The answer is 12 lbs.

Why?
The body can only produce so much muscle per year. In fact even this is only 1 lb a month .But that's still assuming your diet is progressive with your training application AND consistency. A day too many off, or too much weekending (wink) makes many of us mortals less than 100% efficient, month in and month out. It's called life!

Marriage, divorce, death in a family, job change, house move or birth of a child cause all our balanced plans to go out the window. Adequate (from anabolism which means to grow) protein should be consumed. I like to use the conclusions reached from the medical applications of hospitals as they have done harder research than I have. For patients with malnutrition, cancer, burns or mal-absorption of food they use 25% protein in their medical food replacement products because maximum absorption and minimal digestion is needed. This is 1 lb per lb of lean body mass (smart words for skeletal muscle not the fat) based on a average calorie intake of 2000 calories per day. Where are these people?

So, say you weigh 200 lbs, (of which - 20 lb is a guess at your actual body fat) that's 180 grams (call it 150 grams a day ). How many grams a day are you on?

If you consumed 150 grams, that's 5 ozs a day, it would be 35 ozs a week. (That is 2 lb, at 6 ozs to the pound) but most people are not consuming a pound a week let alone 2.lb protein on a regular basis. This often creates AVAILABLE protein which can be likened to placing a pint-sized glass under a shower. Only so much water will fall into the glass. Likewise the body can only catch so much available protein at each meal. Now that's where eating little and often has its place. If you put the glass under the shower more often you could put on 12 lbs per year every year and in seven years you would be giant! Of course the more pounds you put on the harder it is to keep the 12 lbs going as you need more and more dedication and also the expert knowledge of how it can be achieved. At the moment this problem is one which is being acknowledged. So, your first year of applying the technique correctly will be the best year Unfortunately, most people do not eat properly or know the correct technique.

Yes, we all know someone who put on 20 lbs in one year but let us see if the person is still here next year to repeat it. Genetics play a big part in this as some people will automatically gain more weight faster than others but even they will not grow until they burst, hypothetically speaking! In their later years women put on considerably more weight after the menopause as they produce less eostrogen and more testosterone, which can sometimes produce the male characteristics of a beard, big muscles and a deep voice.

So, in actual fact, those women who say they have gained muscles (firm and toned) very quickly are mistaken. If they are not, please give me, as a man, the key to their training and diet because most men seem to struggle in getting their arms to swell up and produce muscles even after months of eating and training correctly.

Good health.