories you need each day to maintain your current weight. Now if you want to gain add 200 to 300 calories per day to your maintenance level and see if your weight increases (obviously this works in reverse if you want to lose weight by taking in less calories than your DML). If after a week or so you don′t see an increase then keep adding a couple hundred calories a day until you do. Then the only question then is if that weight increase is muscle mass or fat and you can use your bodyfat % to determine that. If you dont want to get so technical (counting calories and figuring bodyfat% on a regular basis can be a real pain in the ass) just do what I do, add another meal until you start to see weight gains and use the mirror as your guide for bodyfat (if you start seeing fat build up back off your eating a bit). It′s not as scientific and accurate, but it works just the same.

And as for the soccer, as Mike says we only have a theoretical 100 units of recovery ability for dealing with physical stresses put on the body. If you spend say 50 of those units on soccer, then you only have 50 left for your weight training. So in that regard it will interfere with your training insomuch as you could probably see better gains if you didn′t play soccer or engage in any other strenuous physical activity and only lifted HIT. So just keep that in mind and adjust your routine accordingly by adding rest days and/or decreasing volume if you see your gains slowing down and/or feel overtrained.