WTH is going on?

east2west14

Why do people have to insist on splitting hairs on this matter? The OP is NOT obese, is not going through the magical newbie gains. Why is it so difficult to understand that to create new tissue in the body naturally (ie muscle in this case) you need to eat at a surplus and overload the muscles. It's basic science. I am reminded yet again why it seems pointless to post on these boards.

I'm not obese either. I walk all day at work, and yes, lift some heavy boxes etc., but not enough to count it as strength training of any kind. My thigh muscles are visible and they've definitely grown during my two years at my job. Does strength training get faster and better results? Absolutely. Does cardio get results eventually? It's slower and less efficient, but yes.

Just to add, I haven't done much strength training for my legs at all, since doctors told me I'm not allowed to do squats, lunges etc. because of issues with my back, so any changes in my thighs are because of cardio. So maybe, to answer the OP's question, you're in a similar situation with me?

Cardio doesn't build muscle, seriously I'm not lying to you lol. It's fat loss you are seeing. The muscle was always there, you are just losing fat that was covering it, hence why it looks more developed now.

But what if it was cardio plus a caloric surplus?

That will build muscles.

pyrowill

Muscle is gained from strength training, calorie surplus and high protein diet, it doesn't happen by accident or from cardio. Especially without testosterone levels like a man.

that statement is Just so wrong and full of so many myths

No it really isn't.

pinkraynedropjacki

Well then I'm still stumped cause there is no way it's water weight...not after this long at it. There is no way it's muscle cause I dont eat a surplus or do any strength (even though I should) and I am losing fat & size but not weight. Scales are not broken cause they work fine for everyone else in the house.

Grrrrr.

east2west14

Muscle is gained from strength training, calorie surplus and high protein diet, it doesn't happen by accident or from cardio. Especially without testosterone levels like a man.

that statement is Just so wrong and full of so many myths

No it really isn't.

Sprinting is a form of cardio doesn't matter if its anaerobic or aerobic that is not what we are arguing about. Cardio is cardio and it guilts muscles. Here is proof.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=8687727

melb_alex

You are exercising too much

7 days a week??

Eat clean and lift weights than you should see considerable improvements

I'm 182cm, 69kg (size 10-12) and train 4-5 times a week and only do cardio for an added push but always do weights.

meeper123

Well then I'm still stumped cause there is no way it's water weight...not after this long at it. There is no way it's muscle cause I dont eat a surplus or do any strength (even though I should) and I am losing fat & size but not weight. Scales are not broken cause they work fine for everyone else in the house.

Grrrrr.

Like i said muscles use water to heal (well sorta) also inches lost way better than a number the scale will catch up

mimieon

Well then I'm still stumped cause there is no way it's water weight...not after this long at it. There is no way it's muscle cause I dont eat a surplus or do any strength (even though I should) and I am losing fat & size but not weight. Scales are not broken cause they work fine for everyone else in the house.

Grrrrr.

Are you consistently weighing at the same time, same clothes/no clothes, etc? Maybe your bone density has increased because of the exercise and improved diet? Seems like a stretch though

pinkraynedropjacki

You are exercising too much

7 days a week??

Eat clean and lift weights than you should see considerable improvements

I'm 182cm, 69kg (size 10-12) and train 4-5 times a week and only do cardio for an added push but always do weights.

I can't lift. Physically not able to do so. I'm not looking for improvements. I'm looking for answers as to why or how I'm losing size, fat not gaining muscle yet not losing weight. Been exercising daily since Feb last year. I'm not exercising too much for me.

pinkraynedropjacki

Well then I'm still stumped cause there is no way it's water weight...not after this long at it. There is no way it's muscle cause I dont eat a surplus or do any strength (even though I should) and I am losing fat & size but not weight. Scales are not broken cause they work fine for everyone else in the house.

Grrrrr.

