Muscle to Fat Ratio

kevinf2380

I've been lifting weights pretty consistently for about 4 weeks now. My workouts consist of 3 days weight training for 30-40min and two other days of 20min cardio. The cardio is a varying intensity run that changes intensity every 2min for a 20min total. Sounds confusing but if you've done the body for life workout you know what I'm talking about. Here's my question.

I've been avoiding the scale mainly because I think it's not really that important to weigh yourself all the time. Unless you're trying to lose weight. Before I started working out I weighed about 180. I was hardly doing any real exercise prior. Just random activity every now and no formal exercises.

Well, I went to weigh myself yesterday and I figured I would have lost some weight since I've been doing so much cardio and being more active in general. I've also cut the running days since I'm playing sand 2 vs 2 beach volleyball those days. I now weigh 185 which surprised me because I suspected to see a drop not a gain in weight. I haven't necessarily been eating more protein. My diet has stayed pretty much the same before I started consistently working out.

Do you think the weight gain could be muscle mass building? I don't really see any physical results yet. I do look like I'm in better shape but I'm not getting definition anywhere and I still have a tummy hiding my abs.

ninerbuff

Likely it's just water retention from higher glycogen storage along with water to help with muscle repair. Maybe 1lbs "might" be muscle if you're new to lifting or retaking it up after a long layoff.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

JeromeBarry1

Did you have any kind of BF measurement from 4 weeks ago, and any kind of BF measurement from now, to compare? Most impedance measurement devices that guess at BF will also guess at body muscle content.

mom23mangos

Have you been logging your food both before and after? You may think your eating hasn't changed, but you may be eating more unconsciously. Last year I started riding my bike to work and "eating healthier". I figured I would have to lose weight because I was going from no exercise to biking 75+miles per week and eating better. Well, if you eat more than you burn, you will still gain weight. Learned that the hard way.

Edit: I finally lost the weight and had an awesome transformation using Body for Life, OP. But I had to use MFP to log my food rather than using the eyeball portions Bill recommends.

kevinf2380

ninerbuff wrote: »

Likely it's just water retention from higher glycogen storage along with water to help with muscle repair. Maybe 1lbs "might" be muscle if you're new to lifting or retaking it up after a long layoff.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

It has been a long lay off. I'm interested more to know about the retention people talk about. This is kind of private but I know I can't be the only person who went through this. This last week I think my body is trying to shed retention or maybe this is just normal. Basically, what I'm trying to say is I'm going to the bathroom a lot now. Where I might have had one bowel movement a day now it's common for me to have 2-3 or more a day. I guess that's where I thought the drop in weight would come from.

kevinf2380

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

Did you have any kind of BF measurement from 4 weeks ago, and any kind of BF measurement from now, to compare? Most impedance measurement devices that guess at BF will also guess at body muscle content.

I did not do any kind of BF measurement beforehand.

kevinf2380

mom23mangos wrote: »

Have you been logging your food both before and after?
Edit: I finally lost the weight and had an awesome transformation using Body for Life, OP. But I had to use MFP to log my food rather than using the eyeball portions Bill recommends.

I just started logging my food more seriously. I definitely eat differently on the weekends than I do during the week. Congrats on your body transformation.