Any way to find out how much muscle i already got?

[Tom_B]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, didn't know where to put it.

I went down to my gym and got my body fat % done and it was at 5%. I'm not too sure if it was accurate cause all he did was take a caliper and used it on the side of my stomach, and when i was reading other threads they said that the calipers was used on there thighs lower abs etc. So I just put it outta my mind thinking I wasted $5, but then i just did the body fat estimator on this site and it said my body fat was between -.3% to 1.7%, so then i thought that myabe i really was at 5% body fat. My stats are:
Height - about 5'7
Weight - 120 lbs
Waist - 26'2 inches

Anyways Right now i'm trying to gain some weight, so my question is if my body fat is 5% then that means that only 6 pounds of me is fat so that means that i have more muscle then i thought, but i have no clue how much muscle I have, so would there be any way to figure it out? Since muscle speeds up your metabolism, thats means i'd have to start eating probably around 2700-3000 calories to gain weight, or at least i'm guessing.

 

[SportinStyle]

Uhmm, look in the mirror? but yea eat that and more and you should grow.

 

[Tom_B]

Well my upper legs are alright but when flex them (i don't know what to call it) you can see muscle, same with my calves(probably because of skipping, the first week I started skipping my calves were so sore i could barely walk) and basically everything other part of my bodys the same, my arms look small but when i flex theres more muscle there than ya would think.
The last week i ate 2100-2200 calories (some food wasn't the "cleanest") and every week i was gonna weight myself and take measurments and if i didn't gain weight i was gonna increase my calories by 200 calories untill i started gaining weight, but today when i weighed myself i lost a pound, so how much should I increase my calories by? should I go straight for the 2700-3000 calories or just keep adding 200 every week?

 

[Terok`Nor]

I don't think you can know how much muscle you got. it's not like if it says 100lbs on the scale and your bodyfat is 10% doesn't mean you have 90lbs of muscle. you have bones and water and fluids and other stuff

 

[trHawT]

Just find your LBM. That's all you need to be concerned about.

 

[Tom_B]

How would i find out my LBM?

 

[Iain]

If 5% of you is fat then the rest is Lean Body Mass (LBM)

Work out what 95% of 120 is and there you are.

 

[LAM]

Well my upper legs are alright but when flex them (i don't know what to call it) you can see muscle, same with my calves(probably because of skipping, the first week I started skipping my calves were so sore i could barely walk) and basically everything other part of my bodys the same, my arms look small but when i flex theres more muscle there than ya would think.
The last week i ate 2100-2200 calories (some food wasn't the "cleanest") and every week i was gonna weight myself and take measurments and if i didn't gain weight i was gonna increase my calories by 200 calories untill i started gaining weight, but today when i weighed myself i lost a pound, so how much should I increase my calories by? should I go straight for the 2700-3000 calories or just keep adding 200 every week?

5'7 120 lbs is skinny...so you probably do have close to 5% bf. if you had more muscle on your frame you wouldn't have to flex to see it. you need to do a clean bulk to gain some LBM...

 

[Tom_B]

Ya thats what i'm trying to do, I'm trying to gain at least 10 pounds of muscle, i really wanna gain 20-30 pounds if I can

If 5% of you is fat then the rest is Lean Body Mass (LBM)

Work out what 95% of 120 is and there you are.

Well like what Terok'Nor said, you also have bones,organs fluid etc. so wouldn't you have to take that into consideration?

 

[Iain]

Water displacement may be able to figure all that out. What you have to assume, without access to that equipment, is that your organ/bone/fluid etc mass is staying roughly the same. So as your scale weight increases monitor your bf% and so an increase in LBM will represent an increase in muscle (assuming body fat measurements are consistent, you are not bloated etc.)

I'm your height and I'm not big by any means, about 160lbs at about 12% BF. Get your diet sorted and exercise and the weight will go on, it did for me, I was 130lbs three years ago. I'd suggest that with a waist of 26 inches you are pretty slight anyway. Mine is 32 and I don't remember ever being less than 29 (since I stopped growing at 17) and I have been down in the 120's when ill.