Are you consistently weighing at the same time, same clothes/no clothes, etc? Maybe your bone density has increased because of the exercise and improved diet? Seems like a stretch though

Yep, same time & totally naked.

ironanimal

You got the right of it. You probably have major water retention going on from working out every day - it's nothing to worry about so long as your keep shrinking and if you don't necessarily need the weight to drop.

If you do want to dump the water weight to see where you're at temporarily, take a day of low carb (<30g). I retain water like a ***** and I sometimes do that to check if things are still working.

Mslibb

I think we all get a bit obsessed with that number on the scale - it's just so much easier to define ourselves by a number that we can get in a just few seconds.

But you are actually losing inches - which must have a more visual result in the end. Isn't that more positive than some mythical number that depends on muscle mass, body fat %, water retention, the way the wind blows etc... Lock the scales in the 'naughty cupboard' and rejoice in your tape measure!

* Edited to correct sausage-finger typing

madrose0715

@OP - your ticker reflects you have reached goal? What is the issue? Stop eating at deficit if you are beginning to 'look like a stick'. As to why your scale isn't moving - because you are unique.

eta: also - if you want to 'add meat' - you have to eat at a surplus and lift heavy stuff. Can't do that? Then eat at maintenance levels and carry on with your exercise and add some bodyweight stuff with your cardio. Can't do that? I guess cardio is your friend for life.

Christina8585

Well then I'm still stumped cause there is no way it's water weight...not after this long at it. There is no way it's muscle cause I dont eat a surplus or do any strength (even though I should) and I am losing fat & size but not weight. Scales are not broken cause they work fine for everyone else in the house.

Grrrrr.

Been looking over the posts, not sure what to say exactly. For sure every woman has water fluctuations. especially with hormones, ect, but maybe it's a small amount of water so you don't feel bloated or don't feel like it's water weight. Also , if your losing inches depending on what your eating you could be eating more protein, like more healthy foods and that may account for some slight muscle.
With me sometimes my body's weird. I have gone down in a few inches here and there but my weight also remains the same. I am doing light strength training and weight lifting and eat a lot more protein regularly , so muscle can sometimes build and that along side with water retention and fluctuation is probably why you've lost a little in the inch department and weigh the same.

pyrowill

Muscle is gained from strength training, calorie surplus and high protein diet, it doesn't happen by accident or from cardio. Especially without testosterone levels like a man.

that statement is Just so wrong and full of so many myths

No it really isn't.

Sprinting is a form of cardio doesn't matter if its anaerobic or aerobic that is not what we are arguing about. Cardio is cardio and it guilts muscles. Here is proof.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=8687727

I wouldn't say anything is proof where the URL is from a news article. Proof is a scientific study typically done under tight conditions. Please people stop saying something is proof when you read one article from a random webpage.

To the OP. According to your ticker you have reached goal. Perhaps now is a good time to pause and reflect and look at where to go here and shake things up. Perhaps try and start doing some form of lifting, change your cardio. Try something, I'm sure with patience and variety you will start to see new improvements.

Snitch1

I have a comment, and a suggestion.

I am sure you are much younger than I, so maybe I can relieve this stress from your life, like I wish someone had done to me.

Weight and AGE are numbers.

I finally GAVE AWAY my scale, and broke my scale ADDICTION. It is sooo freeing.

What matters, to me, is that I am getting healthier (I broke my back-have a fusion also, so walking helps-I cannot: sit, or stand for >than 15 minutes at a time.

Since I am feeling better, using stretches, and working with lite weights, I am stronger and losing fat, and gaining muscle. I know this, as my gym has a cool machine I weigh on 1x a week, which shows me what I have lost in fat, water, and gained in muscle. It is awesome.

So, I do NOT give a rat's batookie about what I weigh..I feel better, I am more active, am moving better, eating better is coming along-I don't eat enough..:-(..but..:ohwell:

So, throw away the damn scale. Keep the tape measurement and MIRROR.

Free yourself..you will be glad you did.

