When you’re working toward health or fitness goals, it’s easy to get caught up in the number on the bathroom scale. But that number alone doesn’t tell the full story. It can’t show how much of your weight comes from muscle, fat, water, or bone, and each of those plays a very different role in how your body looks, feels, and functions.

One of the most common questions people ask is, “Does muscle weigh more than fat?” The answer reveals an important truth about density, not just weight. In this article, we’ll break down the real differences between muscle and fat, explain how they affect your weight and appearance, and show why focusing on body composition gives you a much better picture of your health than the scale ever could.

Does Muscle Weigh More Than Fat?

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “muscle weighs more than fat.” And while that’s a common belief, it’s not exactly true – a pound is a pound, whether it’s muscle or fat. What really sets them apart is density.

Muscle is denser than fat – about 18% more, to be exact. That means muscle takes up less space in your body for the same amount of weight. According to research published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the density of lean tissue (like muscle) is about 1.1 g/cm³, while fat tissue is closer to 0.9 g/cm³¹.

Here’s an easy way to picture it:

• 5 pounds of muscle might be the size of a small book

• 5 pounds of fat could look more like a small football

This difference explains why two people can weigh the same and be the same height, but one looks lean and sculpted, while the other appears softer. That’s body composition at work.

So if you’ve started strength training and your weight hasn’t changed much (or even gone up), don’t panic. You might be burning fat and building muscle at the same time – and that’s a sign your fitness plan is working, even if the scale isn’t showing it.

Muscle vs Fat: Volume and Visual Differences

When it comes to how your body looks, muscle and fat don’t behave the same way, even if they weigh the same.  

Check this muscle vs fat weight comparison table

The visual impact of replacing fat with muscle is substantial. A person who loses 10 pounds of fat and gains 10 pounds of muscle will maintain the same scale weight but appear noticeably leaner and more toned due to the reduced volume of the muscle tissue compared to the fat it replaced.

How Muscle Affects Your Weight

When beginning a strength training program, many individuals experience an initial weight gain despite following a nutritious diet. This phenomenon often leads to frustration but represents a positive physiological adaptation.

Several factors contribute to weight changes during muscle development:

1. Muscle protein synthesis: Strength training triggers muscle repair and growth, a process called muscle protein synthesis. Research in the Journal of Applied Physiology shows that even a single resistance training session can elevate muscle protein synthesis for up to 48 hours. 

1. Glycogen storage: As muscles adapt to training, they store more glycogen (carbohydrates) and water. Each gram of glycogen binds approximately 3 grams of water, contributing to weight increases without fat gain.

2. Increased bone density: Regular resistance training stimulates bone mineral density, adding to overall weight while improving skeletal health.

3. Elevated resting metabolic rate: Muscle tissue is metabolically active, burning approximately 7-10 calories per pound daily at rest, compared to fat tissue’s 2-3 calories per pound. Just gaining 3 pounds of muscle can boost your resting metabolism by about 7%.

Consider this practical example: An individual loses 5 pounds of fat while gaining 5 pounds of muscle through a combined resistance training and nutrition program. Their scale weight remains unchanged, but their body composition has improved significantly. They appear more toned, their clothes fit differently, and their metabolic health markers have improved – all without a reduction in scale weight.

How to Know If It’s Muscle or Fat

When the number on the scale changes, how do you know whether you’ve gained muscle or added fat?

Unfortunately, most bathroom scales can’t tell you that. But there are several proven ways to track what your weight is actually made of, so you can measure true progress, not just pounds.

Body Composition Analysis:

• Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA): Devices like the InBody 770 use multiple frequencies to measure impedance through body tissues, providing detailed body composition data. Research validates BIA as a reliable method for tracking body composition changes when used consistently.

• Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA): Considered the gold standard for body composition assessment, DEXA scans provide precise measurements of fat mass, lean mass, and bone mineral density.

