You’re Being a Whiny Bitch When it Comes to Your Progress … (But it’s Probably Not Your Fault.)
- Jonny Hamitlon-Potter
- Jan 15, 2016
- 9 min read
I get annoyed hearing friends and people I know in the industry be disappointed and upset about the results they’re getting from training and nutrition plans.
9 times out of 10 when I ask them why they’re so upset with their results, when they actually tell me I try my hardest not to give them a big ‘wake up call’ slap to the face.
I’m shocked because more often than not they’re moaning because ‘they’ve only dropped 2lbs this week’ or ‘only added 5kg to their bench-press in a month.’
The Truth?
These are both BRILLIANT achievements and actually more than what’s expected of them in that short time period.
As a fitness professional, you can see my frustration, and why I’m disappointed that people are so down about their progress.
I mainly blame fitness magazines and social media for the un-realistic expectations of body composition, fat loss, strength and muscle gains. Therefore the purpose of this article is to really let people know what can actually realistically be achieve.
1. Total Muscle Mass Expectations
One of the best measures of determining how much muscle a natural lifter can attain over their lifetime is by using something called the ‘fat free mass index’ (FFMI)
The chart shows the FFMI’s of winning bodybuilders who competed in Mr America from 1939-1959.
Due to the lack of steroid availability at the time the highly skeptical can only view the 1939-1944 winners as almost certainly drug-free while the moderately skeptical can view the 1939-1953 winners as being almost certainly drug free.
For a male, 19 is the average but on this chart of elite athletes you can see an average FFMI of 24.9 for the 1939-1944 period and an average of 25.6 for the 1939 – 1959 period.
Therefore when reviewing the chart you can see that a FFMI of roughly 25 is at the top of a genetically elite males limit and this value hasn’t changed since the 1930’s.
There are lots of online calculators which you can use In order to work out your FFMI, but a simple trick is to divide your fat free mass (in kg), over your height squared (in meters) e.g.-
• John weighs 100kg, 1.84 meters and has 16% bodyfat
• His ‘fat free mass’ is 100kg -16% = 84kg
• His height is 1.84 meters and when squared = 3.38
• Therefore based on the initial equation 84kg / 3.38 = 24.85 on the FFMI
What is a Good FFMI Reading?
Males:
• 17-18 – slightly built and below average
• 19-20 – average musculature
• 20-22 – distinctly muscular and above average
• >22 – Rarely achieved without several years of weight training and well above average
• ~25 – the upper limit of natural muscle building potential
• >25 – Extremely unlikely to reach this level naturally
Females:
• 12-13 – Slightly built low musculature
• 14 -15 – average musculature
• 16-17 – distinctly muscular and above average
• 19-20 the upper limit of natural muscle building potential after several years of weight training
• 21-22 Extremely unlikely to reach this level naturally
FFMI may exceed the top ranges in over-fat individuals but when fat is lost this also causes the loss of connective tissue, increased organ size, visceral fat, intramuscular fat that is gained in overweight people, this would bring their FFMI rating down to the numbers predicted in the above ranges.
Wrapping up Total Muscle Mass:
Knowing the FFMI of the ‘normal’ population as well as the genetic elite will hopefully help encourage a realistic thought pattern of how quickly you can build muscle and therefore result in you being more content with your muscle gain progress to date.
2. Fat/Weight Loss expectations
I can actually sympathise with people who believe it is expected of them to lose absurd numbers of weight such as 6-10 lbs in a week during a fat loss plan.
This section is probably the most misunderstood part of this whole article and these expectations are mainly caused by the media trying to sell a new ‘miracle product’ or ‘extreme home workout’ where each one claims to make you loose even more weight than their competitors
Contrary to what you may believe you can only physically lose a certain amount of fat per week, and what you should be aiming to lose is actually much less than expected. A realistic amount of weight to lose is normally between 0.75lbs -3lbs (depending on the weight and current fat mass of the person) but I actually like to set clients a target of losing a percentage of their current bodyweight rather than an actual number.
It is better to use a percentage loss of current weight as a target because using an equation fashioned by this method produces results and expectations that can be set at a more realistic level for the individual instead of just expecting to lose 3lbs a week.
The upper limit of what a natural trainee should look to lose is between 0.5 and 1% of their current total bodyweight per week; Those who have a lot of body fat can sometimes initially lose more than 1% and those who are very lean (possibly pre physique competition) may look to lose 0.5% or less.
The other factor that can affect fat loss rate is how optimal and closely monitored your training and nutrition are:
Some people are better suited to stick to a training and/or nutrition plan, which is more relaxed/’sub-optimal’, simply due to the extremely important factor that carrying out their nutrition and training in this fashion may fit perfectly within their lifestyle.
Some people can only train one, two or three times per week due to family or work commitments, they may have to eat out regularly in restaurants and even be forced to stay in hotels; this can result in the accuracy of tracking food and training adherence to be more difficult… But that’s ok.
These people may find it much easier to adhere to a nutrition and training plan, which is 70-80% of what is required for maximal fat loss. Even though this may result in them ‘only’ losing 0.15-0.3% of their total bodyweight per week (which is less than the upper limit that a natural trainee should look to lose.)
Working at 70% optimality would most likely produce slower results than choosing to do everything by the book consistently at 100%; BUT ’70-80% adherence all of the time’ far surpasses infrequently sticking to a plan at 100% optimality only some of the time.
Wrapping up fat loss expectations:
Ask yourself:
“Am I being realistic with what I’m looking to achieve from a fat loss standpoint?”
If you’re following a nutrition and training structure which easily fits your lifestyle and allows for long term adherence and progress don’t beat yourself up if it isn’t optimal on paper.
