How to increase muscle mass without eating more?

I want to increase muscle mass due to narcissism and some practical purposes.

But at the same time I do not want to eat more because eating less give me better energy level.

This week, I find myself become even lighter this week, that is 66 kg decrease to 64kg. This may due to I eat less carbohydrate. 

My highest body mass record is 72 kg, that is the time I eat a lot of carbohydrate and do bodyweight workout 5 days a week.

Now I do upper body+lower body+core 2 days a week combine with mobility. Thanks to GB program,many of my strength weakness has been improved.

Any advice?

No surplus, no increase in body mass. Regarding having more energy with less food ... maybe you didn't eat right foods. Maybe you can add some calories by drinking some of the calories and eat stuff that is very easy to digest (some simple carbs).

You probably lost some water weightif you decreased carbs intake. May I ask why you did that? Also how old/tall are you?

By mass, I presume you mean muscle?

very very very simplistically, if you want to gain muscle, you need to increase the ratio of protein in your diet versus carbs, sugars and fats.

the other three eaten to build mass will, in the end, be stored as fat. You will get bigger but in the wrong way.

You need to aim for about 2-2.5g of protein per kg of body weight to gain lean mass. There is a plethora of information available here and on the web to help with constructing a diet to meet your goals. They include target weight, fat% and calorie counts.

you need to provide all the relevant information on your body details and goals otherwise any comments provided are just guesswork

24 minutes ago, Paul Wallbridge said:

By mass, I presume you mean muscle?

very very very simplistically, if you want to gain muscle, you need to increase the ratio of protein in your diet versus carbs, sugars and fats.

the other three eaten to build mass will, in the end, be stored as fat. You will get bigger but in the wrong way.

You need to aim for about 2-2.5g of protein per kg of body weight to gain lean mass. There is a plethora of information available here and on the web to help with constructing a diet to meet your goals. They include target weight, fat% and calorie counts.

you need to provide all the relevant information on your body details and goals otherwise any comments provided are just guesswork

This is the same advice that big hulks on juice give out, it could work for some time but it will not work forever and is not healthy. Low carb diets are dangerous and still being adviced by big hulks on juice who want to sell u their super duper protein powder. You need to aim at esting healthy and being balanced on what you eat, most bodybuilders who follow shit advice end up having all kind of problems at 40-50 years old. My advice is eat fats, carbs, proteins in a balanced way and add a surpluss of what you eat. "Reddeltaproject" is a youtube channel you might want to look at.

Thre are some many advice on the web that people do not know where to look, so read here what I can tell you as a nutritionist and also bodybuilding trainer:

-in order to increase muscle mass, you need to eat more than your normal caloric maintenance intake. period.

-generally, the body tends to increase easily the muscle mass when you are about at the 11-12% of body fat. period

-the only people who can build mass while losing weight are obese people. the reason it is that fat people eat a lot more than their maintenance caloric intake so, no matter the deficit, at the beginning they are still in the condition of more intake (reduce too much the intake can produce catabolism) and also more than 11-12% of body fat.

-the ideal condition to build up muscle mass it is to eat the correct amount of protein but also the carbs. the amount of tRNA traduction linked to tiny and tick protein filaments in muscles are connected to the amount of water and glucose stores. so the first goal to increase and maintain muscles it is to teach the body to restore and improve the amount of glucose store (I mean to glycogen store of course)

-people who tend to add muscle mass while staying relatively lean about 8-9%....well steroids talk for them.

7 hours ago, Edoardo Gervasi said:

This is the same advice that big hulks on juice give out, it could work for some time but it will not work forever and is not healthy. Low carb diets are dangerous and still being adviced by big hulks on juice who want to sell u their super duper protein powder. You need to aim at esting healthy and being balanced on what you eat, most bodybuilders who follow shit advice end up having all kind of problems at 40-50 years old. My advice is eat fats, carbs, proteins in a balanced way and add a surpluss of what you eat. "Reddeltaproject" is a youtube channel you might want to look at.

You don´t need to be on steroids to follow that advice or give it out. I pretty much follow this kind of diet and am lean and muscular but not big.

28 minutes ago, Marcus Patterson said:

You don´t need to be on steroids to follow that advice or give it out. I pretty much follow this kind of diet and am lean and muscular but not big.

Same here, I'm eating a balanced diet and aiming for a tilt towards protein over carbs and fat. I don't think I mentioned steroids or powder, and never said low carbs. My target is about 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fat. It has been effective so far, with body fat falling from 17% to 13% and weight dropping at the same time by about 3-4kg, starting from 74kg so hardly obese.

There's no magic or supplement needed, just eating healthily and sensibly. The most important thing is to be honest with yourself in the size of your portions. No point saying that meal was 600 calories when in reality it was 1,000

He said he wants to build muscle and you are saying that you are dropping weight ...

Excess protein gets converted into glucose anyway, so no need to overdo it.

The amount of protein someone needs varies between individuals.

If in deficit (which you obviously are), you won't store body fat, the makro nutrient doesn't matter. Eating enough protein does help a bit with retaining muscle mass when in deficit though. What is enough is very debatable.

Paul how much of a caloric deficit are you in? For your carbs, are they mostly low glycemic index carbs?