• Skinfold Calipers: When used by trained professionals, skinfold measurements at multiple body sites can estimate body fat percentage with reasonable accuracy.

Physical Indicators:

You don’t always need a machine to notice the difference. Look for these signs of positive body composition changes:

• Improved muscle definition and reduced circumference measurements

• Changes in how clothing fits, particularly around the waist, hips, and thighs

• Increased strength and endurance during physical activities

• Enhanced recovery capacity between workouts

Functional Improvements:

Changes in body composition often go hand-in-hand with improvements in how you feel and move:

• Increased energy levels throughout the day

• Improved performance in daily activities and exercise

• Better posture and movement quality

• Enhanced sleep quality and recovery

When you track your progress with body composition tools (not just a scale) you’ll get a much clearer picture of your health and fitness. These insights help you adjust your diet and workouts based on real data, not guesswork.

Tips to Build Muscle and Lose Fat

If your goal is to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time (often called body recomposition), the right mix of training, nutrition, and recovery habits is key. Here’s how to make it happen — backed by science.

Exercise Recommendations:

• Progressive Resistance Training: A systematic review found that progressive overload (gradually increasing weight, repetitions, or sets) is essential for continued muscle development.

• Compound Movements: Exercises like squats, deadlifts, rows, and bench presses engage multiple muscle groups at once. These movements trigger greater hormonal responses and stimulate more growth.

• Training Frequency: Hitting each muscle group more than once a week leads to better results. This training frequency maximizes muscle protein synthesis¹².

• Cardiovascular Exercise: A combination of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity steady-state cardio optimizes fat loss while preserving muscle mass.

Nutritional Strategies:

• Protein Intake: Research recommends consuming 1.6-2.2g of protein per kilogram of body weight daily to support muscle protein synthesis while in a fat loss phase. Lean meats, dairy, eggs, legumes, and protein shakes all count.

• Energy Balance: To lose fat without losing muscle, eat 10–20% fewer calories than you burn. Extreme dieting can backfire by slowing your metabolism and breaking down muscle.

• Nutrient Timing: Consuming protein within the pre- and post-exercise window may enhance muscle protein synthesis and recovery. But don’t overthink it: total daily intake matters most.

• Hydration: Water is often overlooked, but it’s crucial. Dehydration can hurt performance, delay recovery, and impair muscle protein synthesis. Drink water throughout the day – not just at the gym.

Recovery Factors:

• Sleep Quality: This study demonstrates that inadequate sleep (less than 7 hours) impairs muscle recovery and growth while promoting fat storage.

• Stress Management: Chronic stress raises cortisol, a hormone that promotes fat gain and breaks down muscle. Practices like meditation, walking, or just unplugging can go a long way toward supporting your results.

Can You Weigh More and Be Healthier?

Absolutely – and science backs it up.

We often assume that a lower number on the scale equals better health. But that’s a misconception. What matters more than your total weight is what that weight is made of – and how your body functions.

A major study published in JAMA found that people with higher BMIs but strong cardiovascular fitness had lower mortality rates than those at a “normal” weight but poor fitness levels. In other words, being “fit but fat” can be healthier than being thin and unfit.

Another study showed that muscle mass matters, too. People with more muscle, even if they had higher body weight, had lower risk of heart disease than those with less muscle and lower weight.

Health markers that often improve with increased muscle mass, regardless of weight changes, include:

• Insulin sensitivity and glucose regulation

• Blood lipid profiles (cholesterol, triglycerides)

• Blood pressure and vascular function

• Inflammatory markers

• Bone mineral density

• Functional capacity and fall risk (especially in older adults)

These findings support a paradigm shift away from scale weight fixation toward a more comprehensive view of health that prioritizes body composition, metabolic function, and physical performance.

