How long does it realistically take the average guy to put on 20 pounds of lean mass?

[Deleted member 20631]

Given you’re eating at a small surplus and training optimally.

Is 1.5 to 2 years enough? Taking into account newbie gains as well

 

[Orc]

you can gain that your first year of training and you won't even have to bulk that hard.

 

[Deleted member 4209]

maingaining 10 yrs
bulking 1.5

 

[zeek]

1.5 years

 

[Tonymontana]

You could literaly put on 10 lbs of lean mass in a week. Load creatine (20 gs/day) and eat 600-800 gs of carbs/day.

It’s not actual muscle/contractile tissue. Its water stored in the muscles and glycogen but the visual difference is still substantial. Muscles will be fuller and rounder and to everyone else, it will just look like actual muscle

 

[autistic_tendencies]

A life time lol

 

[kalefartbomb]

If you're completely untrained and sedentary you can do it in a year or less. Like going from a skinny 140lbs to 160lbs. For people who already are lifting and/or athletic it will be slower since it's those very first gains that are easiest

 

[SoundnVision]

20 pounds of pure muscle?
Maybe 10 years if you're lucky

 

[SoundnVision]

If you're completely untrained and sedentary you can do it in a year or less. Like going from a skinny 140lbs to 160lbs. For people who already are lifting and/or athletic it will be slower since it's those very first gains that are easiest

You can't even put 20 pounds of pure muscle on in a year with roids

 

[kalefartbomb]

You can't even put 20 pounds of pure muscle on in a year with roids

You are talking about someone already lifting doing a roid cycle. We are talking about noob gains. Noob gains are far more dramatic than a steroid cycle. I gained about 10lbs of muscle my first test cycle (and another 10lbs of bloat). In my first year of serious natty lifting I went from about 140-160 lean, it can easily be done if the starting point is being weak and underweight.

 

[Tonymontana]

There’s a big difference between lean mass and actual muscle/contractile tissue.

The former is anything that’s not fat. Water, glycogen, creatine. Doesn’t take a lifetime to put on 20 lbs of lean mass lol.

Take creatine, and carb load. Especially if OP is a newb, he could put on 30 lbs of lean mass (mix of actual muscle, and glycogen/water) in his first year. Even more if he’s underweight

 

[makeme183]

I gained about 10lbs of muscle my first test cycle (and another 10lbs of bloat

how much test/week did you run ?
did you have your E2 dialed in ?

 

[Deleted member 25377]

You could literaly put on 10 lbs of lean mass in a week. Load creatine (20 gs/day) and eat 600-800 gs of carbs/day.

It’s not actual muscle/contractile tissue. Its water stored in the muscles and glycogen but the visual difference is still substantial. Muscles will be fuller and rounder and to everyone else, it will just look like actual muscle

but you'll look like a bloated gymcel with 0 appeal

 

[Blackgymmax]

There’s a big difference between lean mass and actual muscle/contractile tissue.

The former is anything that’s not fat. Water, glycogen, creatine. Doesn’t take a lifetime to put on 20 lbs of lean mass lol.

Take creatine, and carb load. Especially if OP is a newb, he could put on 30 lbs of lean mass (mix of actual muscle, and glycogen/water) in his first year. Even more if he’s underweight

Contractile tissue???? 10lbs contractile tissue takes FOREVER

 

[Tonymontana]

Contractile tissue???? 10lbs contractile tissue takes FOREVER

10 lbs of contractile tissue in the first year for a newbie is perfectly reasonable if they actually train effectively (progressive overload) and bulk the entire time.

Most people don’t know the difference between contractile tissue and lean mass/water. Even just an additional 5 lbs of actual contractile tissue spread across the upper body makes a HUGE visual difference.

Contractile tissue is dense and hard. People think they’re losing muscle when they cut when in actuality they’re just losing the bloat/glycogen size. If you train the right way (progressive overload, get strong as fuck for moderate to high reps), you look shredded when you diet down as opposed to flat due to simply having more actual muscle tissue.

 

[CometDragon]

Given you’re eating at a small surplus and training optimally.

Most sources say men can gain 0.25 - 0.5lbs a week. So that would mean 40-80 weeks.

It would be expected newbie gains would skew those numbers though. Building muscle is very metabolically demanding so there is definitely a maximum somewhere.

The highest rate of muscle mass ever recorded was 1.348lbs per week. This was in a study involving 600mg of testosterone and participants strength training as well. That does include glycogen and water in muscle but that at the very least gives us a close maximum newbie gains or not.