noob gains vs muscle memory and diet

Howdy,

Has been almost 2 years that I wasnt training, before that I have trained 7 years uninterrupted(sickness was the only exception). But the pandemic hit, and we all know the story. I lost a lot of weight and muscle, almost 28lbs. Now I came back to train, I still dont feel safe to train at the gym, but I am finishing my home gym.

I have been pushing my diet to the limit, last 2 months I added more or less 9 lbs, the first 5 pounds was almost all lean mass, but the next following 4 lbs was mixed, more like 60 fat, 40 lean mass. I was skepical about the magic of muscle memory, it has been almost 2 years is too much to muscle remember the good old days LUL. And I am pretty sure now it was just noob gains now, and I have to balance out my diet again without push the limits, am I right?

I don’t think you’re getting noob gains having returned to training, but yes, your diet is ALWAYS important. Always. It is also extremely unlikely to gain only muscle.

FYI, “muscle memory” refers to the muscle tissue maintaining the myonuclei (muscle cell nucleus) number. During periods of detraining, the cross sectional area of the muscle shrinks, but the myonuclei persists. When retraining, the cross sectional area expands rapidly due to the persistence of the myonuclei number. The myonuclei number tends to increase in response to training, anabolics, etc. and the higher the number, the higher the potential muscle CSA.