Building muscle without gaining weight?

Archeron

hi all

sorry for the long post.

I was hoping to ask your advice on whether or not you think it would be possible for me to build muscle without gaining any weight. I've read a few articles on this recently which kind of confused me a little (I will admit, I know little about this kind of thing so am easily confused), but was hoping to see if anyone might have advice.

I became interested in getting fitter in February 2015, at which point I was quite badly overweight. I started at 119kg. I'm a 6 foot 2 male, late thirties and job is completely sedentary. Diet at that point was almost all convenience food.

I do want to say thanks to this forum before I go on, as I have over the past year gotten great advice here, and its a huge part of the reason that I am able to ask this new question now, so cheers everybody, genuine thanks!

Since Feb 2015, I have gone from 119kg to my current weight of 86/87kg. I did go as low as 82kg mid December, but I was told I was looking ill as a lot of weight came off my face and I looked gaunt, so I put a bit of weight back on to get the 86/87kg I am at now which is a weight I am happy with. My build is very broad at the shoulders, and quite muscular legs, but weak upper body and arms. My shoulders are big and wide, but not muscular. My waist size is currently 32" and the last time I was checked my body fat % was 13 (i was about 3kg heavier then).

the last time I went to get my stats checked, I was told that while I had lost a good bit of fat, a too high percentage of the weight was muscle, and I really want to put that back on again. I am happy at my current weight, and am wondering is there anything you could suggest that I could build muscle in my upper body (Just to become a bit defined, I dont want to look like a pro weight lifter or anything) without gaining weight.

I do think that I still have an amount of fat to get rid of if I can and don't know how realistic it might be to aim for 8/9 % BF, I have a pouch around my belly which I cannot shift, although I am not sure how much of that may be excess skin from the weight loss, but it feels like fat. What I would like to do is maintain my current weight, get rid of what fat I can, and build muscle to replace that weight lost.

I currently do around 1hour to 90mins cardio about 5/6 times a week, and try to mix it between treadmill (incline fast walk mostly as I cannot run well and tend to injure myself) and cross trainer. I would then do a set of weights for around 40 minutes. So far, its been a bit all of the place and Ive had a bad habit of only doing the ones I enjoy, but those have shown results as for example my legs have become defined. I've met recently with a PT who gave me advice and new exercises for where i want to focus on developing. The routine he gave me focuses on upper body strength, but I am still keeping up with weight training on the legs too.

I began using MFP app when I plateaued at about 106KG, Since the point I've started using it, it has suggested not exceeding 1500 cal a day on the weight loss setting I had it, and it helped me lose the weight. I dont eat back the calories burned generally, which the machines in the gym tell me is normally 1000 on the cardio, which I think from what I've read here that its actually more likely about 500.
I have been watching my protein closely, but I can never get close enough to what it suggests. My diet would consist of mostly chicken, raw veg which I eat at least 5 portions a day, cereal like bran flakes or Fruit and Fibre, some fruit and high protein yoghurt for lunch. I do take Whey protein once a day. I was eating meat around 4 times a week, but I am trying to up that now and eat more beef. Most of the veg I eat is peas, beans of all varieties and all raw. Lots of tomatoes too. Ive now upped the calories a day to 1750 and struggle with meeting what they suggest for protein intake. I would frequently be suggested to get to 250g a day or more when I enter my calroies burned, but would struggle to reach 120.

I generally stay around 1750-2000 calories a day, but even upping to 1750 recently has seen my weight increase from 82 to 87 in a matter of two weeks. Christmas may have helped slightly too, but not much. I dont eat bread, pasta, rice and drink alcohol (spirits only) maybe once every two weeks. I also dont have a huge appetite either, and would rarely feel hungry.

I think I need a lot more protein to help me build muscle, but I dont know how to obtain that as I am worried that if I was to try and meet what they suggest, I would need to eat a LOT more calories and would be concerned that any weight gain would potentially go on as fat, not muscle. There is one guy in my gym who joined around the same time as me, and I've seen that his weight training has really paid off, and he is now really muscular, but he has put on a notable amount of weight which is not muscle. WHile I dont want to weight train to the high lifting level he is, I also dont want to put weight on that way either. Of course, I dont know anything about his diet or anything other than what I see, so I know thats not a great comparison.

Would anybody think its feasible for me to try and gain notable muscle mass at my current weight without gaining more weight, or do you think I do need to eat more to gain more protein, and just expect an increase in weight? As I say, I am not currently very good at knowledge in this area, so any thoughts would be great. Different people have told me different things on this, and I've read some conlifting articles, one of which said that the cardio could be killing any efforts in muscle gain, and I really dont want to stop my cardio as I really enjoy it. Other calculations sites tell me that with my stats and my exercise levels, I should be eating around 3000 - 3500 calories a day just to maintain, but I have eaten half that for a year now, and even upping by 250 - 500 a day has resulted in weight gain, so I'm kind of confused!

any thoughts would be really appreicated

ixus

The phrase " a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" comes to mind. Firstly, well done for achieving such weightloss. It obviously took courage and discipline. However, your thought process on gaining weight from doing a weightlifting program is flawed. Understandably, you are influenced by your previous weight and a fear or a return. If you were to train correctly and eat accordingly, you could easily put on 10kg from 85kg range you mention and, at 6'2, look like a filled out man given your description of legs and shoulders. Not fat.

I have no training qualifications (i have engaged the services of some PT's and trained under reputable coaches but am sure someone will come along with some) but, imho, you could be both eating and training more efficiently.

60-90 mins cardio plus weights 5/6times is overkill for a single session. The veg you list are legumes and not sufficient. Cereal breakfast is a no no really. There's no need for protein shakes or the like. Omelettes filled with veg would be great, porridge even. Veg, carrots broccoli, eat them. Discover the sweet potatoe and all its goodness. Avocado too.

Weights, learn about Compound lifting and its benefits (squat, deadlift. Bench etc). Get an experienced person to teach you how to lift correctly. A program like Stronglifts is often mentioned here. Read up on it.

You can get a few hours back in your week and imrpove your body. A proper weight session 3/4 times a week for 40-50mins. Do your walking on days off if you like. The 60-90mins runs take there toll. You could try shorter runs at faster speeds. More benefit anyway.