Blessings to you my little friend..:flowerforyou:
Nicolette

pyrowill

Muscle is gained from strength training, calorie surplus and high protein diet, it doesn't happen by accident or from cardio. Especially without testosterone levels like a man.

that statement is Just so wrong and full of so many myths

No it really isn't.

Sprinting is a form of cardio doesn't matter if its anaerobic or aerobic that is not what we are arguing about. Cardio is cardio and it guilts muscles. Here is proof.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=8687727

Also I'm not saying that sprinting doesn't build muscles, neither was sexymuffintop. Sprinting is high intensity and seriously works your legs. What she and I am saying is that to build muscle you have to have a calorie surplus. the news article you linked to doesn't mention anything about eating, it just says sprinting builds leg muscles. Which it does *under a calorie surplus*. In a calorie deficit sprinting would help burn fat and the use of the muscles will help delay the breakdown (which they do under a deficit, no way around that).

pinkraynedropjacki

@OP - your ticker reflects you have reached goal? What is the issue? Stop eating at deficit if you are beginning to 'look like a stick'. As to why your scale isn't moving - because you are unique.

eta: also - if you want to 'add meat' - you have to eat at a surplus and lift heavy stuff. Can't do that? Then eat at maintenance levels and carry on with your exercise and add some bodyweight stuff with your cardio. Can't do that? I guess cardio is your friend for life.

That was my main goal when I started. I wanted to get to 55kg just cause that's smack in the middle of my BMI. I can't lift (no matter how many times I say it) I'm just not able to do so .... at all. Even bodyweight stuff hurts me badly, I've tried. Cardio IS all I can do. I eat meat, no problem. I don't want to eat at a surplus (that's how I got here in the 1st place). I want to get to 55kg, despite me hitting the goal on my ticker a year ago.

Dauntlessness

First thing, as a serious fellow back sufferer, you need to stop treating the symptom and find a solution for your pain. Its great your exercising so much but at the same time it should be a choice and not something you have to do or your in agony. I really hope you can find some doctors who can help it once and for all. It must really suck.

As far as losing inches but not weight. Yup, its muscle. I went through the same thing. Right now I am struggling with my weight (I gained like 20 back since vaca) but its kind of funny cause I got a bunch of crap from some girls on here about it.

Basically there was a thread of what size jean would you be if you x tall and x weight.
I said, (at the time) I am 5'7, 203lbs and a size 12 (us). They got all over me because a few of them were 5'7 and when they were 160-170 lbs they were still a size 16 (us). The only way I can explain it is I have a lot of muscle under this layer of fat after working out 6 days a week for 3 years. To the point I have an ab line going down the middle of my stomach and I am guessing my legs are probably 90-95% muscle.

The point, every body is different. You may end up weighing more while being smaller than the person next to you. Judge by what you see in the mirror and not what the scale says.

hookilau

You probably are "gaining" muscle, because of the cardio and walking you do. Doing cardio is still using your muscles, hence toning them up. People want to talk so much about lifting, and that this is how you gain muscle. Not necessarily true. Because if you are doing the elliptical, for instance, you are working those leg muscles, and making them stronger. You are probably losing fat while gaining enough muscle for the scale to say the same, but you are getting a better body shape. Keep up the good work. It sounds like you are on the right track, and don't get discouraged.

I'm not using an elliptical at all (cant it hurt me & feels un-natural) so I do walk at home, run outside, zumba, ride my bike (set up as a stationary bike) & then still just walk all day normally.

But I was always told on here that eating a deficit means you wont gain muscle at all & in fact you will lose it doing nothing but cardio. That would mean I'd be losing size like I am...but the scale is exactly the same.

I have no plans on ever lifting, cant with my back anyway. And I love my cardio.

I have been on mfp since this past January trying to 'buckle down' and lose the excess weight for good. I had been inexplicably gaining a couple of pounds per year for the last 15 yrs or so.

