All right, so you want to get strong and go to the gym to work. You may think that pumping weights is all you have to do, but it is not that simple.
It is nutrition that plays in big role when it comes to recovery and growth. You need to change your diet according to the increase or decrease of your muscle mass. If you gain muscle you need to eat more. If you loose muscle you need to eat less. How can you observe what is occurring inside your body?
First you will want to monitor your weight and see if your goal of adding muscle is causing your bodyweight to increase. If the weight is stay as it is, then we need to look at increasing the food taken in. You are eating too much if your weight is increasing and if your stomach is growing. Be careful, as initially your weight will increase with lifting, and you want to monitor for increased in the dreaded fat.
Fat calipers are another great way to determine if you are building muscle or fat. When you use calipers every two weeks, you can see what precisely is going on, for example if you see your muscle going down from not eating, the calipers will reveal that you should eat more. Eat less if the calipers show that your body fat percentage is increasing.
Decent gyms should offer a set of calipers, which should give you true readings as to the results as long as you ensure the same person takes measurements each time. Using the callipers and finding the millimeters and your bodyweight you can use the chart and find the percentage bodyfat you have.
If you get yor bodyweight in pound and then multiply it by the percentage of bodyfat, that will give you your total bodyfat. Total bodyweight less the resulting figure will equal one’s fat free mass. Although the figure has organs and muscle we use the entire model for the calculations including organs and bones.
You should record and keep the figures you calculated for total body fat and for fat free mass. When you have your measurements taken you can check to see if the percentage of bodyfat has increased. If you do the correct exercise and eat correctly then your body fat will go down. And with the decrease of body fat, you will find that your muscles and fat free mass will go up. If you are not eating correctly you will discover that your fat free mass, muscle is decreasing and the bodyfat is increasing.
