Working out with weights builds muscle mass, this we know for certain. The amount of muscle you can gain is what we don’t know and it’s very difficult to measure.
Most supplements companies and fitness marketers will use a bodyweight claim to display increases in muscle mass.
But is bodyweight is notoriously bad at predicting or displaying changes in muscle mass over the short term, and very limited over the long term as well.
Many factors determine your bodyweight such as hydration status, the amount of time since your last meal, the amount of food mass in your stomach/intestines, fat mass.
It’s not uncommon for an average man to fluctuate between 5-7 pounds in a given day simply from food and liquid intake (and water and mass loss from sweating and just going to the bathroom to make a ‘deposit’)
The large daily fluctuations your body can go through make it very difficult to detect much smaller changes in muscle mass.
In other words, it’s virtually impossible to measure a 3-4 pound gain in muscle over the course of a year or two if you daily bodyweight can change as much as 5-7 pounds (and thats assuming you don’t gain or lose any fat mass at all).
Unless you have access to a body composition lab (such as those found at a university) you’ll only be left guessing at your muscle mass and change in muscle mass.
For this reason I’ve developed a new muscle mass measurement tool that will allow you to determine your relative muscle mass. This tool will also allow you to track any changes in muscle mass (weather you gain or lose muscle).
This is a new and more accurate predictor of muscle mass that corrects for fat mass, somatotype and changes in non-muscle lean mass…it’s called the Muscle Index and it will be the new standard in muscle measurement.
In todays podcast we discuss how the Muscle Index tool is built and why it’s a better measurement than bodyweight or any other predictor of muscle mass.
John
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
{ 33 comments }
Man I love these podcasts. And I always get a kick out of when John says “Like, who cares?” because it’s always about some point that used to be a big deal like body fat percentage or claims about how much you can bench.
I have nothing important to say here. I’m even only 7 minutes into the podcast. Just wanted to say hello.
I haven’t listened to this yet, but I agree – I love it when some of John’s frankness slips through that politically correct veil lol. There was even a recent podcast (I think it was the one about how 1.61 may be the best indicator of health) where he started verbally castrating a forum member, and it was me but I couldn’t stop laughing (good thing I have a thick skin).
John, please more of this real side of you and less of your politically correct side! Haha!
Between the emails that I get and the comments on my blog and the forum there is a never ending list of questions and idea’s we can talk about on the podcast. Some days you’ll recognize that one of your comments or questions ends up being a topic.
I know you think this was the real side of me, but it’s still about 70% censored!
I’ll have to drip the ‘realness’ in slowly so people don’t get too offended
JB
LOL!
Don’t hold back, John!
P.S. When AE gets big and popular, we need to make a shirt with John’s face on it and the catchphrase, “Like, who cares?!”
Ha… done.
Maybe we’ll get these made up next… lol
Haha, you guys are beyond awesome.
P.S. I got the transcript today in the newsletter, and on page 5, John says “who cares” twice! The second “who cares” was the “like who cares” that Mac first called attention to above.
Every successful community needs a catchphrase, and I think this is perfect for AE!
These podcasts are really solid.
Try not to cater to people’s precious feelings too much.
Hah!
This is awesome.
And I agree. No BS is the only way people see real results – it took 4 years and you guys for me to get my shit together.
So if some people can’t handle it – there’s probably a fast food joint down the corner.
True, but remember, the great thing is that “fast” food isn’t deemed a vulgar form of food around here!
Hi there, just wondering if I’m missing the boat on something. Been following AI and ESE for almost two months now and getting good results. I’m having a hard time getting really cut around my lower waist. Is this just a passage of time thing? Do I have to just continue to keep calories low and reduce my waist slowly .5 to a pound per week? I’ve reduced waist measurement by over an inch but have trouble with a sloppy looking and smooth lower midsection that seems…pardon my terminology- stubborn. I know exercise isn’t the answer because I’ve done more and it just seems to make me ravenously hungry to do too much. Maybe I just need to eat even less and fast it off? Also, is this new measurement going to make it AI more robust or is it just a way to try and measure relative progress of muscle development?
Tom, you can’t target fat loss on a specific region on your body. The only way to get rid of a belly is to just continue to lose fat all over your body. You will naturally lose more fat in your waist though simply because men have more fat concentrated in that area (whereas women have it concentrated in their thighs). Just continue to eat less calories than what you burn off. Best way is to just focus on diet and don’t rely on exercise because unless you’re running 5 miles a day, it won’t make much of a difference.
i cant save your page
Tom,
The muscle index is for measuring changes in muscle.
It sounds like you just have more fat to lose.
JB
Hey Tom,
You say you are having a hard time getting cut. What are you comparing yourself to? I’m sure you realise you won’t look like a bodybuilder if you’re not using drugs and even those guys don’t look like that all year round. I think even with fasting and normal eating we will still hold a certain amount of bodyfat… that’s normal. Even in some of John’s photos he still has a small amount of fat. I don’t think you can have a “cut” appearance all year around. But certainly you can achieve a lean state, that will take time which it sounds like you are on the way to achieving.
I tried to contact you, John on twitter but your last tweet was months ago. Rusty Moore mentioned a quote from you during a podcast you did: “People don’t understand how little you have to eat to lose a significant amount of weight in a short time.” Can you please tell me which podcast is what from? the link? Rusty sent an email with it, but the link was bad.
Jesse,
I don’t use twitter (I have an account but I just don’t bother with it)
I think the podcast you’re looking for is titled “how many calories do you need to lose weight” just look through our ‘podcast section’ it’s one of the earlier entries.
