How fast do you gain muscle?

[littlejohn]

I have been lifting for nearly 4 months. I have seen significant gains in strength as would be expected with a beginner. I started with about 4 exercises.I have added more exercises and more reps until now my workout is over 50 minutes 2 times a week and I do multiple sets of bench, rows and squats.

My wedding ring was sized about 20 years ago and was "locked" in place for many years. At about 219 I finally got that thing off! Now at 205 it is just as hard to get off. I do not measure my self, only weight. I think I am losing a little fat but the scale won't go much. How much muscle weight could I be adding? Most of my lifts have about doubled in the amount of weight I can handle and my benchmarck - pushups have gone from 1 to 19

[ellipticer]

At 219 the ring would come off easily... now at 205, it is stuck again? That doesn't make sense because it is really really hard to gain a lot of lean muscle mass in your fingers :)

Maybe you are retaining a bit of water from a cheat meal or something salty?

If you want a more accurate guide you should think about measuring yourself. http://www.mybodycomp.com is a good way to track it online. You really only need to do 1 or 2 measurements and you can know exactly how your progress is going-- your abdomen across your navel, and your bicep.

The abdomen measurement should always be dropping and the bicep should stay the same or go up. Good job on the obvious progress anyway!

[littlejohn]

Yea, as I was writting that post I thought:"why don't I start measuring?". So I think I will start.

No cheat meal yet, but salt has been high lately.

And the ring fit is a mystery to me. I can still get it off but no easier now then when I was nearly 15 pounds heavier.

[ellipticer]

Oh I see what you mean now... you could get it off at 219 and it is still the same difficulty to remove it at 205. No big deal there! You simply haven't lost any more of that nasty "finger fat"..

I think most people tend to lose fat in bunches. Mine first came off of my calves and ankles... I had huge fat thighs and tiny little ankles. Then went the wrists and forearms... huge fatty biceps and tiny little wrists... yea a great look.

So you probably lost some hand weight but no more has come off of that area recently.

Another possibility is that you have lost muscle mass in that time so the 15 pounds missing is not fat. Given that your strength keeps going up, it's probably not that!

I was also a newbie when I started lifting and I think gaining about 2 pounds of muscle per month is not unusual if your protein intake is high enough.

[galatia]

You might find this thread helpful. http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=197554&highlight=muscle+gain