No matter how slow you’re achieving results, progress is still progress.
Many people get disheartened because they can’t be perfect or follow the latest extreme fad diet to the letter, but don’t fret – do what YOU can to bring about the best results.
3. Monthly Muscle Gain Expectations
Once again I need to sarcastically thank fitness and health magazines/online articles with titles such as:
- Gain 5lbs of muscle in 2 weeks
- Add an inch to your arms this month
- Build shirt bursting sleeves this summer
This time I thank them for giving naïve gym goers (I was admittedly one of the most naïve not so long ago) extremely false expectations of how much muscle an individual really can build in a short a time as 4 weeks.
So what is expected per month?
Note: This is expected if you’re doing things right.
Not sure if you are?
Go back and read these before moving on to step 1-
Step 1. Categorize Yourself as Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced Trainee
An ideal weight gain target over the course of a month depends on whether an individual is a beginner, intermediate or advanced lifter.
A beginner has less than or equal to 1 year of sound strength training and nutrition
An Intermediate has 1 – 2 years of sound strength training and nutrition under their belt
An advanced lifter has 2+ years of sound strength training and nutrition
Step 2. Look at the Rate of Muscle Gain Model Below (Credit to Alan Aragon)
A male beginner can expect to add 1-1.5% of total bodyweight per month
A male intermediate can expect to add 0.5-1% of total bodyweight per month
A male advanced trainee can expect to add 0.25 – 0.5% of total bodyweight per month
Note - Females can expect to add around half of this the above equations
"So a 150 pound beginner might be able to gain 1.5-2.25 pounds of muscle per month (18-27 pounds per year).
After a year, he’s now an intermediate at 170 pounds and might be capable of gaining 0.85-1.7 lbs per month (10-20 pounds per year; I’d consider 20 lbs. an exceptional gain).
After another year, he’s an advanced lifter at 180 and might only gain 0.5-1 lb per month (a true 1 lb/month gain in muscle mass for an advanced athlete would be pretty rare).
So he might top out at 190-200 pounds or thereabouts after another year or two of training, at 10% body fat, he’d have 170-180 pounds of lean body mass"
- text from Lyle McDonald
It should also be noted that depending on the individual around half of what is gained may be body-fat as it is impossible to add ‘just muscle’ in a calorie surplus, but without being in a surplus your body won’t build sufficient muscle.
Important take home point
Before wrapping this part up I also would like to add that the expecations above are based on 'being able to do everything 100% optimally' (as I explained further up this section).
If you live in a world where you can't commit to a large amount of sessions per week (which is commonly due to agreeably more important factors such as work or family commitments) then you should also accept that you will build muscle slower than someone who could train optimally and more frequently.
I have said this before - slower results are ok and the sooner you accept this the sooner you will be able to enjoy your training more, being proud of your accomplishments so far.
There is no point getting annoyed or frustrated when progressing slower if it doesnt negatively affect the more important things in life,
Remember - progress is still progress.
Wrapping up Monthly Muscle Gain Expectations
Following the above information will help you gauge your own muscle growth progress and show you how to monitor it realistically.
Learning to ignore the latest article on extreme anabolism from Flex Magazine, or side-stepping Jim Stoppani’s claims of adding pounds of solid muscle tissue while getting jacked in a month will give you better expectations, and feel much happier with your results.
4. Strength Gain Expectations
‘If you’re a beginner, sit back and enjoy the ride! ’ – Bret Contreras.
When you first start strength training you will grow bigger and get stronger throughout nearly all exercises at an astonishing rate of speed (no matter how poor your training and nutrition set-up is)… This is mostly due to rapid gains in intramuscular coordination.
Unfortunately, this lasts about as long as a 17 year-old’s first time in the sack, and sometimes because of the quick gains you initially received you still expect the same rate of progression; this chain of thought will leave you de-motivated and demoralised when progress starts to slow.
This final part of this article is to help you see what to expect from a strength gain perspective once your ‘newbie gains’ have passed...
The graph pictured shows the average female strength gains over a 6 month period whilst utilising a 3 - 8 rep range and is taken from Bret Contreras' website.
It’s on-point as it gives fairly good expectations and benchmarks for natural trainees to refer too (even though it is admittedly a 'hypothetical average')
From the graph you can notice a few things but for the purpose of this post take note of this fact - 'Strength gains are fastest in month one and have slowed down markedly at the six month mark'
Note:
A bigger muscle is also a stronger muscle and you now you know that it can take quite a long time for muscle to grow. If bigger muscles work in direct correlation with muscular strength then this factor also needs to be considered when looking at the rate of strength gains…if you are growing slower strength gains will also be slower.
Wrapping up Strength Gain Expectations
Strength gains will slow and plateau – that’s completely normal and an expected adaption to training.
Think about it rationally for a second;
If your strength gains didn’t slow down you would be the strongest person on the planet in a matter of months, and we can’t all be Brian Shaw.
That said, anyone can get stronger indefinitely, so if you’re struggling and still feeling puny and weak, check out my “How to Stop Being a Puny Weakling” article.
Signing Out
Fingers crossed you’re now comfortable and happy with what you can expect to achieve in the gym, and don’t feel downhearted when you don’t suddenly turn into Dexter Jackson overnight.
Building muscle and strength takes time, dedication and consistency – if it was fast and easy, the whole world would be jacked.
Please let me know if you have any questions on the topic by dropping me an email or feel free to add me and drop me a PM on Facebook
Jonny
References:
http://www.alanaragonblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Aug-2014-AARR-Eric-Helms-Article.pdf
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/whats-my-genetic-muscular-potential.html/
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/fat-free-mass-index-in-users-and-nonusers-of-anabolic-androgen-steroids-research-review.html/
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