Gaining muscle and fat are both components of what I consider ‘gaining,’ so I don’t measure them independently. You’re right in that you can’t measure yourself and use that as a guide for exclusively muscle progress, but that shouldn’t stop you from doing it! Even if they have fat on them, big arms are something to be proud of. Keeping track of your strength is a good way to make sure you’re consistently making progress (make sure to move up 5 or 10 pounds every few weeks!).
The thing that stinks is that muscles on a body type like mine will never look as big as they would on a thinner person. Relative to my waist and stupid love handles, you can’t tell I have a decently wide back. Because of my fat, my biceps don’t peak hardly at all, even though they are over 18 inches around, so they don’t look big.
My plans are just to get bigger in every way possible, and you can’t do that without gaining muscle. You may never really fit in at the gym by keeping fat (I still get personal trainers haranguing me about sessions) but that’s never been my goal. It’s impossible to try and please the gym-going type, because everything is a contest for them and fat is a sign of weakness. I go for my own reasons, and I take a bit of pride in that. Even if my biceps don’t peak.

