If you're new to lifting weights, having more muscle at the start doesn't really mean you'll gain more muscle from training — it's not a strong predictor of results, especially once you account for whether someone is male or female.

42

Pro

0

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

42

Community contributions welcome

42

Resistance training-induced appendicular lean tissue mass changes are largely unrelated to pre-training bone characteristics in a larger cohort of untrained adults

Cohort Study

Human

2025

The study found that how much muscle you start with doesn’t strongly predict how much muscle you’ll gain from lifting weights, especially when you account for differences between men and women.

Contradicting (0)

0

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Resistance training-induced appendicular lean tissue mass changes are largely unrelated to pre-training bone characteristics in a larger cohort of untrained adults

Score: 42

DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1681719

Similar Assertions

If you're new to lifting weights, things like how much you eat, how much protein you get, how old you are, or your BMI don’t really help predict how much muscle you’ll gain in the first few months.

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If you're new to lifting weights, how muscular you already are doesn't really predict how much you'll grow from training — it's not a strong clue.

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