JB
thank you for reply. I only asked because at the time, I could access six podcasts. The previous entries link didn’t work. Then I tried it on my iphone and it did work. I’m going to try it again now. thanks.
this is awesome, you guys are right on!
John,
Where does weight gain actually come from when a person “gains muscle” and do you think an ectomorphic body type can look good on a bodybuilding stage if they’re lean enough?
Jason
Jason,
Yes an ectomorph will look good on stage. muscles are about 80% water so most of the ‘mass’ is water anyway. The structure of the muscle itself also determines how big it can get so there is some degree of new protein being laid down as the muscle fibers get bigger. Picture inflating a balloon bigger. The rubber of the balloon expands as it fills with air, this is similar to what muscle growth is.
JB
Am I the only person not wondering where and when / how I”ll be able to see the new muscle index?
john, you got amazing insights. keep up the relective analysis on the health topics.
Here are two questions that I think eventually someone would ask. 1. If less calories is better, wouldn’t I be better off just eating 500 cal per day?
My rebuttle to that would be that my mom probably only eats dinner and maybe lunch and she eats so less. Maybe she isn’t telling the the whole thing but I do know my mom eats less each day, and slaves in the kitchen making food for us. She also walks once a day, and guess what? she’s skinny, not with a big firm gut but the flabbiest stomach I have ever touched(don’t ask, somehow I came in contact with it, and I was disgusted.)
2. If you say fat is the reserves for muscle growth, someone or me is bound to say two things: At that point, if my body tapped into enough reserves, I could get down to 5% bf at some point right? be SHREDDED lol. At that point, if you wanted to you probably get down to that superhero look Brad was talking about in his blog? It doesn’t make sense.
Also, say someone is 220 lb, and probably is 20% bf, putting him at 44 lb fat, 176 lb lean mass, not muscle although lean water and glycogen and such can attribute to good-looking muscles. Somebody might say, “Ok then, since all that fat can be turned into muscle, why not just eat more if I want to be bigger? Eventually, by John’s words, all that fat can be turned into muscle.”
Just a few things for you to think about.
Jesse,
You gotta remember that there is a LOT of “hidden” calories cooks consume. Sometimes tasting or random snacking during the preparation of food. So there could be calories consumed like that as well.
Then you’ve also not mentioned anything about how much food she eats at dinner (and what kind). “A little” food could be VERY caloric, depending on what it is.
I’ve been at an average of 1000cals/day and have lost almost 60lbs.
I honestly think people (in general) don’t realize how “little” calories have to be to lose weight (no offense, man).
Jason (in China)
hey dude, i am doing some thing pretty much eating 1k cals a day, and about 60-80 percent of it consist of protein ( i know this isnt necacessary but i train hard and believe i do need some minimuim protein), and the rest from what ever i like. but i find because im eating to little i lack fibre ( even though i eat veggies with all 4 of my meals), how to stop the constapation?
Jesse, here are my thoughts:
1. I actually recently posted a similar question on the forums:
http://www.adonislifestyle.com/index.php?/Nutrition/6891-Funny-picture-serious-repsonse.html
I think your mother either has some condition that is bloating her stomach or she still has a high body fat percentage even though she looks skinny (“skinny fat” is the colloquial term). And the whole “eat less” thing is rhetoric. Technically, it should be “eat less calories.” For example, a chicken veggie bowl at Flame Broiler has 430 calories while the equivalent at Yoshinoya has 1100 calories (almost TRIPLE the number of calories, which is **INSANE**). Often time, the quality of the food matters a LOT more than the the quantity.
2. You can’t eat your way into gaining muscle because your body gains fat like a billion times faster than you can gain muscle lol.
I know that, but my point is based on John’s muscle is built from fat reserves, why not eat more since all that fat will be turned into muscle?
I’m still not exactly sure what you’re asking, and I don’t know the exact breakdown on how this happens, but I don’t think fat turns into muscle per se. My understanding is that the body CAN USE fat to help build muscle (as opposed to the body REQUIRING fat to build muscle…but maybe the body does need some amount of fat to build muscle, but it’s certainly not an amount that requires you to become fat). So eating in excess will just make you fat rather than help build muscle.
good answer.
Congratulations, Jason in China! 60 pounds is quite the accomplishment.
jesse WOW, you pretty much hit the bullseye right there, my mother is in the EXACT prediciment. she spends so much time cooking for us and catering to our diets to help us loose weight, that she hardly eats anything herself. but she is still fat. i dont understand how that, if fat loss is just to eat less calories, how my mother isnt loosing fat? she cannot possibly consume lower calories without damn near starving herself sometimes lol. for example sometimes at brekky she will have 2 boiled eggs, and half a pieces of toast with green tea. then dinner she will have small salad ( cupple slices of cucumber or something silly like that), and like 50g of meat. thats it, period, and i can testify to her not cheating on the diet.
how do i explain to her, as she always asks me why she is not loosing fat
Oh she don’t cook for us to lose weight. Granted she might have a plate of rice and maybe one piece of meat. I heard she might eat a potato, but you’re right, both of our mom’s eat far less than us, and probably most of america. Yep, this is exactly what I was afraid of. Why is she not losing fat? She eats less calories, she walks 30 min a day, and she slaves away in the kitchen. It doesn’t make sense. I’ll wait for John to chime in.
Dividing by waist size is a really neat way to avoid fat being a confounding factor, but it means by developing their abs and lower back muscles, people will actually lower their muscle index
Comments on this entry are closed.