Muscle Gain: A Realistic Timeline and Key Factors That Impact Progress

We often hear questions about how quickly we can lose fat, but recently, someone flipped the script and asked me, “How long is it going to take me to gain muscle?”

Building muscle plays a vital role in maintaining functionality, metabolic health, and quality of life.  While fat loss often steals the spotlight, it’s crucial not to overlook how vital muscle building is, especially as we age. Plus, it’s essential to understand that losing fat and gaining muscle are two completely different processes.

Join me for this week's episode, where I’ll share practical tips for optimizing muscle gain and discuss specific factors, like protein intake, that influence your progress. If you are in a stage where you want to optimize and prioritize muscle mass as a key component of your health and fitness journey, be sure to tune into these key insights on how to set yourself up for success!


References

Ep. 66: Sulfur Burps on GLP-1 Meds

The Muscles & Mindset™ Program: 10-Minute Workouts, Three Times a Week to Keep Muscle and Shed Body Fat

The Top 5 Mistakes That People Make When Starting a GLP-1

Until It’s Done…A Devoted Podcast - Dana Kaye


Audio Stamps

02:04 - Fat loss and muscle gain are very different processes, and Dr. Rentea highlights the need to maintain muscle during fat loss before focusing on building muscle.

05:47 - Dr. Rentea discusses the timeframe for gaining muscle, emphasizing that individual body types—ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph—play a significant role in muscle development.

07:42 - Gaining muscle while in a calorie deficit is challenging but still possible, especially with mild deficits and for individuals new to strength training.

16:11  - Dr. Rentea emphasizes the importance of a tailored approach to strength training and muscle maintenance, while encouraging small, consistent efforts in daily routines.


Quotes

“When we're working on fat loss, I don't typically see muscle go up. My main thing is we try with all our might to maintain every single pound of that muscle.” - Dr. Rentea

“Frankly, if you’re a woman and you’re not losing any muscle as you age, that is actually a win, because the norm, according to the data, is loss every single year.” - Dr. Rentea

“Most people are going to benefit from roughly 100g of protein—so roughly 30 grams, three times a day.” - Dr. Rentea

“Most of this battle is going to be won in the small moments.” - Dr. Rentea

All of the information on this podcast is for general informational purposes only. Please talk to your physician and medical team about what is right for you. No medical advice is being on this podcast.

If you live in Indiana or Illinois and want to work with doctor Matthea Rentea, you can find out more on www.RenteaClinic.com