I had quit fast food a couple of years ago, as well as soda, have been lifting heavy for 10 yrs and have been eating 'brown food' and a very good balance diet. I came here to get to the , eat of the situation, figuring it must be something I was doing wrong.

Mfp does not have all the answers. Many of the things I've heard on here held as tightly to as gravity, I've found through trial and error and lots of personal research are simply not so.

Not everything will apply to you, so it's your job to interpret the anecdotal information found on this wonderful resouce that is mfp, the coming together and comparing notes of lots and lots of people all at once.

Good luck friend.:drinker:

Dauntlessness

nminden

You probably are "gaining" muscle, because of the cardio and walking you do. Doing cardio is still using your muscles, hence toning them up. People want to talk so much about lifting, and that this is how you gain muscle. Not necessarily true. Because if you are doing the elliptical, for instance, you are working those leg muscles, and making them stronger. You are probably losing fat while gaining enough muscle for the scale to say the same, but you are getting a better body shape. Keep up the good work. It sounds like you are on the right track, and don't get discouraged.
/quote]
This is very helpful. It can very discouraging when the scales don't move and we're working hard and well. That's just the way our brains are trained. So I find this kind of encouragment very helpful in slowly retraining my brain to think differently about 'results'. OP- you've got tons of great evidence of your great results. Keep up the wonderful work!

Markguns

@OP - your ticker reflects you have reached goal? What is the issue? Stop eating at deficit if you are beginning to 'look like a stick'. As to why your scale isn't moving - because you are unique.

eta: also - if you want to 'add meat' - you have to eat at a surplus and lift heavy stuff. Can't do that? Then eat at maintenance levels and carry on with your exercise and add some bodyweight stuff with your cardio. Can't do that? I guess cardio is your friend for life.

That was my main goal when I started. I wanted to get to 55kg just cause that's smack in the middle of my BMI. I can't lift (no matter how many times I say it) I'm just not able to do so .... at all. Even bodyweight stuff hurts me badly, I've tried. Cardio IS all I can do. I eat meat, no problem. I don't want to eat at a surplus (that's how I got here in the 1st place). I want to get to 55kg, despite me hitting the goal on my ticker a year ago.

Well I've read most of this thread...
My best "guess" is you are reshaping your body with massive steady state cardio and have longer lean muscles but not lost much fat. Hence you weight has not changed much but your shape has. You should take off one day a week & 2-3 days every other month. Not only muscles, but the CNS needs recovery. Your continued cardio is changing your metabolic rate by improving your V02 max, reducing your calorie burn at rest. As you get more efficient it takes longer sessions at the same intensity to burn the same amount of calories. Have you recalculated your #'s lately? You may need to adjust your calorie intake. I'd also change up your exercise routine. Do some HIIT, Stair-Mills, Sprints instead of just steady state all the time. If you have access to a pool, can you swim? That may help with upper body workout seeing as you can't lift. It will definitely burn calories. Here are a couple of links you might want to read.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/931670-bmr-and-tdee-explained-for-those-needing-a-guide
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/fat_loss_training_wars.htm
http://stronglifts.com/hiit-interval-training-fat-loss/

Also checkout this spread sheet to see where you're at, it may help.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/750920-spreadsheet-for-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones

Best of luck :bigsmile: :flowerforyou:

__Di__

Muscle is gained from strength training, calorie surplus and high protein diet, it doesn't happen by accident or from cardio. Especially without testosterone levels like a man.

that statement is Just so wrong and full of so many myths

No it really isn't.

Sprinting is a form of cardio doesn't matter if its anaerobic or aerobic that is not what we are arguing about. Cardio is cardio and it guilts muscles. Here is proof.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/food_coach&id=8687727

I wouldn't say anything is proof where the URL is from a news article. Proof is a scientific study typically done under tight conditions. Please people stop saying something is proof when you read one article from a random webpage.