Key Takeaways

• Muscle and fat weigh the same pound for pound, but muscle is approximately 18% more dense than fat

• Scale weight alone is an inadequate measure of health and fitness progress

• Body composition (the ratio of fat to lean mass) is more important than total weight

• Visual appearance, functional capacity, and health biomarkers provide better progress indicators than weight

• Building muscle while losing fat can result in minimal scale weight changes despite significant body composition improvements

• Professional body composition analysis provides objective data to guide fitness and nutrition decisions

Debating whether you should add a few laps around the pool to your next gym session? As it turns out, there are plenty of good reasons why you should! 

Swimming is so much more than just a fun way to cool off when it’s hot out. When done as part of an active and healthy lifestyle, it’s actually one of the best ways to get a challenging (and enjoyable!) whole-body workout. Here are five benefits of swimming that’ll have you running to your nearest pool. 

5 reasons to add swimming to your workout routine

1. Swimming is a great cardiovascular workout

Swimming requires you to use all of your major muscle groups, which means that it’s a highly effective cardiovascular workout. 

Cardiovascular workouts are higher-intensity workouts that require the repetitive use of major muscle groups, such as the arms, legs, chest, back, and abdominals. As you go through your day, your blood carries nutrients to those muscle groups and throughout your entire body, including oxygen.

Because your big muscle groups require a ton of oxygen and nutrients to power you through cardio workouts, your heart works harder to keep up with your level of exertion. As a result, both your heart rate and your respiration rate increase during cardio exercises like swimming. 

One of the biggest benefits of including regular cardiovascular exercise in your fitness routine is that it can help keep your heart healthy, and swimming is no exception. In fact, one study found that regular swimming exercise among participants over the age of 50 with prehypertension or hypertension Stage I led to significant improvements in their blood pressure readings.

Since heart health is such an important factor in your overall health, and because high blood pressure can be the start of serious and debilitating health conditions, this is a big deal! 

2. Swimming can help improve your body composition

The benefits of cardio exercises like swimming go beyond keeping your cardiovascular system healthy — they can also help you maintain a healthy body composition. 

Calories are the units of energy you get from the foods you eat, which allow your body to carry out all of its tasks for the day, such as walking around, keeping your various bodily systems running, etc. When you’re eating more calories than your body needs, it stores that excess in your fat cells, to be used later.

But if you’re at a deficit, or eating fewer calories than you’re burning in a day, your body then uses up the stored energy in your fat cells, ultimately leading to fat loss. 

Regular physical activity is a great way to achieve a calorie deficit. Because they require so much energy to perform, cardio workouts like swimming are a highly effective method for burning calories, which can help reduce your body fat (when combined with other healthy lifestyle and dietary choices). 

The efficacy of swimming as a means of improving body composition has been highlighted by recent research. For example, after 12 weeks of swim training three times per week, the women in this 2019 study saw improvements in both hip circumference and waist-hip ratio, which are important biomarkers for health.  

A different study, published in the Metabolism Journal, compared the body composition benefits of both swimming and walking, another popular low-impact exercise.

The researchers found that, when compared to walking, swimming led to clinically significant improvements in body weight, body fat distribution, and insulin, as well as better body weight and lipid measures in the long term. 

3. Swimming is easy on the joints (and good for them, too!)

It’s no secret that cardiovascular activity of any kind is good for your heart and your overall health. But unfortunately, many higher-intensity cardiovascular workouts can also be really tough on your joints (think of how painful the impact is on your knees when you run on concrete, for example). 

On the other hand, swimming presents a much better option for those who suffer from bone and joint issues, since the majority of your weight during this exercise is supported by water.

That allows you to get a vigorous workout without having to contend with the impacts of gravity that are present when you engage in land-based exercises like running, walking, and cycling. 

Perhaps the best news here: not only is swimming easier on your joints, but it’s also been found to improve pain and stiffness among some populations that suffer from bone problems! In one study on adults with osteoarthritis, researchers found that regular swim training reduced joint pain and stiffness while also improving subjects’ muscle strength.

In addition, a meta-analysis found that among post-menopausal women (a population that is more prone to poor bone health), water-based exercises might not be as effective for improving bone health as land-based exercises, but they can still help, especially when compared to sedentariness. 