Transcript

0:28

Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. How are y'all feeling today? I hope you're having an amazing Monday, that your week's off to a great start when you're listening to this. I am finally feeling a little bit more settled in from all these conferences that I've been going to. I still have one more coming up here, but I got some really great advice here at a recent conference about how I could structure my calendar a little bit better to accommodate these different travels. And I really love talking to people that I consider my colleagues that are professional women that Frankly are a little bit further along than me and have just figured some things out and I, I don't think that we need to recreate the wheel all the time. So when I heard this advice of how to do things, I've actually already actively implemented this for the next trip. And so I'm going to see, you know, this process of experimentation. We talk about how much you don't only do this in areas of health, you do this in all areas. So for me, business and structuring things in a way that supports me better, definitely something that I'm looking into. So I've already made those changes. And today I want to do two things. Number one, I'm going to answer one of the fan mail questions that I got. We get a lot of them. I'm so sorry that I just truly cannot email all of you back or answer all of it. Remember that If there's a quick episode that I can point you to, I'll have my team send you an email back directing you to that. You know, if there's something that at this point we have, gosh, close to a hundred episodes. And so there's no way that you would know what exists out there. So we'll try to direct you to that. We don't unfortunately have the manpower to necessarily be able to handle that all the time. And so I'm going to try. To integrate a little bit more into episodes. Some of these questions kind of just start out. And then the thing that I really want to focus on today, it is going to be again, another brief episode. How quick can you expect to gain muscle if you're at a part in your journey where you are working on muscle gain? One of the things I really want to stress is that it's a very different phase. When you're losing fat, you just want to simply maintain your muscle. Those are two very different processes. When you're, when you are, Losing fat versus gaining muscle. In fact, they are entirely opposite. So it's very unrealistic to think and it can happen I'm not saying it can't happen. In fact, I have a little bit follow this trajectory You can lose weight and gain muscle, but it is a very certain body type it is a very certain thing that people are doing or that their body is capable of and that's 99 percent of people that is not their story or trajectory. So when you lose fat, as you're losing weight, we want to hold on to your muscle. And then you might go into a mode of body recomposition where you say, okay, and now I want to have more muscle and that's a different mode that you go into. And so we're going to talk today about what kind of timeline could you expect with that or some caveats. So let's start out with this fan mail question. Someone wrote in, hi, I'm nervous that I might get bad breath from delayed gastric emptying while I'm being on Zep Bound. So again, Zep Bound is Trezepatide. That's the same as Menjaro, just for everyone listening. Is this common with GLP 1 and is there anything to do like supplements? So Zep Bound. I will say no, it is not common that you start these medications and you have bad breath. I think what this person is worried about, typically when I'm thinking about patients and side effects, you can get something called sulfur burps. That's sort of the layman's term of how I put it. But when you're on these medications, Food is staying in the stomach and the intestine longer, and so because food is starting the fermentation process higher up, so it might have gone past the stomach when this happened in the past, but now when you're on these medications, it might be sitting in the stomach longer, and so some of that fermentation is happening, and you might I'm going to have a burp that you wouldn't have even noticed. But sometimes it can be very sulfuric. And so these sulfur burps, I've done a whole episode on this as well. I'm going to direct you back to that. But the thing that's uncomfortable about it is no one wants a sulfur burp. taste coming up, right? You can kind of taste that gas. It's unpleasant. And typically it will relate to issues of gas trapping. So you might have been drinking carbonated beverages. You might be, drinking from a drink that has a straw. So there's lots of extra air coming down because remember whenever you use a straw, that suction of the air pulling up, that's initially what needs to happen for the fluid to come up. And so that could happen. It could also be that maybe you increased your fiber content really quickly. And, you know, normally you might get some, some gas, some abdominal pain, but now because it's fermenting higher, you might actually be tasting those burps. So again, this is not the most pleasant topic, but I will say that I frankly not ever, but not that anything's not a possibility. I don't know that I've ever heard of people saying, Hey, my breath is bad on this medication. I just have not heard that. So I think more when I'm going to take care out of this question is, yes, you could have. Again, some of those sulfur burps, no, it's not super common. People experience it here or there, but there's usually, we just need to space the meals out more. Maybe we need to take some of those things that have a bunch of sulfur in them. Like maybe we say, Hey, you know, not so many of these, cruciferous vegetables. So things like broccoli, we might decrease, we might decrease some egg content during that time. Things that have the sulfur content in them. Bring down the fiber content a little bit, space out the meals more, sort of ease up, if you would, a little bit, and usually after one, two, three days, these things have passed, or we just learn, okay, whenever I use a straw, that type of thing happens. So, I hope that this was helpful. We'll make sure, also, in the show notes, to link to, A, an episode where I entirely just talked about management of sulfur burps, and I hope that that's helpful. Okay. The next thing I wanna go to here, this is really the, the meat and potatoes of what I want to