Losing weight versus gaining muscle?

thinkpink73089

Anyone know the best way to tell if you are gaining muscle mass? My weight is not going down despite excersize and eating under my calorie goal. Maybe I'm gaining muscle? Please help!

KarenJanine

If you are not losing weight then you are not eating at a calorie deficit.

What is your calorie goal?
How long have you been following your plan?
Do you weigh and log everything you eat and drink?

mostwhimsicalchap

There's no easy answer to that question. To piggyback onto what Karen is saying, how closely are you monitoring the calories you are taking in versus the calories you're burning off? The more honest your are with yourself with about that, the easier it will be to get to the root of your issue.

As far as your question of building muscle vs losing weight, that more depends on what type of exercises you are doing and what your diet is like, etc. I say as long as you are improving in your daily exercises and you are feeling better overall, don't let the numbers on the scale concern you as much.

IsaackGMOON

You can't gain muscle in a caloric deficit.

You weight in a caloric surplus.

• Are you weighing your foods accurately? Eg not using cups instead of grams
• How are you getting your calorie burns?

Open your diary too OP.

Mycophilia

There's no way to build enough muscle to halt your weightloss in a calorie deficit.

3dogsrunning

Mycophilia wrote: »

There's no way to build enough muscle to halt your weightloss in a calorie deficit.

Just to add to this though, often when starting new exercise programs or upping intensity, people do increases glycogen stores in their muscle which can increase weight by a couple of pounds (glycogen requires water to be stored so it is referred to as "water weight". It can be enough to mask weight loss for a couple of weeks.
This is also the reason many people think they are gaining muscle while in a deficit.

As someone else asked OP - how long have you been following your plan?

thinkpink73089

About 9 months ago I started a light excersize regimen of jogging a mile 4 times a week and doing small body weight workouts (squats, push ups, crunches, etc). My calorie goal is 1400 but I usually end up eating closer to 1300.
I hit my lowest weight at 127 and then fell off the wagon with my calorie intake and excersize 3 months ago. For the past month I have gotten back into the swing of things. This week I was excersizing more than usual and sticking to my 1300 calorie a day intake but weighed in the same as last Friday. I know it's a short time frame but I was just kind of wondering how to think of it.
Thanks for the help!