All these reported benefits of water-based activity might explain the popularity of aqua-aerobics classes — which, incidentally, may have the added health benefit of helping older adults reduce their risk of falling, due to their ability to induce improvements in both gait and balance. 

4. Swimming might be more accessible than other kinds of workouts

Exercise is one of the most important parts of a healthy lifestyle. But unfortunately, there are various factors that might discourage someone from joining a gym, such as accessibility, uncertainty about how to use the equipment, or an overall negative impression of what it’s like to work out in a gym. 

In these cases, swimming might be a more convenient and lower-pressure choice than a traditional gym or fitness class. Once you get the basics down, swimming is a fun exercise, no matter what your fitness level.

Even if you suffer from pre-existing injuries or health conditions that rule out land-based cardio and weightlifting routines, swimming can give you an enjoyable and pulse-raising cardiovascular workout.

For some people, it may be easier to gain access to a pool than it would be to join a gym. Even if you aren’t lucky enough to have your own pool in the backyard, there are plenty of other options for going for a dip, and many of them are more affordable than joining an expensive fitness class.

For example, you could visit a public pool. With more than 300,000 public pools located throughout the United States, it’s likely that you’ll be able to find one near you without too much difficulty. Public pools are usually a fairly cost-effective option as well. 

If you already happen to be a member of a fitness center, many gyms have on-site pools, making it convenient to add some laps to your regular workout routine.

Finally, there are also open bodies of water, like local rivers, lakes, and waterways, which you might be able to use to get your swimming exercise. However, if you decide to go this route, make sure that you are a confident swimmer and that conditions are safe before taking the plunge.

You’ll want to make sure that there aren’t any strong undercurrents or riptides. Generally, it’s best to have a lifeguard present, especially if you’re swimming in an open body of water. 

5. All that physical activity ultimately adds up to better overall health

Lastly, participating in regular aerobic activity of any kind can keep you healthy and combat many of the factors that contribute to chronic disease. For example, swimming may help you manage your chronic health issues by improving a variety of biomarkers, including insulin resistance and inflammatory reactions in patients with metabolic syndrome. Even better: a large study that followed adult men over the course of 32 years found that swimmers had a 49-53% lower all-cause mortality risk than other participants, including those who were walkers and runners! 

How to add swimming to your workout routine

Safety first

Swimming for exercise can be challenging, and it requires a certain level of skill and comfort in the water. So, if it’s been a while since you’ve hit the pool, it’s a good idea to brush up on your swimming skills before going all out. 

For starters, make sure that you’re comfortable floating and know how to breathe properly while you’re swimming. You’ll also want to test your basic kicking and paddling skills, to ensure that your movements are coordinated. 

If you aren’t totally confident in the water yet, it might be a good idea to take swimming lessons to help you master basic swimming skills before you plunge into higher-intensity workouts.

Start slowly

You may feel tempted to dive headfirst into a more challenging swimming routine from the very beginning, but it’s important to take it slow and steady at first until you’ve built more endurance. 

What this might look like: start by doing one lap back and forth across the length of the pool, then rest for thirty seconds before going on to your second lap, then repeat. Once you’re comfortable doing this, you can gradually increase the number of laps you do before resting. 

Experiment with different strokes and time yourself to increase the intensity

Finally, once you’re comfortable doing long laps in the pool, you can start really upping the intensity to get the most out of your pool time! Some challenges you can add to your swimming routine include: 

• Experimenting with various strokes, like the butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke, to engage different muscle groups

• Setting goals for how quickly you’d like to complete a lap, and timing yourself to track your progress 

• Doing aqua-aerobics between laps to keep your heart rate up 

For even more of a challenge, consider joining a swimming competition or an event like a triathlon! You’ll be able to set specific training goals for yourself and get an excellent workout too.