talk about. I very directly got asked this question recently, how long is it gonna take me to gain muscle? Now I wanna just. I want to just very gently remind you when you're listening to this podcast, I'm talking in gross generalities, but everyone is going to have a different body type. So if you listen to Dr. Allie Nowitzki, she's an obesity medicine physician as well. She does a lot in the exercise space. And I really consider her to be a great colleague of mine. She will talk about three different body types, ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph. And these different body types, some of you might be very much so on the naturally thin side. And you might actually have a lot less muscle mass, and you might not ever get to the same muscle mass compared to someone in a different body type. And so what's, what's been really interesting over time learning this material and really working with patients and in my clinic, I like to use body composition testing and follow it if we can monthly, that's ideal. But if someone, Cannot afford to have the scale at home. There's absolutely no problem in that. We might do it quarterly. So every three months or even four months to six months, but in some capacity, I really challenge patients to follow body composition because I don't want them to be losing muscle as we go along, but it's also helpful to know where they're starting. And so, for example, with women, we want at least 50 pounds of skeletal muscle mass. Mass, not just lean mass, skeletal muscle mass. And so if they have that amazing, if not, I will typically say, Hey, let's actually work on building that up first before we work on weight loss, because it is actually incredibly hard to lose body fat when skeletal muscle mass is under 50 pounds. And so depending on where you're at, very much. It is more or less likely, and this is just having, you know, looking at this data all day long with patients and going through it, that you will or won't achieve some of these results. That being said, if you work hard enough at it, I see that everyone can put on muscle, but the conditions need to be right. So let's just start out with this. Okay. I don't think that most people are putting on a lot of muscle when they're losing weight. The reason being when you are losing weight, you're in a calorie deficit and you need the right building blocks in order to be able to put on muscle. Now can you put on muscle? Yes. I have done this with losing weight. However, the calorie deficit that I'm in, I think is very small because again, weight's not flying off of me. So typically if you're in a mild calorie deficit, I see people be able to potentially still put on muscle. The second way that I see people still be able to put on muscle is if yes, the calorie deficit is not very extreme. Usually that means under 300 calories. So very small deficit, you're, you're almost hardly aware of what's happening. And the second condition being that often we can see that muscle gain phase If they have not been doing any strength training prior. So this isn't someone that already really had a solid relationship with strength training, whether it be their own body weight machines, free weights. I mean, there's a bands, there's a million different ways to do strength training. I just really want to normalize that. I'm not saying that everybody needs to go out and get a trainer or go out to a gym. I actually do everything from the comfort of my home. I'm just at a phase in life with young kids and a big family, things like that, where I don't want to take the 20 30 minutes on each end to drive there. I would rather physically use that time to get in my walks and my strength training. That's just where I'm at. But everyone is different, and I actually really like going through this with patients and saying, What matters to you? Some really like to be in a group. Some like the aspect of accountability. Some really like the challenge of being around, seeing other people do different things and some get challenged and get triggered by that. Right. And so I really, you know, know yourself first. That's really always the, you know, stay in your own lane, ask yourself your own questions. Don't compare to other people online because they might like different things compared to you. But coming back to this question, depending on where you're at, When we're working on fat loss, I really don't typically see muscle go up. My main thing is we try with all our might to maintain every single pound of that muscle. It can be very challenging. I like to not see more than 10 percent muscle loss. So that, that's my own preference. And what I see, we're not having these 25, 30 percent muscle loss. A lot of the time I have patients of all different ranges within my clinic. And I definitely have patients that are 70 and 80 years old. And You know, when you say first do no harm, it's really when we're losing a bunch of muscle, it really increases the fragility of someone, meaning their fall risk, the ability to recover if they have a hip fracture. I really that when we view that as being one of the biggest goals that we keep you strong, we keep you healthy, it's not just quote unquote that weight goes down. So again, every, sort of, the risk of this really depends on the age and the comorbidities that someone has. But let's say that You are now at a stage. You don't necessarily even need to quote unquote be at your goal weight. You could take different periods of time and say, Hey, I'm going to hang out here weight wise, but really what my goal is going to be is to build up some muscle. And then maybe again, I hit the fat loss phase. And so this is very interesting because I think that everyone thinks about. fat loss as being linear, right? So we had, we did an episode or two back here where we spoke about, no, it's not linear in the sense that it's not just down, down, down, down, down with your weight, but you could also intentionally take times where you say, Hey, I'm going to increase my metabolism and help work on my insulin resistance. All of these fun things, you know, go around metabolic adaptation, things like that by taking periods where I work on muscle gain. Now, when we're working on muscle gain, I'm typically not having someone in a calorie deficit and we need to be very strategic about getting enough protein. Now, we always talk about that, but it becomes, the, the protein goal is actually even higher if we're