To the OP. According to your ticker you have reached goal. Perhaps now is a good time to pause and reflect and look at where to go here and shake things up. Perhaps try and start doing some form of lifting, change your cardio. Try something, I'm sure with patience and variety you will start to see new improvements.

Personally I wouldn't say much is proof at all with much of what I read on these forums, there is enough vitriol on here sometimes to fill a garbage truck.

No matter what somebody will post regarding articles, coach's comments or recommendations it will never be enough for some people.

To the OP, how do you know you are not gaining muscle?

NonnyMary

If the OP is doing exercise every day, then that means that she may be not taking a day in between to rest for the body to repair itself. I understand exercise to be that exercise tears the muscles, and when you sleep the muscles repair itself with new muscles, and if you exercise every day without a break, your body cant do the repair and so that may be why you are messing up.. Someone here who is more knowledgeable may be able to enhance what I am saying, but maybe she is not taking the time to rest - thereby letting the body create new muscle that it needs to do?????? so by doing too much exercise without rest maybe she is screwing up that and why her body is not changing, she just needs more rest??????

LorinaLynn

get a new scale??
If your clothes are too big, you see you are shrinking, then perhaps your scale is shot...

I think this is a good idea.

Also, if you're feel like you're getting too thin and too small, then maybe it's time to abandon the idea that you want to weigh 55kg.

harlanJEN

@OP - your ticker reflects you have reached goal? What is the issue? Stop eating at deficit if you are beginning to 'look like a stick'. As to why your scale isn't moving - because you are unique.

eta: also - if you want to 'add meat' - you have to eat at a surplus and lift heavy stuff. Can't do that? Then eat at maintenance levels and carry on with your exercise and add some bodyweight stuff with your cardio. Can't do that? I guess cardio is your friend for life.

That was my main goal when I started. I wanted to get to 55kg just cause that's smack in the middle of my BMI. I can't lift (no matter how many times I say it) I'm just not able to do so .... at all. Even bodyweight stuff hurts me badly, I've tried. Cardio IS all I can do. I eat meat, no problem. I don't want to eat at a surplus (that's how I got here in the 1st place). I want to get to 55kg, despite me hitting the goal on my ticker a year ago.

Honestly. What???

I've read through most of these posts and you seem to be at odds with yourself.

You've stated you want to be at " x" weight , perplexed that you are getting SMALLER, but not losing on scale. Then you say you are getting " stick-like / bag of bones" ( I'm not sure the exact phraseology you used) and want some meat on your bones.

You seem to be wanting to go in two directions. If you think you are too thin ( no meat on bones, stick-like) then WHY are you trying to lose?

Eat well. Eat at your TDEE / Maintenance. Continue with whatever activity you enjoy. Give your body the energy input it needs to balance the expenditure. Formal workouts every day is stress on the body, especially at a negative energy balance. Being active every day is good ( NEAT); strenuous workouts, not so much.

Do this for a few months. Re-evaluate your body COMPOSITION vs. scale weight goals.

The human body is complex. It seeks balance. Always.

Mia_RagazzaTosta

I think people use the term "building" incorrectly when talking about muscle. Revealing existing muscle when fat has been lost is not the same as building new muscle tissue.

Carry on.

Francl27

I don't get the whole thing either. I keep seeing people say that the scale is not always moving but you might be losing inches etc... how? If we can't build muscle at a deficit, how in the world are we even losing inches but not weight? Totally stumps me.

Qskim

Pink, not that I have any idea anyway...but are you on any medication for your back? Just curious.

I cant get over you only being able to sit for 10min. How the hell do you manage sleeping you poor bugger?

janinealfke

Muscle weighs more than fat. So with all the moving you are doing you are likely building muscle mass while you are losing inches of fat in your body. I know it's frustrating. I am doing the same thing! If you are still losing inches, THAT'S A GOOD THING....Our bodies have to play catch up when we are losing weight. Sometimes we stall so out body can catch back up with all we're doing to it. Hang in there, and don't dismay. The scale will start going down again!!

Janine Alfke