Conclusion

Swimming is an accessible, challenging, and effective workout for people of all fitness levels and body types. Dive in, have fun, and get a great workout in the process!

Editor’s Note: This post was updated on August 4, 2020, for accuracy and comprehensiveness. It was originally published on October 9, 2017

Whether your goal is gaining strength or developing definition and size the approach boils down to the same thing—building skeletal muscle.

The three main pillars of muscle growth are: nutrition, exercise, and hormones. Each of these components is important to reach your desired goal. 

In this article, we’ll focus on answering your most frequently asked questions about what to eat to build skeletal muscle. But first, it is helpful to develop a general understanding of skeletal muscle. 

What is the function of skeletal muscle?

Skeletal muscle is one of three major types of muscles in the human body, the others being smooth muscle and cardiac muscle. These muscles are attached to the bone by your tendons, hence the name. Skeletal muscles incorporate nerves and blood vessels along with connective tissue to operate as a functional unit. 

Each skeletal muscle consists of skeletal muscle cells that come together to form bundles of skeletal muscle fibers. Strength training stimulates these muscle fibers, and when combined with proper nutrition (more on this later), will cause hypertrophy or muscle growth. 

Muscles contract and shorten to pull on the bone and joints, causing body movement. The nervous system will send a signal to the nerves in the muscle and trigger these contractions. Along with movement, skeletal muscle helps you maintain your posture, generate body heat, and stabilize bones and joints.

Skeletal Muscle vs Lean Muscle

People often confuse lean body mass with skeletal muscle mass and use the term lean muscle and skeletal muscle interchangeably, but they are actually two different things.

Essentially, all muscle is “lean” in that it is primarily composed of lean proteins. Lean body mass (LBM), also known as lean mass, refers to your total weight minus all your fat mass. This includes your organs, skin, bones, body water, and muscles. 

On the other hand, skeletal muscle mass (SMM) is a part of your LBM. To recap, skeletal muscle is part of your lean body mass, but lean body mass is not part of your skeletal muscle mass. 

You can learn more about the distinction between the two in Lean Body Mass and Muscle Mass: What’s the Difference?

Now that you have a general understanding of skeletal muscle, let’s dive into your 10 most frequently asked questions.

1. Do I need to eat a high protein diet for larger muscle gain?

Yes, to an extent. It’s an established fact that eating high quality protein within close temporal proximity (immediately before and within 24 hours after) of resistance exercise is recommended to increase muscle gains.

The strain of repetition when you perform resistance exercise tears the muscle fibers, and the protein intake (although macronutrients like carbs and fat play a role, too) provides the resources to rebuild the newly torn muscles into something bigger and stronger.

It’s also worth noting that amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and as you most likely already know, your muscle is made up of these macronutrients. As we’ve emphasized in Why Everyone Needs Protein — Think of your muscles as the house itself while the amino acids that make up protein are the bricks.

The good news is that your body can manufacture a huge chunk of these amino acids. The not-so-good news is that some of them, also known as essential amino acids (EAA), can’t be made by the body. You have to get your EAAs from food sources.

In short, you need to follow a high protein meal plan that contains mixed amounts of these EAAs to help ensure increase muscle protein synthesis (MPS)

2. How much protein do I need to build skeletal muscle?

As of June 2017, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) recommends an overall daily protein intake in the range of 1.4–2.0 g protein/kg body weight/day (g/kg/d) for building and maintaining muscle mass. Remember, your specific dietary needs depend on the amount of muscle mass you have as well as the type and intensity of your physical activity

With these figures in mind, let’s say you weigh 125 pounds (57 kilos), and you’re working to increase your LBM.  You would need 57 x 1.4- 2.0 or 79.8 – 114 grams of protein a day.

This may sound like a lot but it’s not. A cup (140 grams) of chicken contains 43 grams of protein.   Meanwhile, a can of tuna can contain as much as 49 grams.  Eating a cup of chicken and a can of tuna, you’d almost entirely meet your protein needs.  If you add in a glass of 2% milk (another 9-10 grams of protein), you’ve already hit your goal.