Don't be scared of a bf% increase. 5% is very low, I'd love to be about 170 and 10%.

 

[Tom_B]

well I already got the exercise down, it's just the diet part i need to still need to play around with. I've been lifting for about 2 months and I do cardio everyday, I've made gains in strength and endurance but i was only eating 1500 calories, which was way to little to gain any weight so for the last 2 weeks i've been playing around with my diet, my first week I ate everything I wanted and gorged on everything, but i gained 5 pounds of water weight that I lost after eating 1900 calories for a day. Then last week I hate 2100-2200 calories following a 40/40/20 split and lost a pound. So now for this week I'm gonna eat 2000 calories of clean food (following 40/40/20 split) and eat 700-800 calories of junk food and I'll see what happens then.

 

[LAM]

I would stop doing all cardio until you start to gain some quality muscle...

 

[Tom_B]

Well i do my cardio in the morning after breakfast, I hate doing it, I dread waking up to do it in fact, but I find that the rest of my day goes better, I'm more awake, I have more energy etc. compared to if I don't do it I feel sluggish and tired and just like a blob for the entire day.

 

[SportinStyle]

Well if you ever want to be big you're gonna have to deal with feeling sluggish all day. Cardio at your size is a DEFINITE NO NO. If you continue doing cardio while being at such a low weight and not on a calorie deficit, you my friend are stupid.

Personally I would eat as much clean foods as I could (and bad foods) get a good 3500 calories a day (use a weight-gainer if necessary), go to the gym, then be very INACTIVE the rest of the day.

I too was and still kind of am a scrawny little shit (well not little at 6'3 ) but after doing what I just said I have put on a good 15 pounds, 2-3 of fat and the rest muscle.

 

[Tom_B]

Well I do the 20 minutes of cardio in the morning, then I usually sit at my computer for a good couple of hours and then I'm usually out with my friends at the mall walking for like 3- 4 hours. I'm doing the Cardio to keep my fat down because YES I DO HAVE FAT. My arms are small, and so are my legs from the knees down but my body naturally stores fat on my thighs and lower abs, and there not in portion with the rest of my body, it's gross. I'm eating 2800 calories this week and if I don't gain any weight then I'm gonna keep adding on 300 calories each week untill I do so.

 

[BoneCrusher]

If you are serious, then set a routine and post it here on a new thread. People will help you adjust it to maximise your weight gain. The rest is up to you, but you should see quick results.

Good luck!

 

[LAM]

Well I do the 20 minutes of cardio in the morning, then I usually sit at my computer for a good couple of hours and then I'm usually out with my friends at the mall walking for like 3- 4 hours. I'm doing the Cardio to keep my fat down because YES I DO HAVE FAT. My arms are small, and so are my legs from the knees down but my body naturally stores fat on my thighs and lower abs, and there not in portion with the rest of my body, it's gross. I'm eating 2800 calories this week and if I don't gain any weight then I'm gonna keep adding on 300 calories each week untill I do so.

if that is the case than you are surely not at 5% body fat. at 5% your are shredded to the bone and have virtually no signs of fat anywhere on your body. how did they test your bf at your gym ?

 

[SportinStyle]

I agree with LAM 100%.

Anyway, get fat if you can, because at 120 lbs you're just small. I used to be about the same proportionate size as you are for my height but I started putting on fat and muscle and I look better than ever.

 

[Flex]

the only way i know of to find out how much muscle mass you have is to get a DEXA scan.

i had one done when did a study at UConn where i got paid.

its actually pretty cool. the readout tells you EXACTLY how much lean mass and fat you in each leg and arm as well as torso.

i got it for free cuz i was part of a study, but i think the guy told me it normally costs like $80.

 

[SPIKE1257]

YES I DO HAVE FAT.

5% BF and you say you have fat ? If I was at 5% BF I would be shredded..

 

[Erik]

I am not to sure that 5% is all that healthy. Being underweight has its own set of problems, although there are few 200 lb 70 year olds and there are NO 200lb 80 year olds. Something to think about
Don't stop Cardio, just don't do tons of it. Always work your most important muscle, your heart.
I would determine my basil metabolic rate, and then consume 1000 clean calories over that a day. Try Whey protein among other things. Hell Mix it with Ice cream...You Dog... Just wishing I had your problem!

