How To Know If You're Gaining Muscle or Fat (6 Signs)

If you’re looking to build muscle and do a proper lean bulk, here are 6 signs you need to know to determine whether you’re gaining muscle or body fat.

Previous videos on the topic of building muscle:
5 WORST Lifting Mistakes You Need To Avoid

About the video:
When lean bulking or committing to a muscle-building phase, we want the best ratio of lean muscle vs. fat gained. Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to tell the two apart. This often leads to gaining excess body fat during a bulk, forcing them to go back into a cut. To prevent this, we need a systematic approach that will tell us whether we’re gaining muscle or fat.

And in this video, I share 6 ways you can determine whether the weight you gain is lean muscle or body fat. These signs will help you know whether you are on the right track with building muscle. Looking back, I wish I had information like this when I started. It would have led to better gain and fewer frustrations on my fitness journey.

About Me:
My name is Mario Tomic. I specialize in helping busy entrepreneurs and professionals get their ideal physique in the most efficient way possible and turn it into a lifestyle long-term.

Since 2011, I've spent over 10 000 hours practicing, studying, and coaching fitness, nutrition, and high performance.

Most people don't know that my native language is Croatian and that I worked in computer science before I started my fitness and personal development coaching company.

#buildmuscle #leanbulk #fitness

Disclaimer: Mario Tomic is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before starting any exercise program. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Mario Tomic will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this video, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, or illness.

[ConfortinDEADHORSE]

My clothes started to feel tighter. I felt so inspired, until I realized the dryer shrank them.

[evanragland]

Best compliment I ever got after a year of making my transformation was a random kid in the weight room who said "bro your muscles have muscles" 😂💪

[bigpicturegains]

In a world of ‘I want it now, ’ you are one of the few it seems that gives the truth of how it takes years to build a stand out physique.

[innovatixn]

Weighted calisthenics might be helpul. If you gained weight and you are getting stronger at dips or pull ups, congrats you've gained muscle.

[yanisole]

Thanks for the advise. I am on the good road!!!

[johnadams]

Fantastic content as always... And great to see examples of good form within the video too.... Really useful.

[Mastectomy]

This video is very useful, especially when you do caridio&resistance training.

[GregPaxson]

Great video. I've been questioning myself lately as I have recently upped my calories from a deficit to maintance(hopefully) I put on 4 lbs in two weeks, but I'm still looking as lean and I'm making significant gains on all my lifts every workout. I am a detrained former lifter that has been out of it for about 4 years. So I'm hoping this quick jump in weight is not fat... maybe a little bit of muscle and some water from the calorie increase. Anyway, awesome content.

[marcus_ohreallyus]

I took a couple of months off after my gym re-instated a mask policy...and I also needed to heal some injuries. I've done some occasional calisthentics and yoga stuff, but I haven't touched a weight in about 2 months. I still look pretty good, but there is something troubling I've noticed which has spurred my interest in going back to the gym. I weighed 172 yesterday morning, which is how much I weigh when I'm really lean. But I also measured my waist and it's up two inches from where it should be when I'm lean. It's mostly about knowing your body landmarks and states of leanness/fatness vs specific measurements. I can be sure there's no muscle being gained during my hiatus and most likely some has been lost.

[soulreaper]

Awesome content! This served as a call out to make me be more serious about the way I measure progress

[benrogencamp]

I think this is the exact video i needed to see. I get very nevous seeing the scale go up because of how I used to be fat and weight going up was a bad thing. I absolutely know I am getting stronger, and I can say most of the same veins and cuts that I could at my lighter weight, but it is still scary. In the last 2 months I have gained almost exactly 2% of my body weight. I need to just keep trusting the process and getting stronger.

[GVS]

Great video! Lots of great advice here, too many beginners and even advanced lifters fly blind when during a gaining phase...just as important to be methodical when gaining as cutting!

[Geswin_fit]

Hello Mario, your content is great. Very helpful. Always enjoy it. Keep them coming

[Ght]

cheers from argentina . you're one of the few honest voices of youtube. keep going !

[ailo]

Great video thx. What about those body fat percentage machines? Isn't that an objective measure to track lean muscle vs body fat?

[steelmongoose]

I have a hard time eyeballing body composition over the short term. I'm taking creatine, so I have some extra volume and less definition. I'm not so lean that every ounce of fat is glaringly obvious, either.

I figure that any time I'm getting stronger and lighter at the same time, something good is happening. Aside from that, it has to be pretty visible before I can be sure.

[ditznfitness]

Thanks for another great and informative video Mario!

[Alkcair]

Well, I lost a lot of weight since May last year, around 45 kg which I did by changing my diet and starting weight lifting and cardio. I went down from size 2XL - 3XL to L in summer this year... Now that I started more to focus on building muscles I needed to buy some new size XL shirts because size L was simply fitting too tightly around my shoulders and chest. I guess that is a good sign that I am on the right track with building muscles and getting leaner (which I really need to do because there is still a belly left... ^^)

[darren]

Hey Mario,

Can you do a video update on Carb Cycling? that would be great. Thanks bro ! :)

[tarantulaunited]

Im a beginner and ive only been doing weights for two months and im starting to notice my clothes are tight and i at to buy a new set of clothing and i at to chuck all my old stuff out it feel amazing to be a bit stronger i also quit my addiction to smoking also ive been smoke free for 2months as well i use to smoke about 80 day and im only 43. And i so feel better. Great video respect to u bro