Muscle Building or Plateau?

thefabulousone89

Since beginning my weight loss journey in September 2014, I have been exercising several times a week and I have lost 20 pounds.

In September 2014 I began taking yoga and barre pilates classes, and since January 2015 I have been going on the elliptical for 45 minutes - 70 minutes several times a week, while still going to yoga and barre pilates classes.

My weight has plateaued for 3 weeks now, and I think I should have lost at least a pound or so. I realized today that maybe I have gained muscle, and that's possibly slowing down the weight loss. I look great - small and lean (5"1, 120 pounds) and have a 1200 calorie per day limit, and will usually eat some of my exercise calories in addition. But, I haven't been doing any specific muscle training exercises, such as lifting weights!

Is it possible that my weight is plateauing from gaining some muscle just from just doing yoga / plates / the elliptical for 6 months?

Thoughts please :-)

Drewlssix

Not really, almost certainly your calories in and out are nearly identical. Have you revised your calorie burn estimates for being 20lbs lighter? You will burn fewer calories per unit of work since you are bolo get hauling that extra weight around. And your margins will be smaller when it comes to counting your calories in and out, I suggest a thorough review of your procedures and identify some areas where you might tighten up the math.

Oh, and congrats on the loss the looks and feeling great! Whatever number you do or don't hit those things matter.

vorgas

You can't gain muscle eating at a calorie deficit (except in very rare circumstances).
You won't add significant muscle mass doing yoga and pilates.
So whatever the stall, it isn't from adding muscle.

christinehuds

Yes, if you've lost 20 pounds (yay) you've also unfortunately lowered the number of calories your body needs, which means you should eat less than you did when you were 20 pounds heavier (boo.)

You've maybe built some muscle, but probably not enough to really interfere with your weight loss. I'd suggest adjusting your calorie limit and making sure you're logging accurately. Also, if you're eating back your exercise calories and you're using the MFP burn estimates, you may be eating back more than you burn. Also, since you're pretty small, the MFP estimates of how much you burn from exercise could be pretty far off. I'd re-evaluate my daily calorie goal, logging accuracy and exercise calories and see how my body responds.

Best of luck!

middlehaitch

I am small also and I found, because of a 1200 cal intake, the only way I could lose was to eat back less of my exercise calories, and be extremely vigilant weighing and measuring food.

Cheers, h.

mitty00

"Should have lost at least a pound or so". That's your answer there. Your body from time to time retains water due to differences in carbohydrate intake, post workout inflammation, post dehydration episode, excess sodium, relative lack of pottassium plus a bazillion other reasons. At times my body retains 7 pounds of water, even more after drinking alcohol, which means that if I was losing fat at your rate of 1 pound per 3 weeks, then theoretically the scales should show a "plateau" for 21 weeks even when the weight loss is constant!

Ever look at the "plateau busting" strategies? Things such as fasting, drinking tonnes of water or doing a massive endurance session seem to be common themes. Why? Because they are ways to release the retained water.

Sometimes I go up to 3 weeks showing no loss on the scale when I am in fact losing 3.3 pounds a week of fat, week in, week out. Then all of a sudden I wake up one morning, cannot help visiting the bathroom all day, and I am 10 pounds lighter by the next morning! When tracked on a graph and averaged it is perfect linear fat loss, just with many peaks and troughs.

Look, I don't know that this is exactly your problem, but I'd wager it is. Keep going, and don't stress or get demotivated if you don't lose for a while or even gain some, eventually you'll wake up one day and your body will dump the retained water.

My belief is that retained water is the culprit in most dieting regimes "plateauing" and the dieter losing focus and belief and giving up altogether. Just give it time, it could take over a month.

arditarose

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10111267/it-is-probably-not-muscle/p1

Mr_Knight

thefabulousone89 wrote: »

Is it possible that my weight is plateauing from gaining some muscle just from just doing yoga / plates / the elliptical for 6 months?

No.

ndj1979

do you use a food scale?

I doubt you have built any muscle if you are just doing elliptical and other cardio type exercises. Are you doing any strength training where you lift progressively heavier things?

ndj1979

arditarose wrote: »

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10111267/it-is-probably-not-muscle/p1

you reping me???

AmyRhubarb

Do you also track measurements, or just scale weight? As you get closer to goal, the scale may seem to stall from time to time, but you might be losing inches in the process - happened to me with what seemed like a six month stall on the scale, but I dropped a full size during that time.

Take some progress photos for comparison, and grab that tape measure.

arditarose

ndj1979 wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10111267/it-is-probably-not-muscle/p1

you reping me???

Yeah brah

thefabulousone89

Thanks for all of your words of wisdom! I suspect I have been retaining water.

paisiovich

Focus on the fact your showing up doing whatever everyday.... Your already way ahead of the curve. Rejoice in what you've achieved, pay less attention to the scale. Keep changing it up and watch your body sculpt itself before your eyes. Your problem is a good problem to have.