I'm gonna share with you what it looks like to gain 30 pounds of lean muscle naturally.
And this is not one of those guy where I'm gonna tell you that I gained 30 pounds of muscle in three months or four months, because thats not reality is, it took me years,and
I want to share with you that reality. I want to share with you exactly what are all the stages that I went through, how much muscle I've built, the numbers, the stats, the examples that you need to know on your journey, because whether you're someone who was just starting out, or someone who's been lifting for a while, it is very important to have the right expectations and know how long it might take you to see results.
So then you can set the right goals and achieve those goals. So let's get right into it. So at the very beginning of my fitness journey, I started off overweight. I was fluctuating between 200 pounds and 205 at five foot 10, and my primary goal was to lose body fat. I wanted to get lean and that's exactly what I did. So for the first 12 months, I focused on dieting, higher protein intake, cardio, some weights.
And I went from 200, down to 154 pounds. At 154 pounds, I didn't look like I lift. I wasn't very muscular. I was just that skinny guy in a shirt, but I was really proud of my transformation.
I think with the power of new beginnings, I probably did gain five or six pounds of muscle in that first year, even though that was not the intent, I didn't really know how to build muscle. My knowledge was quite limited at the time.
And I wasn't thinking like an athlete. I was thinking more about how much weight I was losing. So there was a lot of room there to grow more, but I was pretty happy and proud of my results.
And at that 154 pounds, I would estimate myself around 14 to 15% body fat, which would then bring my lean body mass to 154 minus 15% down to 131 pounds, so that's what we're dealing with.
That's the baseline stat of how much muscle I truly had at that point, moving into the next stage. Now stage two is really the period where I've seen the most impressive changes with my physique, especially when it comes to building muscle.
And this is the period of time of four years, starting after that initial one year transformation. In these four years, I've done numerous bulks and cuts. I've learned a lot about training for building muscles, strength training in general, dialed in my exercise technique.
I've learned a lot more about nutrition, how to dial in my protein intake. My diet quality improved, my sleep improved, my overall recovery improved.
I really started taking fitness a little bit more seriously. It became a higher priority in my life during this period of time. I developed a bigger passion for it. And in these four years, I've built about 14 to 15 pounds of pure lean muscle. So my lean body mass went from 131 up to 145, 146 pounds.
So when I was walking around at 10% body fat, at 161, 162 pounds, I looked very, very good. I was very happy with that physique. A lot of people actually didn't believe that I was 162 pounds, they thought I was 175 or 180. And this just shows how people are terrible with estimating the target body weight for a certain height.
They think if you're five foot ten, that you have to be at 185 or 190 to look impressive. But the reality is you need a little bit of a muscle, but of course you need to be lean. And then you're gonna have that aesthetic look. And this is what I was aiming for, actually. When I started my fitness journey, I wasn't inspired by that big bulky bodybuilder look, I wanted to be fit, lean, athletic. And that was that physique at 162 that I was really proud of.
But of course, given my nature, which is to try to see how far I can push things, I wanted to see what is the next level. And this leads me to the next stage, which is the period of the last five to six years. And in this entire period of time, despite consistency, working hard, working smart, pushing myself, all the experience, I've not gained more than 10 pounds of lean muscle.
And I'm currently sitting at 172 pounds, 10% body fat, five foot 10 with my lean body mass at 155 pounds. So if you rewind back all the way to the beginning, I started 125 pounds, overall weight. I gained that six pounds in initial first year.
Then I went to 145 pounds after four years or so, and now I'm at 155 pounds of lean body mass, which is a total of 30 pounds of lean muscle gained. I'm in the best shape of my life. I'm very, very happy with my physique. And of course I want to see how far I can push it. And what is my genetic limitation? Now, speaking of those genetic limitations, I've definitely noticed that things have slowed down.
So I will need to have extra patience moving forward and work even harder to keep gaining more muscle. And one thing I do want to point out here, that it's not just about your genetics, it's also about how much muscle can you build naturally with your lifestyle. So things like, how many workouts a week can you realistically do on a consistent basis?
Your sleep, your stress levels, how big of a priority this is in your life.
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