Below is a rough dietary guideline based on activity level:

• 0.8-1.2 g/kg for regular activity

• 1.2-1.5 g/kg for endurance athletes

• 1.5-1.8 g/kg for strength/power athletes

If counting grams of protein for the day is not your thing, researchers have recommended an intake of about 20-40 grams of whey protein following a heavy bout of whole-body resistance exercise to promote greater muscle recovery. The results stressed that the traditional 20 grams of whey supplement after working out did not promote as much MPS as the 40 grams of protein.

3. Can I build more skeletal muscle from eating too much protein?

Not really.

Researchers found that eating five times the recommended daily allowance of protein has no effect on body composition in resistance-trained individuals who otherwise maintain the same training regimen. That means that doubling or tripling your protein intake doesn’t translate to greater muscle gain after exercise.

It’s also worth noting that this is one of the first interventional study to demonstrate that eating high protein meals does not result in an increase in fat mass.

4. Will too much protein hurt my kidneys?

While protein restriction may be appropriate for the treatment of existing kidney disease,  some research has shown high protein intake in healthy individuals to not be harmful to kidney function.  Unlike extra stores of fat that the body is so keen about in holding on, the amino acids in protein are more likely to be excreted via the urine when not in use.

With that in mind, there are certain risks associated with consuming too much protein so it’s wise to keep your intake in check. So what our conclusion here?

Eating more protein makes you feel fuller longer, can help curb overeating, and is essential for recovery and growth but don’t forget equally important nutrients like carbohydrates and fats for proteins when hitting your daily caloric goals (we’ll address this issue later).

5. Do I have to eat more meat to gain skeletal muscle?

Good question!

Sure, meat provides complete sources of proteins that are rich in essential amino acids so it truly is an excellent source of protein.

In a small study comparing the effects of resistance training-induced changes in body composition and skeletal muscle among two groups — older men with an omnivorous (meat-containing) diet and those with lacto-ovo vegetarian (meat-free) diet, the researchers found that the omnivorous diet resulted to greater gains in fat-free mass and skeletal muscle mass when combined with resistance training than the vegetarian-diet group.

Another study of 74 men and women who had type 2 diabetes — one half on a vegetarian diet and the other half on a conventional diabetic diet — were assessed at three and six months to measure how much weight they had lost. The study concluded that the vegetarian diet was almost twice as effective at reducing weight compared with the conventional diet.

But here’s the caveat — The greater weight loss seen in people on the vegetarian diet was also accompanied by greater muscle loss, particularly when maintaining their normal exercise routine. This might be an unwanted outcome and a disadvantage when compared with the omnivorous diet.

Finally, another research study examining the relationship between the type of protein intake and the level of muscle mass in healthy omnivorous and vegetarian Caucasian women found:

“A vegetarian diet is associated with a lower muscle mass index than is an omnivorous diet at the same protein intake. A good indicator of muscle mass index in women seems to be animal protein intake.”

Take note, however, that these findings do not automatically mean that animal protein is necessary to develop muscle mass.

6. Can I still build skeletal muscle if I’m on a plant-based diet?

It appears that some plant-based proteins are just as effective as animal protein at promoting muscle gain. A study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that supplementing rice protein following resistance training had similar benefits compared to whey protein supplementation. Both groups had decreased fat-mass, increased lean body mass, skeletal muscle hypertrophy, and improved power and strength. 

Of note, plant-based proteins often have lower digestibility compared to animal proteins. However, isolated protein, like rice protein powder, has a similar digestibility compared to animal-based proteins making it an effective post-workout supplement compared to whey protein.

If you are curious to see if a plant-based diet can work for you; you can find more information here.

 7. Do I need to limit my intake of carbs and fat on a high protein diet?

If you want to build muscle, increasing your dietary protein intake makes sense. However, this doesn’t mean that you should disregard carbs and fats.