working on muscle gain. Now, you hear me throw around numbers all the time, and again, within the clinic I've got, you know, charts for protein and all of that to really help guide people, but ultimately I'm really using as the north star what is happening with your body composition. Because some people like me can respond to super low amounts of strength training. I mean, it's incredible. The, I'm going to be honest, the low amount of strength training that I need to do to either maintain or gain muscle. But my hunger response is truly through the roof. And other people they're doing hours and hours and they're not getting increased hunger. And we're not seeing, You know, based on what they're doing that the, that the strength numbers are changing. And so we'll need to either change up how they're exercising. So it's so interesting whenever I, recently there was a bit of a car fuffle with another registered dietitian online and she just entirely did not understand what I was talking about. And it's interesting because some people are really stuck in the, it's always a good time to go lift heavy. And you know, they have this, heavy, heavy weight that they're holding and, you know, these big weights on each side. And I'm just sitting there thinking, Oh my gosh, my patients that have osteoporosis that have never lifted in their life, it's repulsive to even think to suggest that to start out with. And I get the intention of like, we need to use our muscles so that we don't lose it. But it's very interesting, sort of the nuance that comes into it in clinical practice where we can kind of let the data guide us versus fear mongering and making this. something that maybe that person doesn't even need to do all of that. Maybe they could do higher reps of lower weight. You don't know. And so the main thing is following the data. So the thing I will say is what we could expect for a woman, maybe about 0. 5 to 0. 8, 0. 7 to 0. 8 pounds of muscle per month. If you are working on You have enough calories around, you have enough protein and carbohydrate. You're really balancing these meals and you're getting all that strength training in. So the reason I bring this up, this is assuming that You have not done a bunch of strength training because those type of rapid gains are, it's usually someone that they're really changing up what they're doing. So they're either starting to strength train or they're increasing in some capacity, whether it be different types of strength training or increased length time weights, like they're doing in some capacity, they're challenging their body for that new muscle to get created. So we could perhaps expect maybe, I mean, I typically will say to someone, look, if we're working on muscle gain, We maybe want to see over the next six months. Maybe somewhere from, from one to three pounds in the best of circumstances. Frankly, if you're a woman, as you're aging, the fact that you're not losing anything, that is actually a win because the norm, when we look at data is loss, loss, loss every single year. So if you're even maintaining, it's a win. Notice that I'm like, if anything increases, I'm happy. Could we look at the data? Could we have it be these big numbers? Maybe. Is that even necessary for everyone? I don't know. It entirely depends on where you're starting and what your goals are. So for example, let's say that, I don't know, you have 50 pounds of muscle, but you know, you know, back in the day I actually did have a lot more muscle and I do feel weak and you know, I know I lost weight rapidly and you know, there's just so many different scenarios. Okay, definitely. Let's work on that. But what if you're someone that already has 65 pounds of muscle? You, you actually feel fit. You're all the things. Yeah. And that's not something we want to just keep going to infinity. That's not really how it works. And so having done this for a long time, it's very interesting. What's your body type? What's your history? Where are we at? What are the goals? Are we continuing to lose fat or are we building up muscle? And we just, and then what's possible for your body? So again, you know, we kind of talk numbers in a vacuum. Okay. Generally. Absolutely. Most people are going to benefit from roughly a hundred grams of protein. So roughly 30 grams, three times a day, but maybe you need less, maybe you need more. I don't know. I don't know your clinical scenario, right? I also don't know where you're coming from. I don't know where you're trying to go. So I think that this is really, you know, now that you roughly know these numbers, right? Cause I think the unfortunate thing whenever I meet with anyone, whether it be a patient or a coaching client, They really, universally, everyone says to me, Oh, you know, my doctor just didn't know this. They, they just, they, they were not familiar with this. And the reality is, most are not. Because they're not looking at these, they're not looking at these body composition reports all day long. They're, they're more concerned just that the weight goes down period, which by the way, a lot of the time that still is great. I'm not, I'm not saying that those doctors is not valid what they're, what they're doing. It's just notice on this podcast and just me personally with, So, the way in which I practice and just the way in which I'm telling you how I think about things, right? Nothing's medical advice, but just kind of how I think through things. You really need to be clear on what your goal is at the moment, because if you're not, you're continually frustrated and you have no idea where you're headed. So let, let me give you a very concrete example. Let's say that. You have lost 80 pounds and you are now at goal and you like where you're at and your skeletal muscle is at 60 pounds and you are, a five, four, you're a five feet four inch woman and you know, all things are great. Okay. Amazing. Maybe your goal is that you just maintain that skeletal muscle mass for the next year or you could decide, you know what, I really want to be stronger, I want to see what's possible for my body, you know, my sugar is actually still a little bit upright, there might be like other factors in there, then you might say, hey, I might, okay, over the next year, I want to gain X amount of muscle and you see what's possible, but we start to do this from a really loving place and we do it from a logical place. We do it from a place of what would strength look