7.1 lbs of muscle in 8 weeks possible natty? (stanford university experiment, link included)

[capenterslake4me]

@syntychie The TV show does the DEXA.

 

[syntychie]

@capenterslake4me I don't know what the TV show was, but I am assuming that it means that the DEXA was not controlled as it would be in a study

 

[capenterslake4me]

@syntychie I don’t know squat about dick, so I couldn’t tell you whether or not the dexa was controlled. But this study was documented as a miniseries on Netflix - You Are What You Eat, A Twin Experiment or something like that.

2/10 would not recommend.

Idk why you were downvoted though. You’re right, the DEXA ain’t in the study.

 

[syntychie]

@capenterslake4me Gotcha - well, it would be easy for them to put up a before and after then! I don't see it in the article

 

[lybrah]

@kpmasonry Case by case basis I would imagine. I gained 14 pounds in 23 days and still had visible abs, veins, and striations. However I was letting muscle memory do it’s thing and eating in a massive surplus. 7 pounds of lean mass in 8 weeks though? I don’t know. If you think about it, under a pound per week for 8 weeks isn’t exactly that crazy; especially factoring in noob gains and good genes. I don’t doubt that it’s possible since there’s so much variation in the human genome. Genetics play a much larger role in muscle development than some people want to believe.

 

[askinghonestly]

@kpmasonry This experiment has long been debunked as not viable in a number of ways. It's probably "possible" for someone but not likely possible someone both lean and natural

 

[nikkideamus]

@kpmasonry No. They didnt gain that much muscle - there was no change in the omnivore, and there were no drastic changes to exercise that would explain how an experienced trainee would suddenly see gains through the roof.

It's important to remember that DEXA can only see 3 things - Bone, Fat, and "Not fat or bone" - and so you can gain 2 pounds of lean muscle for example by just really needing to take a big shit, or drinking a litre of water. If you're hungry before one scan, then eat a big meal before your next, this can often produce huge swings in what the test tells you is "lean mass".

 

[kpmasonry]

@nikkideamus The margin of error based on what you are saying will be +-2 lbs because a dump and water can't weigh more than that?

 

[nikkideamus]

@kpmasonry Perhaps I chose a simplistic example, and this might make what i'm saying less clear.

basically water retention, undigested food, glycogen, urine etc all contribute to the "lean mass" reading in a dexa, so they give inaccurate results that appear to show muscle growth when thats not always the case.

The only DEXA place I recommend closes at 10am because they consider any result outside of this time too affected by water, glyogen and food changes to be at all worthwhile.

I think if you gamed the system you could get a DEXA to give a 7lb difference easily - my shifts in scale weight over a day are often 8+ pounds, although I am 235.

 

[kpmasonry]

@nikkideamus ah. that's an insane range for me. i'm currently 148 and my weight doesn't change a pound in either direction. i take my dexa scan fasted - on food and water. and with the same machine and technician, wearing the same clothes. so hopefully my result is directionally correct.

 

[helen2002]

@kpmasonry

that is it possible to build 7.1 lbs of muscle natty in just 8 week

No not possible, I'd be curious to how they measured it.

Tbh I see people on social media a lot lately saying for eg. "I gained 20kg of muscle in 2 years by X". When it's clearly all mostly fat gain from the bulk, idk how they can't put 2 + 2 together.

 

[ktores]

@kpmasonry The answer is they were 5'6" and 138lbs at the beginning, BMI 22, which is pretty low and lean for bodybuilding. Not hard to build muscle fast in that state. That much at that speed though idk