I am dropping weight and gaining muscle mass. I aim for about 250-500 deficit depending on whether or not I'm doing cardio that day. I'm really bad with my carbs... they tend to be the worst types, e.g. white bread, chips, white rice. we all have our vices!

@Paul Wallbridge Gaining muscle mass while in a 500 calorie deficit, is that possible? I always thought you need to be in a surplus. How are you measuring your muscle gains? Is it based on tape measurement or strength gains?

6 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

-generally, the body tends to increase easily the muscle mass when you are about at the 11-12% of body fat. period

Alessandro, would this number be more for women (as they naturally have more body fat)? 11-12% for a lady, that's pretty lean looking… 

9 hours ago, Affan Osman said:

@Paul Wallbridge Gaining muscle mass while in a 500 calorie deficit, is that possible? I always thought you need to be in a surplus. How are you measuring your muscle gains? Is it based on tape measurement or strength gains?

Both. Waist and other areas that typically hold fat have decreased (waist by 1.25 inches) shoulders and biceps have increased. I avoid legs as after a lifetime of sprinting and cycling I struggle to get into normal sized trousers

strength-wise, I could barely do a pull up 6 months ago, now I can do 10. Only used GST and no weights.

6 hours ago, Suzanna McGee said:

Alessandro, would this number be more for women (as they naturally have more body fat)? 11-12% for a lady, that's pretty lean looking… 

 

obviously the number it is higher.

41 minutes ago, Paul Wallbridge said:

Both. Waist and other areas that typically hold fat have decreased (waist by 1.25 inches) shoulders and biceps have increased. I avoid legs as after a lifetime of sprinting and cycling I struggle to get into normal sized trousers

strength-wise, I could barely do a pull up 6 months ago, now I can do 10. Only used GST and no weights.

 

 

the reasonable measure must be done with the correct tools in order to have decent estimation of how much it is the total bodyfat and the total lean mass? 

How much is you bodyfat now?

15 minutes ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

the reasonable measure must be done with the correct tools in order to have decent estimation of how much it is the total bodyfat and the total lean mass? 

How much is you bodyfat now?

I use salter body analyser scales. My body fat has decreased from 17% to 13%, bond mass from 7.6 to 8.0 lb and muscle from 47% to 51%. They are fairly consistent in the message and I always measure at the same time of day. As far as I'm concerned it's the trend that's important not the value, as that's likely to be inaccurate on these types of scales.

2 hours ago, Paul Wallbridge said:

I use salter body analyser scales. My body fat has decreased from 17% to 13%, bond mass from 7.6 to 8.0 lb and muscle from 47% to 51%. They are fairly consistent in the message and I always measure at the same time of day. As far as I'm concerned it's the trend that's important not the value, as that's likely to be inaccurate on these types of scales.

Very true. 

4 hours ago, Paul Wallbridge said:

I use salter body analyser scales. My body fat has decreased from 17% to 13%, bond mass from 7.6 to 8.0 lb and muscle from 47% to 51%. They are fairly consistent in the message and I always measure at the same time of day. As far as I'm concerned it's the trend that's important not the value, as that's likely to be inaccurate on these types of scales.

 

You are perfectly in the normal situation as I described above, more than 11-12% of BF it is the optimal situation for building mass while losing weight. you are perfectly normal my friend!

I also want to gain some muscle mass, I've always been rather skinny.

At the moment I'm at 70 kg at a height of 1,79 m, actually that's the highest I ever weighed. As I haven't been very active during the last year, my weight gains up to that point should be mostly fat though. I didn't measure my body fat % and can't really estimate it, but I would guess it's around 15% or something.

I've started GST and Thrive about a month ago, at the moment I still try to reach a caloric surplus in order to gain about a kilo of bodyweight per month.

Let's say I'm at about 15% body fat or slightly higher, would it even make sense to aim for a caloric surplus or wouldn't it give me any additional strength/muscle mass gains compared to eating at a "zero" level, just making me "fatter"?

Hi Ferdinand,

My advice is to stop counting calories. At least for now, your focus should be on mastering your Thrive habits and consistently training. I have no doubt your body composition will improve if you commit to that plan. Keep things simple and please keep us updated on your results. These changes take time so stick with it!

Alessandro are you saying more than 11-12% is obese? In that case I am extremely obese

Ahahhahah too funny, I'm saying that:

-if you want to build up mass the ideal situation it is to be over the 11% of BF

-an obese person, of course, has more than 11% BF

;-)

I have another question which is kind of the opposite of the topic title.  Ideally I would stay the same size but increase strength.  Is it just a case of eating maintenance calories and this will happen?  I assume that the type of training that we are doing is already focused towards lean muscle mass?

Hi Joshua,

Just out of curiosity, do you want to stay the same size for a particular reason or goal?

On 4/11/2017 at 3:46 AM, Alessandro Mainente said:

Thre are some many advice on the web that people do not know where to look, so read here what I can tell you as a nutritionist and also bodybuilding trainer:

-in order to increase muscle mass, you need to eat more than your normal caloric maintenance intake. period.

-generally, the body tends to increase easily the muscle mass when you are about at the 11-12% of body fat. period

-t

Thanks! Are you saying that 11-12%  body fat is the optimum environment for building muscle? I am naturally lean so my body fat should around this range.

Also, is that impossible to add mass without eating more?

If I want to eat more, I think I am only able to do this in my breakfast. Should I eat more eggs or you have anything to recommand?