like? Would labs improve? What is possible for my life? Some of you physically do not have as much time to get to the gym. Now, I'm going to challenge you on that because I believe that you can go to the bathroom and do a few squats before you leave the bathroom. So I think that there are ways, you know, I know that sounds so, it might really irritate you when I say things like that. But the reality is, most of this battle is going to be won in the small moments. It's usually not happening in these big, I went to the gym for an hour, I mean, That might, I'll give you an example, like teachers that I have, that really works over the summer for them, but then the school year hits and suddenly they're more time restricted, and what do we end up doing? An Allie Nowitzki Muscles and Mindset course, because there's 10 minutes three times a week, that really works for them. They can do in the morning, at night, they could do it at lunch during their out, their lunchtime, right? We, we, we have to flex and change with things. So we'll put Allie's link down below as well, if you want that, this really, the strength training 10 minutes three times a week. Also, different levels, right? You can really meet yourself where you're at and not injure yourself as you start to get into this. This is really a big thing too. I see people start to work with trainers that unfortunately just don't have expertise in this area and the next thing you know, they are injured. And so that's something to worry about. So to kind of sum this up, if you in any universe put on half a pound of muscle that month, that is, phenomenal. Now, the one thing I want to tell you is kind of learning how to read these reports will become important because whenever you're putting on muscle, you're going to have more glycogen. Think about that as the food that's there for the muscle and that's going to bring water with it. So some of you are going to say, look, I actually put on two pounds. It's like, no, you didn't. Part of that is water. These reports are hard to read. They're not, they're not patient friendly. So the biggest thing I can say is just follow your trends with time. That could be very helpful. That's at least what I offer to my patients. Obviously I go through in detail, but following the trends with time. So are my numbers staying roughly stable, right? So we don't freak out month to month. If it's like, Oh my gosh, it looks like I lost. Overall, what's happening, right? Your illness could bring down the skeletal muscle mass. It'll come right back up if you, you know, you get COVID or something like that. So again, these are all nuances that I go through in the 30 30 program. I brought up a few of these examples in the weekly course videos. If you do my mini course, the five mistakes that people make when starting a GLP 1, this is some of the material that I go through in there. So I'll make sure that we leave that link as well in the show notes if you want to do that mini course. And then as long as you're in that program, when you have access for however many months, monthly, I do a live Q& A call so that you can ask different scenarios. And we've actually gone through things like that in that community. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and leave it here. I just wanted to give you some perspective of really how slow these changes are, how it's actually entirely different than the fat loss phase and how this is really long term marrying the journey. This is really long term you saying these things matter to me. I'm going to do them over the long run and I'm not going to get bogged down if I don't think month one, two, three, it's working. No, this is, you're going to keep adjusting things for years to figure out what it's actually going to look like. It's really interesting. I really love the chain, the, the, the, Channel online, Dana Lynn Kay. She's a fitness expert and she has the company Devotion Nutrition, which obviously I talk about all the time, how much I love them. And the thing that's really fascinating, if you ever listen to her podcast, so it's, it's, I think it's devoted until it's done. Okay. We'll link it. I feel like we're squirreling everything in the show notes, but what I really like about her is that she talks very realistically about the the, the, the ebbs and flows that have occurred in her fitness journey. And she talks about, she didn't just get that body overnight. She's been working on this for 25 plus years. So I just really want to reiterate to you when patients tell me, well, you know, I really want to change my body shape, right? And by the way, it's, it's an entirely healthy place they're coming from. Not everything is you being vain or this or You can entirely want to change your body composition a hundred percent. You can do it, it's possible, and I want that for you if that's something that you want. It's just not going to be a month or two. The people that are able to achieve it in a month or two, they never actually had a weight challenge to begin with. Okay, so I really need to stress this to you. So when, when, you know, you see these before and afters and they're like a month or two or six months different, usually this person was pretty darn lean to begin with the fact that you could see all of that. So I really want you to realize this is long term. That's why I'm such a fan of body composition testing because many of the patients I work with will never end up achieving a body where they look in the mirror and they're going to see the six pack. Now you might have it under there. Okay. But I need you to. know these numbers because it's so much more empowering. And it's just, you're able to tell a different story of, wow, my ancestors were really powerful. Look at this skeletal muscle that I have. I think this messaging is really important because it gives you a self concept. It gives you an identity of, of power and strength and purpose beyond just what the scale number is doing. Okay. So I'm going to leave it here. If you have questions again, always feel free to, to, to, to pop us a fan mail question. We'll see if we. Leave it on a future episode. Always the more information, the better. Some of you, if you ask questions that are just beyond the scope of what we do on this podcast or what I think would be safe to answer, I won't answer that. But, but I, I love getting these messages from you all. And we will talk soon. Have a great rest of the week.