MUSCLE GAIN

I’ve always been a hard gainer with a fast metabolism, so I was surprised when I actually weighed myself last week (I rarely weigh myself but I was curious), and found that I have gained 12 lbs. over the course of about 2.5 - 3 months. I do weight train at least three times/week. Is it possible to have gained this weight mainly in one area of the body, particularly the legs? I ask because I’ve been increasing the weight I use for squats.

THIS is a difficult question to answer.

There are several things I don't know about you:

Your bodytype. Your diet (did you keep a food journal?). Was the weight gain mostly fat? Muscle? Combination? Did you take measurements before the gain and after? Where do you usually put on fat, and if you did, did you notice any fat gain? And are squats the only exercise where you have been increasing the pounds? Are you small framed? And if so, 12-pounds would be ALOT of weight to gain during that time - it would be very noticeable. WHAT did you NOTICE?

yeah it is possible, however it is more likely to be legs plus core muscles plus upper back. the squat is generally accepted to be the number one excercise for working the whole body. There was a thread on the forum a couple of months ago. the main thing is if you have been able to increase the weight and gain 12lbs then your doing something right so keep going while the going is good.

Since it took you 3 months to weigh yourself, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of this weight gain is due to different scales, different times you weighed, and water/glycogen stores. If you don’t monitor closely, you won’t know why you have gained weight. The mirror is also helpful.

My clothing all fits the same, except for thighs, where pants are tighter-this why I asked about squats making the difference. My diet is mainly high protein, lower-moderate complex carbs, moderate fat. I have no noticeable fat gain, I have a smaller frame, and have always been lean. Muscle gain is very noticeable on me. I have increased my weights, I do so every 2-3 weeks. As far as factors such as different scales, time of day etc, I’ve always weighed within 1-2 pounds of the same weight each time i weighed myself, even over long periods of time, so this was a noticeable difference-and I DID use 3 different scales and they all were within 1-2 lbs of each other. I’m just wondering if approx. 12 lbs (of muscle) over 2.5-3 mos. is a normal or realistic gain.