For one, carbohydrates help replace glycogen and aids in enhancing the role of insulin when it comes to transporting nutrients into the cells, including your muscles. Combining protein and carbs also has the added advantage of limiting post- exercise breakdown and promoting growth.

In a nutshell, a diet balanced in protein, carbs, fats, and fiber is the most effective way to build muscle.

8. Will a ketogenic diet help me gain more muscle mass?

Most likely.  The main premise of a ketogenic diet is to opt for high fat, moderate protein, and a very low carb diet.

In an 11-week study of men who performed resistance training three times a week, the researchers found that lean body mass increased significantly in subjects who consumed a very low carb, ketogenic diet (VLCKD). Significant fat loss was also observed amongst the VLCKD subjects.

9. Does it matter when I eat for skeletal muscle gain?

For decades, the idea of nutrient timing (eating certain macronutrients at specific times like before, during, or after exercise) and meal scheduling has sparked a lot of interest, excitement, and confusion.

A good example of nutrient timing is the idea of the anabolic window, also known as a period of time after exercise, where our body is supposedly primed for nutrients to help recovery and growth.

However, a review of related literature revealed that while protein intake after a workout helps muscle growth, it may persist long after training.

If you’re going to ask the ISSN,  meeting the total daily intake of protein, preferably with evenly spaced protein feedings (approximately every 3 h during the day), should be given more emphasis for exercising individuals.

They also state that ingesting a 20–40 g protein dose (0.25–0.40 g/kg body mass/dose) of a high-quality source every 3 to 4 hours appears to favorably affect MPS rates over other dietary patterns, which allows for improved body composition and performance outcomes.

In short, it’s more important to focus on the total amount of protein and carbohydrate you eat over the course of the day than worry about nutrient timing strategies.

10. How do I know if I’m actually gaining skeletal muscle? 

When you’re thinking about gaining muscle, you are actually referring more specifically to your skeletal muscle mass (SMM). This is what we want to track and here’s why:

Apart from changes in your SMM, an increase in your lean body mass numbers can also be a result of water gain. Water gain can occur from bloating or eating salty foods but also from swelling from injury or disease. That’s why you cannot attribute an increase to LBM numbers completely to muscle gains.

You can learn more about the distinction between the two in Lean Body Mass and Muscle Mass: What’s the Difference?

The Takeaway

In summary, here’s what you need to remember when it comes to eating in order to gain muscle:

• Muscle gains are hard to come by if you don’t complement your exercise training with the right nutrition. Besides acting as fuel for physical activity, eating right helps in muscle recovery and development of new muscle tissue.

• Pay special attention to your protein intake in order to build muscle. Helpful figures to remember are 1.4–2.0 g protein/kg body weight/day (g/kg/d) depending on your body composition, activity type, and activity intensity.

• There’s been a lot of talk about specific amino acids and anabolic (muscle-building) superpowers. However, it’s still important to consume different sources of protein when you can and not just focus on a single protein source. Plus, remember that your body needs carbs and fat too.

• Do not worry about when is the best time to eat your steak. Eating a portion of lean protein with some fiber-rich carbs and fat every meal is a good way to help your body repair and rebuild muscle after resistance exercise. As much as possible, increase make sure to complement your exercise with the appropriate nutrients to promote muscle recovery and growth.

• If you’re on a plant-based diet, make sure you’re incorporating a wide variety of protein-rich plants to ensure that you’re getting the full range of amino acids. You may have to consider plant-based protein powder supplementation.

Remember, people have different goals when it comes to working out and gaining muscle  — from aesthetics to improved sports performance to feeling better about yourself. That means there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach.

Whatever your goal, it all begins with one small step at a time. What changes are you going to make today?

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Kyjean Tomboc is a nurse turned freelance healthcare copywriter and UX researcher.  After experimenting with going paleo and vegetarian, she realized that it all boils down to eating real food.