 

[Tom_B]

Ok, I borrowed my friends webcam and took some pictures of myself, only problem is I don't know how to put them in the gallery lol.
Like I said before I doubt that I'm at 5% body fat because the guy at the gym took a caliber and just used it on the side of my stomach, nowhere else so I doubt that very acurate. But once I figure out how to get the pictures up of myself you guys can take a guees at how much fat I have.
Lol I wish I could get a DEXA scan, they sound pretty cool but I doubt there be anywhere I could get it done...I live in some small ass hick town in Canada.
lol and Erik no you don't wish you had my problem if anything I wish I was fat, it's so much easier for me to lose weight than to gain it, it's a mind thing for me, I really don't wanna gain any weight, but I know I have to, and I'll look better once I do but theres still a part of me that dosen't believe that.
And another reason I do cardio every morning for 20 minutes is because about 5 months ago I had some bad heart problems, and sometimes during my cardio my heart will hurt a little, so If I did like a 40 minute cardio thing 3-4 times a week it probably take a toll on my heart.

 

[Tom_B]

Nvm figured it out, there now you guys can see my fat gross nasty body lol, and guess how much my bodyfat% is cause I have no clue, that guy at the gym probably had no idea what he was doing.

 

[SportinStyle]

If you truly think you are fat, go shoot yourself, or better yet, schedule a appointment with my secretary and I will do it for you.

You need to put on a good 10-15 pounds of FAT alone. Dude, chicks don't dig anorexic's and you my friend seem to have a mental disorder along the lines of that. Work on eating ALL KINDS OF FAT, even the bad ones, and tons of sugar. I want you to get fat.

Then once you don't look like you died 2 months ago and are rotting away, start working out hardcore with heavy weights for less reps and try to look right.

Sorry to be so blatent but...

 

[Tom_B]

I can't allow myself to gain any fat, if I did thats probobly when I'd shoot myself. The weight I want to gain has to be muscle, or I just won't gain any weight period. I know I have a distored body image of whats thin and whats not, but having an eating disorder for 3 years tends to do that to you, thats why it's so hard for me right now to eat 2800 calories, I'm fighting with myself all the time.

 

[SportinStyle]

Well fat is a must in bulking, either do it or get out.

 

[SportinStyle]

Sorry about being so rude, but you gotta push your limits. Your genetics may say you are gonna be small and it's nearly impossible to break those, but your mental capacity can easily be broken, just don't go about it half assed. Say "I am gonna eat 3400 calories" and do it. You won't get fat, you'll get buff.

Man, I'm telling ya, chicks dig more filled in guys, fat or muscle over anorexically skinny ones.

 

[Tom_B]

No your not being rude at all, I know alot of people don't understand it at all, the only people who can really understand is those who went through it themselves, the last three years of my life were hell, simple as that, I missed out on so much because thats all my life revolved around, I couldn't do anything with my friends because i had to go out for my daily 4 hour walk followed by 1500 situps, or I wouldn't go to any public places because I thought people would stare at me and think about how ugly and fat I was..I just never want to go back to the point never, I'd rather be dead. Thats why I'm trying to do this as slow as possible,I'm pushing myself as much as possible

 

[aztecwolf]

No your not being rude at all, I know alot of people don't understand it at all, the only people who can really understand is those who went through it themselves, the last three years of my life were hell, simple as that, I missed out on so much because thats all my life revolved around, I couldn't do anything with my friends because i had to go out for my daily 4 hour walk followed by 1500 situps, or I wouldn't go to any public places because I thought people would stare at me and think about how ugly and fat I was..I just never want to go back to the point never, I'd rather be dead. Thats why I'm trying to do this as slow as possible,I'm pushing myself as much as possible

just get out there and kick some ass dude, and think "strong like bull"

 

[Tom_B]

lmao, ya I can do this, I just gotta keep thinking I'll look better in the long run. And if I need any help I got a really great friend, she's really supportive and I can talk to her about anything