This is not the place to give any measurements, so I’ll just say I was fat 7 months ago and I’m not anymore.
I put on a lot of muscle mass while losing quite some fat, so I can lift rather heavy (on my own perspective), but when I mock my friends about lifting more than them even though they’ve been training for years they all go “well, you used to be fat” or “that’s easier for you because you were bigger” and I have come to understand that’s just how it works because of the Internet too, but I don’t really know why.
I don’t know if it’s the language causing a misunderstanding here, but when I say “mock” I mean we joke with each other playfully in a way that everyone’s comfortable with.
In: Biology
Fat people are used to eating a lot….skinny people are not, and will struggle to put on weight/muscle.
What you did was basically body recomp. Replacing the fat in your body with muscle by changing your diet and training, but keeping the calories high. Again skinny people arent used to eating as much and will struggle hard. Eating a lot contributes to muscle growth as much as training does.
Body frame is also a factor. Some people are skinny and their frame can really hold a ton of weight. Think small joints, small bone structure. People who can carry more weight often have the frame to support it. Some people would have a hard time even packing on 250 lbs to their frame. Others, it’s just not difficult.
That larger frame means you can put on more muscle (the frame cna carry it more easily) and large joints/bone structure just means they’ll be naturally stronger. Smaller bones/joints of course not being able to support as much weight, either on the body or while being lifted.
There’s a lot of incomplete answers here from people going off the dome that haven’t experienced obesity *and* lifting so I’ll give it a shot.
There’s many contributing factors that are a combination of genetics, formed habits, physiology and just… thermodynamics. First, getting a body into good hypertrophic state can be more energy intensive than people recognize. Your body will consume glucose stores first, carbs next, and then will resort to fat deposits. A person in caloric surplus will usually have an abundance of the first two regardless of size, but it’s important to note that the body is reluctant to burn fat deposits unless it has to, often especially in people prone to obesity, so it’s likely that the caloric surplus is helping them most while increased fat stores provide them a metaphorical cushion for when that runs out. It’s also why body recomposition tends to be easier for obese persons rather than so-called “hardgainers” that struggle to put on weight.
That said, from personal experience as someone who went from about 300 lbs (way too big)down to 185 (starvation for me), and after years of lifting sit at a comfortable dad weight of 245, the most important part is definitely the caloric surplus for *most* people. A hard gainer that’s tracking well and eating like 500 kcals surplus will get big and strong just fine in comparison, AND will typically look strong sooner.
Lets say we have two 6′ tall men. Man A is 300lbs, 40% body fat. Man B is 175lb, 15% body fat.
Man A has 180lb of non-fat mass. Man B has 148lb of non-fat mass. Their organs and skeletons will both weigh approximately the same amount, lets just call that, I don’t know, 20lbs.
That means the obese guy, just because he’s obese, has a good 30lb more muscle mass than the normal weight guy. It would take man B **years** to gain another 30lb of muscle mass.
Because they’re already strong enough to carry themselves around. Plus they’re typically taking in a surplus of nutrients.
because hypertrophy and calorific surplus are necessary to gain muscle and fat. maybe they have a genetic advantage to eat more or maybe its just psychological. to some extent hormonelevels vary with genetics, like apetite, muslcegrowth, stresslevels, libido etc etc.
Fat people are stronger than skinny people because they have more muscle naturally. With training, enough protein etc body of a fat person does not lose muscle when losing fat.
When I was in boot camp, I was ~225lbs, that had always been my natural weight at 6’2″, they would often send me to chub club, and as soon as I got there, the Chief would tell me to leave, I didn’t look fat at all, though I was caring more weight than I should with the poor condition of my body. As the weeks went by, I took exercise very seriously, often going out of my way to do proper pushups, sit-ups, up-downs, jumping jacks, and running, whether I got screamed at or not for not being able to maintain an upright position from exhaustion are falling behind, I put everything into correct form never bullshitting like a lot of the other guys would do behind the RDC’s back. It began to really pay off at the 6-week mark, I got down to ~190lbs, and even though they would still send me to chub club, and I would turn around and go back to my Division (those fuckers in the division who measured me kept saying I was 6’1″ I’d get down to the Chub Club and be measure at 6’2″), I began to get ripped. One of the guys who would stand next to me at the mirrors who came in skinny and remained skinny began cussing, and asking me how I was so muscular now, how I had abbs and shoulders popping out, I just shrugged. My point is you can really do something with that extra weight, they are like your building blocks for muscle. After I got out of boot camp I continued lifting for many years, and at one point got all the way up to ~247bls on my ship when I was trying to add more muscle and 3 months before pulling in, we began a shredding program where I dropped back down to 225lbs except this time I looked much closer to what I did at 190lbs at bootcamp, though my abs were just a little less visible but much larger over all. My lifts were above average as well, and over all I’d say I was one of the strongest outside of some of the older Chiefs and those who were obviously using steroids. As far as my eating habits, I did very little, though I did eat the whites of the hardboiled eggs they had in the galley salad bar, which was open nearly 24/7. I would recommend to anyone trying to gain muscle to put on as much fat as is healthy while lifting, it makes a big difference when coming down in weight.
Daily life is more exercise. Someone who’s 240 lbs would struggle going up stairs. I’d also struggle to go up stairs if I strapped a 40 lb backpack on. Everything that person does is more intensive exercise than what I would do.
One aspect of the answer that I haven’t seen mentioned is this: you say “I put on a lot of muscle mass while losing quite some fat,” but how are you judging that? The differences in musculature you’re noticing are also including the fact that you’re shedding fat and therefore revealing any muscle mass you might have. But more importantly, if you’re just going off the fact that you can lift heavier now – that’s not exclusively muscular growth. In fact, in your first year of lifting or so, increases in strength are largely neurological, not physical. You’re lifting heavier because you’re learning how to lift. Your coordination, muscle fiber recruitment, proprioception, etc are all improving and leading to strength gains. I know this doesn’t get at your question directly, but it’s part of what’s happening.
Latest Answers