How Long Does It Take to Build Muscle?

According to several studies, consistent weight training workouts can help you gain 0.3 to 0.7 lbs of muscle per week on average^1,2,3.

Additional studies suggest that beginners with no previous weightlifting experience could gain as much as 1 pound of muscle per week⁴. On the other hand, experienced lifters may struggle to gain 1/4 pound of new muscle per week.

If we split the difference, the average person could expect to gain 1/2 a pound of lean mass weekly. That may not sound like much muscle, but it can really add up over time.

To illustrate, picture a raw 8-ounce steak sitting on your kitchen counter. Now, realize that your body can create that much muscle in just seven days from just a few hours of training and some spare calories. It’s actually quite impressive!

Even more impressive is that you could gain 6 lbs of muscle in 12 weeks. To put it into perspective, picture a dozen of those steaks packed on your body.

When you extrapolate that over several months, you could gain upwards of 25 pounds of muscle in a year. That amount of muscle can transform your body from bony to brawny!

What Does 25 lbs of Muscle Look Like?

A picture is worth a thousand words when visualizing what 25 pounds of muscle looks like. So, I decided to share my transformation from 140 pounds to 165 pounds of lean mass.

I should point out that I added this muscle mass over many years while also losing some body fat. While the difference in scale weight is less than 25 pounds, I look significantly bigger due to the added muscle size.

Keep in mind that this before and after is intended to be an example of what 25 pounds of added muscle can look like. It’s not necessarily what you should expect in one year.

Weight Gain vs Muscle Gain

When discussing muscle gain, it’s critical to understand the difference between scale weight and lean mass. Scale weight is any mass that makes the number on the scale go up, including muscle, fat, water, food, and so on.

Conversely, lean mass is comprised of bone and skeletal muscle. So, increases in lean mass generally coincide with muscle gain.

Body Fat Gain

With increased calorie intake, it’s not uncommon for even experienced lifters to gain one pound per week. However, the larger the surplus, the more weight comes from body fat gain⁴.

Additionally, increasing calorie intake seems to have a point of diminishing returns where eating more simply results in more body fat without any additional muscle mass gain.

Glycogen Stores

At the start of a new workout routine, you might see a rapid increase in body weight of a few pounds or more in the first week. This is especially true if you increase your carbohydrate or calorie intake.

However, it’s essential to understand that this new weight is not entirely lean mass. Instead, the body can store hundreds of grams of carbohydrates, called glycogen, within the muscles and liver.

While full glycogen stores create the appearance of bigger muscles, they technically do not qualify as lean body mass gains.

Water Weight

For every gram of glycogen, your body can also store 3-5 grams of water. For example, a typical man’s body can store 500g of glycogen, which carries with it up to 2,500 grams of water. That’s nearly 7 lbs of scale weight gained in a matter of days.

You may also experience weight gain due to water retention, separate from the water stored within glycogen. Water weight can increase with inflammation, high sodium intake, or creatine supplementation.

Predicted muscle growth rate based on 1/2 pound of lean mass gain per week.

How to Build Muscle Faster

Of course, you must follow a diet and exercise plan to gain muscle. It would be best to take specific actions to build muscle at an ideal rate of about 2 lbs per month.

Resistance Training Program

A good strength training program creates the required stimulus to break down muscle fibers so they can rebuild bigger and stronger. As a personal trainer, I adjust several training variables to optimize muscle hypertrophy or muscle growth.

• Workout Frequency: Novice lifters should start with a training regimen that trains all the major muscle groups three days a week. More advanced lifters will benefit from training four to six days a week.
• Training Volume: Hypertrophy studies suggest that a training volume of 10-30 sets per muscle group per week elicits maximal growth. These sets can be spread out between a few different exercises for each muscle group and across multiple workouts. 
• Reps & Rest: Similar studies also indicate muscle growth is best achieved with sets of 6-12 reps with moderate loads of 60-80% of one rep max (1RM). Shorter rest periods of around 60 seconds between sets create the ideal stimulus for muscle hypertrophy.
• Progression: Gradually making your workouts more challenging is known as progressive overload, a key concept for muscle growth. You can apply this overload by increasing weight, increasing volume, or decreasing rest periods over time.
• Recovery: It’s also vital to include rest days and get enough sleep to recover from workouts. If you push too hard, you risk overtraining and diminishing your results.

References
1) Nissen, Steven L., and Rick L. Sharp. “Effect of dietary supplements on lean mass and strength gains with resistance exercise: a meta-analysis.” Journal of Applied Physiology 94.2 (2003): 651-659.
2) Thomas, Michael H., and Steve P. Burns. “Increasing lean mass and strength: A comparison of high frequency strength training to lower frequency strength training.” International journal of exercise science 9.2 (2016): 159.
3) Schmitz, Stephen M., Jennifer E. Hofheins, and Robert Lemieux. “Nine weeks of supplementation with a multi-nutrient product augments gains in lean mass, strength, and muscular performance in resistance trained men.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 7.1 (2010): 40.
4) Helms, Eric R., et al. “Effect of Small and Large Energy Surpluses on Strength, Muscle, and Skinfold Thickness in Resistance-Trained Individuals: A Parallel Groups Design.” Sports Medicine-Open 9.1 (2023): 102.