Hi--

I joined a gym three & a half weeks ago. My trainer measured me three weeks ago and then measured me again on wednesday.

Apparently in the past three weeks, I've lost 1.5% overall body fat & gained 1.3 lb of lean muscle mass (I do cardio & resistance training).

My question is this: how much lean muscle can a woman realistically develop in a month?

thanks!

~ tea

Maybe your trainer can give you a good answer.

That seems like alot of shift in 3 weeks to me, just based on what other people have shared of their training logs here. Are you lifting really heavy, to failure, or just weights that are heavy but not 'i can't do another rep' heavy? IF you are just lifting I would say def not and that measurements can be inaccurate. If you are lifting to complete failure and throw-up exhaustion with HIIT cardio, then my answer becomes - maybe?

I think I've been able to put on 3 lbs of muscle in about 3 months, and that's with really changed eating habits, super HIIT cardio, and cannot-lift-another-rep weight training. Also known as Body for Life. And even those are just estimates, it's really difficult to tell without being bodypodded or immersion tank tested.

But it's great that you're seeing progress! Even more important than building muscle imo is to shed the fat, and that you can def tell by how your clothes fit.

I wish I could remember where I read this, but I recall reading that if you haven't ever lifted before and start a fairly intense program you will see results like that in the first month or two and then it will taper off to what the rest of us get.

I don't know. I've read and read on this topic and my conclusion at this point is about 1lbs of pure muscle (no water, no glycogen) if you train like a mad woman and eat like a horse. And that would be fanfreakingtastic. Seriously, like, awesomeness. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I don't think you gained 1.3lbs of muscle in three weeks...new or not. But hey, keep at it and you will!!

I hope to goodness I didn't just discourage you. That was NOT my intention at all. You are awesome and are a great example for the rest of us.